Generations and a settlement house

[179 Gold Street, Brooklyn, c. 1939–1941. From the NYC Municipal Archives Collections. Click for a much larger view.]

Just a human interest shot. I think this photograph holds three generations, maybe four. On the stoop, a daughter, I think (are those saddle shoes?), a mother, and a son. At sidewalk level, a grandmother tending to a carriage. I assume there’s a baby in it. (Is the daughter also a mother?) That face in the window: who knows?

Looking at this photograph, I remembered the Robert Caro maxim “Turn every page,” which for purposes of these tax-photograph posts, I’ve turned into “Walk the whole block.” Aha: there are more humans next door.

[179, 181, and 183 Gold Street. Click for a much larger view.]

But what does the signage say? The placard affixed to no. 179 is a For Sale sign. The three placards on nos. 181 and 183 are beyond my figuring out. But Brooklyn Newsstand came to the rescue:

[“Open Memorial to Mons. White; Catholic Settlement Association Holds Appropriate Formal Opening.” The Tablet, May 18, 1918.]

I can find no obituary for William J. White in a Brooklyn paper or in The New York Times. But I did find a few other items about Monsignor White and the settlement house. A brief backstory:

[Handbook to Catholic Historical New York City (1927).]

Two more items:

[The Catholic Charities Review (June 1917).]

[The Catholic Charities Review (September 1918). Reformatted from the original. Click for a larger view.]

And this tribute, a prelude to a motion to pass a resolution to honor Monsignor White’s memory:

[Annual Report of the [New York] State Board of Charities for the Year 1911 (1912).]

The Dr. White Memorial Settlement flourished through the 1940s. Short articles in Brooklyn papers make note of summer camps, summer school, health care, Christmas parties, and clubs devoted to citizenship, dancing, English, music, sewing, and other endeavors. The last mention I can find is from 1947.

Nos. 179, 181, and 183 are no longer standing. Those buildings and many others gave way to the Farragut Houses, a public housing project, begun in 1945, completed in 1952.

[1940 Brooklyn directory listing. From Stephen P. Morse’s website.]

For my friend Fresca: the next listing in that directory is for a Catholic Thrift Shoppe at 195 Court Street.

Related reading
More photographs from the NYC Municipal Archives (Pinboard) : The settlement movemment (Wikipedia)