November 1, 2023 – Wednesday

Join us for author Joyce Milambiling’s live book talk and signing for Râmnicu Sărat The Skyscraper Settlement: The Many Lives of Christodora House, at the University Settlement at 184 Eldridge Street. Registration is required, see below to register.
In 1900, there were over 300,000 people per square mile living on the Lower East Side of Manhattan. The inhabitants, mostly immigrants from Southern and Eastern Europe, often arrived with few possessions and little money. To provide for the newcomers’ urgent needs, settlement houses were established in New York and other cities.
Established in 1886, the cheap provigil uk University Settlement was the first settlement house in the United States. Skyscraper Settlement: The Many Lives of Christodora House, tells the story of another, lesser-known settlement house located across from Tompkins Square Park. From 1897, the resident workers and volunteers at Christodora House, originally called the Young Women’s Settlement, provided classes, clubs, recreational activities, and medical and dental clinics for thousands of New Yorkers on Avenue B, and then in public housing and other locations.
“More than just a history of one building or organization, Skyscraper Settlement provides an engaging examination of a profoundly important movement—largely shaped by women—that offers a hopeful message for today” (Sarah Peskin, Board Chair, the Frances Perkins Center). Copies of Skyscraper Settlement can be purchased at the venue, or can be ordered from NYU Press HERE.
Joyce Milambiling is a writer and educator with a PhD in Applied Linguistics, who has enjoyed a long career teaching foreign language and ESL teachers in New York and Iowa. A member of the Berkshire Conference of Women Historians and the New York Historical Society, her articles have appeared in Academe, English Teaching Forum, and Theory into Practice.
REGISTRATION IS REQUIRED, REGISTER HERE. The event is sponsored by cosponsored by LESPI, East Village Community Coalition, and University Settlement.
Past Events

LESPI’s Photographers’ Talk on October 28 at The Loisaida Center was quite an event. Having braved a dumping of rain to join us, the crowd was treated to 8 professional photographers discussing the stories, inspirations, and techniques behind their work in LESPI’s “Lens on the Lower East Side” photo journal books. We wrapped up the evening chatting over light refreshments – fantastic!


Watch videos of these past LESPI webinar events at LESPI’s YouTube Channel, below is a sampling:
- “To Fight for the Poor with My Pen: Zoe Anderson Norris, Queen of Bohemia” presented by Eve M. Kahn.
- “Kleindeutschland: Little Germany on the Lower East Side” presented by Richard Haberstroh.
- “Transformative Architecture: C.B.J. Snyder and NYC Public Schools” presented by Cynthia Skeffington LaValle (C.B.J. Snyder’s great granddaughter) and Michael Janoska.
- “Celebrating and Saving our Neighborhood Culture” a panel discussion with NYC Councilmember Christopher Marte, Andrew Berman, Molly Garfinkel, Yin Kong, and Frampton Tolbert.
- “The East Village’s Christodora Settlement House: Community, Relationships, and Social Change” presented by Joyce Milambiling.
- “A Conversation with Michael Henry Adams”
- “Before and Behind the Curtain: A History of 19th Century Theaters in the Lower East Side” presented by Ralph Lewis of of Peculiar Works Project.
- “LGBT History of the Lower East Side” presented Ken Lustbader and Jay Shockley of NYC LGBT Historic Sites Project
- “The Construction of Grace Church in New York: A History through Documents” presented by Karin Dauch and Andy Carrigan of Saving Grace.
- “Greek Independence and the Lower East Side” presented by Marcia Haddad-Ikonomopoulos, Museum Director of Kehila Kedosha Janina.
- “Jarmulowsky Bank Building: The Resurrection of a Lower East Side Landmark” presented by Architect Ron Castellano, Principal of Studio Castellano Architect, P.C., and Architectural Historian Kerri Culhane.
- “A Celebration of the Life and Work of Corky Lee” featuring talks by photographers Karen Zhou, Edward Cheng and Jook Leung.