Educational Alliance
Dates
- Existence: 1889-
Biography
Educational Alliance has served Lower Manhattan since 1889. Originally a settlement house for East European Jews immigrating to New York City, the history of the Lower East Side and the history of Educational Alliance are deeply intertwined.
In addition to basic classes and programs on how to be a good American, our flagship building at 197 East Broadway offered a creative outlet via the Educational Alliance Art School, recreational respite in the Rooftop Garden (serving 10,000 people per day in the summer of 1903), cultural programming in the theater (Eddie Cantor made his stage debut there in 1905), and other escapes from cramped tenement life.
In the 1940s, as the population of the Lower East Side changed, so did Educational Alliance. We shifted from being volunteer run and introduced social service programs overseen by trained professionals. We were one of the first organizations to offer Head Start for early childhood education, and we recently addressed the needs of the aging population of the neighborhood by helping establish one of the first Naturally Occurring Retirement Communities.
Found in 1 Collection or Record:
Albert Kresch interview, 2018 December 5, 2018 December 5
In this interview, Mr. Kresch recalls his 95 years of life, including his childhood in Brooklyn, what inspired him to get interested in art, his student relationship with the artist Hans Hofmann, his time in the air corps during WW2, and his time at FIT, Parsons, and Pratt working as an art professor.