Lewis Street Center papers
Creator: Lewis Street Center (Rochester, N.Y.)
Call Number: D.55
Dates: 1907-1971
Physical Description: 21 boxes
Language(s): Materials are in English
Repository: Rare Books, Special Collections, and Preservation, River Campus Libraries, University of Rochester

Table of Contents:

Biographical/Historical Note
Scope and Content
Subject(s)
Immediate Source of Acquisition
Access
Use
Citation
Related Materials
Content List
Box 1
Box 2
Box 3
Box 4
Box 5
Box 6
Box 7
Box 8
Box 9
Box 10
Box 11
Box 12
Box 13
Box 14
Box 15
Box 16
Box 17
Box 18
Box 19
Box 20
Box 21 Box 21: Initiatives, 1970s
Collection Overview
Title: Lewis Street Center papers
Creator: Lewis Street Center (Rochester, N.Y.)
Call Number: D.55
Dates: 1907-1971
Physical Description: 21 boxes
Language(s): Materials are in English
Repository: Rare Books, Special Collections, and Preservation, River Campus Libraries, University of Rochester

Biographical/Historical Note
The Center was founded in the fall of 1907, by a group of middle class women and men concerned about the quality of life among Rochester's Italian immigrant population. Modeled after the Practical Housekeeping Centers of New York City, the Practical Housekeeping Center of Rochester, as it was then called, started in a two-story house on Davis Street in the Italian 16th Ward. Soon finding its quarters much too crowded, the Housekeeping Center moved to Lewis Street in 1911, and in that same year was incorporated under New York State law. In 1926, the Housekeeping Center changed its name to the Lewis Street Center, signaling, after the fact, a change of emphasis from teaching Italian immigrants housekeeping and child care techniques to providing a much broader range of service to all members of the Italian immigrant community in the 16th Ward. Expansion of services during the Center's history was accompanied by an increase in physical plant as the Center purchased property and built special facilities for its programs. The second and third quarters of the century saw increasing contact between the Center and other city and nation­al social organizations as the Center attempted to adapt to changing trends both in the community it served and in the development of social services in America. The Lewis Street Center is still vitally active among Rochesterians today, especially among Black and Spanish-speaking Americans who have moved to the surrounding neighborhood since 1950.

Scope and Content
The collection consists of minutes, reports, records, surveys, and correspondence of the Lewis Street Center of Rochester, New York.

The collection consists of five general groups of materials. The first is composed of the minutes and reports recording the day-to-day and year-to-year running of the Center. These records include annual reports of the secretary of the Board (1913-1927), minutes of the monthly and annual meetings of the Board of Managers (1914-1971), annual and monthly reports of the Center's dispensary (1916-1931), monthly program reports of the various departments (1914-1971), and annual program reports of the entire center (1914-1966). The second group of materials consists of the records of the summer programs that: were run by the Center. These records include descriptive program reports, files of personal profiles of participating children, staff lists and profiles, financial and insurance records, and day-to-day program records.

The third main group of materials is composed of associated records such as legal, financial, and other business records. Also included in this area are. overall statistical attendance records (1940-1954), construction plans and records, property purchase records, special events and project records, photographs, newspaper clippings, and copies of various issues of the Center's public newsletter, The Lewistonian, from the 1950's and 1960's.

The fourth major group of materials consists of records of neighborhood surveys conducted by the Center's staff. These records include interview profiles of neighborhood residents, handwritten first drafts and typed copies of final survey reports, records of special and city-wide surveys which the Center participated in, and associated correspondence.

The fifth area of materials includes all records, reports, pamphlets, and other printed matter received by the Center from other neighborhood centers, social settlements, or social service agencies both private and governmental of Rochester and other areas. The bulk of this material dates from 1940 through 1971.

Most of the significant correspondence associated with the day-to-day running of the Center apparently has not survived. The correspondence that is present is almost invariably found directly placed with the specific records it pertains to. Other general correspondence has been left filed chronologically in the records of the monthly departmental program reports where it was placed by the Center's staff. Many of the early records, particularly minutes and program reports, are handwritten. In some cases both a longhand and typed copy exists.

Subject(s):
New York (State)--Rochester
Community centers
Italian Americans--Social life and customs
Women
Social settlements
Minutes (Records)
Records (Documents)
Lewis Street Center (Rochester, N.Y.)
Immediate Source of Acquisition
The collection was a gift of the Lewis Street Center, February 1975.Access
The Lewis Street Center papers is open for research use. Researchers are advised to contact Rare Books, Special Collections, and Preservation prior to visiting. Upon arrival, researchers will also be asked to fill out a registration form and provide photo identification.Use
Reproductions are made upon request but can be subject to restrictions. Permission to publish materials from the collection must currently be requested. Please note that some materials may be copyrighted or restricted. It is the researcher's obligation to determine and satisfy copyright or other case restrictions when publishing or otherwise distributing materials found in the collections. For more information contact rarebks@library.rochester.eduCitation
[Item title, item date], Lewis Street Center papers, D.55, Rare Books, Special Collections, and Preservation, River Campus Libraries, University of RochesterRelated Materials
Several overall histories of the Center have been written, most by the Center's staff or Board members, and they vary according to historical depth and the length of period covered. A history of the first ten years, 1907-1916, of the Center, researched and written as a senior thesis in 1975-1976 by Charles Ray, an undergraduate at the University of Rochester is available in the Department, call number AS 38.39 R26a.


Administrative Information
Author: Finding aid prepared by Rare Books and Special Collections staff
Publisher: Rare Books, Special Collections, and Preservation, River Campus Libraries, University of Rochester
Address:
Rush Rhees Library
Second Floor, Room 225
Rochester, NY 14627-0055
rarebks@library.rochester.edu
URL:


Content List