{"nrhp_refnum":"86000486","name":"Christodora House","other_names":[],"category":"building","location":{"address":"147 Ave. B","address_restricted":false,"city":"New York","county":"Manhattan","state":"NY","lat":40.72637607200005,"lon":-73.98006236199996,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1986-03-20","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Social History"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"Christodora House is a sixteen-story red brick former settlement house at 147 Avenue B, on the northeast corner of East 9th Street facing Tompkins Square in Manhattan. It was built beginning in 1928 to designs by Henry C. Pelton.","why_significant":"The building is tied to one of New York City's most important social service efforts, the settlement house movement on the Lower East Side, which helped immigrants assimilate and promoted social reform. It was the first high-rise settlement house and the first to combine settlement activities on the lower floors with an income-producing residential hotel on the upper floors. It served as an educational, social and cultural center for more than fifty years.","narrative":"Rising sixteen stories above Tompkins Square on Manhattan's Lower East Side, Christodora House is a red brick building that served for decades as a settlement house. It was begun in 1928 to designs by architect Henry C. Pelton, with funds donated by Mr. and Mrs. Arthur Curtiss James. The settlement itself dates to 1897, when Christina MacColl and Sara Libby Carson opened it in a tenement apartment on Avenue B to serve neighborhood working girls, later welcoming men and people of all faiths. The new building was the first high-rise settlement house and the first to pair settlement programs, including a gym, pool, library, chapel and concert hall, with a residential hotel on the upper floors. Its restrained Colonial Revival form carries stylized carved ornament at the entrance and setbacks. The interior retains its original plan. The settlement left the building in the 1940s and ceased operation in the 1970s, and the structure was being rehabilitated when it was documented.","period_of_significance":"1900- (specific date 1928)","architect_builder":"Henry C. Pelton","architectural_style":"Conservative Colonial Revival form with more modernistic ornament","criteria":[],"status_note":"Listed as vacant and under a complete rehabilitation at the time of nomination; the settlement vacated the building in the 1940s and ceased operation in the 1970s.","vacant_flag":true,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:50:45.429275-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_NY/86000486.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/86000486/1677545e4c-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/86000486/1677545e4c-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY 3.0","author":"Americasroof","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Christadora-house-147-ave-b.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">Americasroof</a>, <a href=\"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0\" rel=\"license noopener\">CC BY 3.0</a>, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Christadora-house-147-ave-b.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/75319381","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christodora_House","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q5111626"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/new-york/manhattan/christodora-house-86000486/"}