Institutions and Civic Services

14th Street’s evolution from a wealthy residential area into a transportation center and a division of neighborhoods and socio-economic classes can be seen in the proliferation of institutions along the street. Examining both what once existed and what has survived is an important tool for understanding the transformation of the street’s character.

Prior to the Civil War, the predominant institutions on 14th Street were churches, such as the 14th Street Presbyterian Church on the corner of Second Avenue, the Scotch Presbyterian Church near Sixth Avenue, and the Church of the Puritans on Union Square West. These churches catered to the wealthy residents who had only recently begun to inhabit the area, while also addressing the needs of the poor through charitable activities (Figure 44). Other institutions also migrated to the area from Lower Manhattan, largely to serve these new populations. The Eye and Ear Infirmary established itself on 13th Street and Second Avenue in 1855 to provide medical services for the poor, and Tammany Hall built a new headquarters at 14th Street and Irving Place in 1868 (Figures 45 and 46). Despite its infamous reputation and questionable political motives, it provided many philanthropic and civic services for its constituents. The growing population of the area also warranted increasing civic investment, such as the construction of a firehouse between Second and Third Avenue; this was replaced with a new firehouse, designed by architect Napoleon LeBrun, in 1880.

The growing immigrant population soon warranted its own institutions, however, and in 1866 the First German Baptist Church was built on East 14th Street, the northern border of Klein Deutschland, or Little Germany (Figure 47). Similarly, the Roman Catholic Church struggled to accommodate the rapid influx of Irish, German, and later Italian immigrants. Evidence of this growth can be seen on the west side of 14th Street in the construction of the large and impressive St. Bernard’s Roman Catholic Church in 1876, initially built for the Irish immigrant population around Greenwhich Village and Chelsea.

The decade following the Civil War brought enormous growth to 14th Street, which had developed into the center of New York culture and society. At the same time, new concepts of philanthropy, inspired by public mobilization for the war effort, made charitable activity a fashionable pastime for the middle- and upperclass, and small charitable institutions proliferated on the street. One of the largest of these was the State Charities Aid Association at 6 East 14th Street, which grew out of the Civil War’s Sanitary Commission. Homes for the blind, the elderly poor, and wayward girls strove to provide for those in need. Additional philanthropic opportunities could be found in balls and fairs at places such as the Academy of Music, the many theaters around Union Square, and the 9th Regiment Armory (Figures 48 and 49).

By the turn of the century, however, the nature of 14th Street began to change. Though still a popular shopping destination, 14th Street was no longer the center of high society and had come to be seen as a division that the “native” established class to the north and the immigrant poor to the south rarely crossed. The evolving population was visible in the new and altered institutions on the street, such as the Our Lady of Guadalupe Roman Catholic Church at 229 West 14th Street, built for a new Spanish-immigrant community on the west side of 14th Street. On East 14th Street, Grace Chapel was constructed in 1896 by the wealthy congregation of Grace Church to serve the immigrants in the area and the German Baptist Church became the Ukrainian Autocephalic Church; this eventually became the Town and Village Synagogue (Figure 50).

This shift in 14th Street’s character coincided with a shift in philanthropy, both in America and on the street itself. Many of the organizations on 14th Street either faded into obsolescence or relocated. New charities, however, came in to take the place of the old. The Era of Progressivism, “promoting or favoring progress toward better conditions or new policies, ideas, or methods,” brought new, less condescending efforts to help individuals not only to survive but to improve their lives. These efforts can be seen on 14th Street in a number of settlement and lodging houses, as well as organizations that provided job training for women, employment offices for immigrants, and a transitional home for adolescent orphans (Figure 51).

Some existing institutions on 14th Street were able to remain, albeit in adapted forms for their new philosophical and demographic environment. One of these was the 14th Street Presbyterian Church, which in 1910 became the Labor Temple (Figure 52). Attended by five hundred “members of labor unions, Socialist[s], Anarchists, and persons who take interest in labor matters and sociologists” on its opening day, the Labor Temple strove to “be an open forum, where every man, if he have a message, may give it expression, and if it be good it will receive attention.” In 1924, on the site of the former church, the Temple constructed an entirely new building designed by architect Emery Roth (Figure 53). This housed not only meeting rooms but educational facilities, apartments, a nursery, a chapel, a gymnasium, and other amenities for the facility’s constituents.

Not long after the new Labor Temple was constructed, another institution with a powerful presence on 14th Street also built a new structure. The Salvation Army, first located on 14th Street in 1895, continually provided a vast array of services to the poor with the underlying goal of spreading its religious principles (Figure 54). In 1928, Ralph Walker was commissioned to construct a new national headquarters for the organization on the 14th Street site of its older building, replacing its monumental Gothic building with an equally immense modern complex of streamlined brick and cast stone.

Though they have incurred many different fates, a comparatively large number of 14th Street’s purposebuilt institutions still remain. Some have continued to thrive and grow, such as the Eye and Ear Infirmary, the Salvation Army, and many of the religious structures. Others are still there in physical form, though no longer used as originally intended, as in the case of the Labor Temple, or abandoned, as in the case of the Roman Catholic Church of Our Lady of Guadalupe (Figure 55). In addition to these, new institutions have continued to appear, such as YMCAs, YMHAs, and, most noticeably, educational institutions in recent times. New York University, Pratt Institute, and the New School have all established academic or residential facilities on 14th Street or Union Square in the past decade.