| Additional Information: | City of Madison, Wisconsin Underrepresented Communities Historic Resource Survey Report:
The growing number of immigrant families settling in the Greenbush neighborhood, Italian immigrants especially, encouraged the proposal of a settlement house to address their needs. Helen Dexter and Associated Charities, a social work organization, founded a community house there in 1916. Established along the traditional lines of a settlement house, Neighborhood House was intended as a gateway for those immigrating to the area or those who need support along the way to becoming a part of the local society and economy. The 1916 location, supported by influential and wealthy Madisonians, was located in a non-extant building at 807 Mound Street.
The organization moved to a non-extant building at 25 South Park Street the following year and was officially named the Neighborhood House. It offered a variety of clubs and classes to the community and quickly became a popular location. Well over two hundred people a month used its services.
In 1920, the Neighborhood House moved again to a non-extant storefront at 768 West Washington Avenue across from Brittingham Park. The institution continued to be supported by local Madison clubs. The Neighborhood House expanded with a large addition in 1926 and continued to grow in the scale of its mission.
During the depression years, the focus of the institution shifted from language and citizen courses to providing services to all community members including soup kitchens, social work, job postings, and the better homes and gardens club. During the 1950s, the Neighborhood House was put under the auspices of the Madison Neighborhood Centers group through the City of Madison, which also included the South Madison Neighborhood Center. Urban Renewal efforts in the late 1950s targeted the Triangle area east of Park Street and south of Regent Street for demolition and redevelopment. The 1958 Triangle Plan, which would come to fruition two years later, included the demolition of the Neighborhood House Community Center and its surrounding neighborhood.
The community center raised funds to build a new home one block west of its previous location in 1965. The new International style building at 29 South Mills Street cost $200,000 to construct and is organized with a gymnasium in the center and offices and classrooms around the periphery of the one-story building. A new wave of immigration in the 1960s gave the Neighborhood House a new purpose and it began to provide English courses and job training again. The Neighborhood House Community Center has continued with its mission to the present. The Neighborhood House Community Center has served a wide variety of groups since its establishment including, but not limited to, African Americans, Italians, Jews, Latinos/as, and Hmong.
Beginning in the mid-1970s, with the earliest Hmong refugees arriving in Madison, the Neighborhood House Community Center helped find housing, employment, and child-care, as well as provide after-school programs for new Hmong residents and families. The center also provided opportunities for Hmong immigrants to practice and share cultural traditions, art, and food. Its location was particularly convenient for the relatively large number of Hmong residents at the nearby Bayview Foundation Apartments.
Demolition permit to filed 10-16-23. |
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