Association Residence Nursing Home | |
 View from the northwest | |
 | |
| Location | 891 Amsterdam Ave.,Manhattan, New York |
|---|---|
| Coordinates | 40°47′55″N73°58′00″W / 40.7986°N 73.9667°W /40.7986; -73.9667 |
| Area | 1 acre (0.40 ha) |
| Built | 1881 |
| Architect | Richard Morris Hunt |
| NRHP reference No. | 75001201[1] |
| NYCL No. | 1280 |
| Significant dates | |
| Added to NRHP | February 20, 1975 |
| Designated NYCL | April 12, 1983 |
TheAssociation Residence Nursing Home, also called theAssociation for the Relief of Respectable, Aged andIndigent Females, is a historic building in New York City built from 1881–1883 to the design ofRichard Morris Hunt in theVictorian Gothic style. It is located onAmsterdam Avenue between 103rd and 104th Streets on theUpper West Side ofManhattan, and is now ahostel run byHostelling International. The Association was founded in 1814 to help the widows of soldiers of theAmerican Revolutionary War and theWar of 1812. An addition to the building was constructed on the south end of the property in 1907, with sevenTiffany windows that are now in theMorse Museum of American Art's collection. The building was placed on theNational Register of Historic Places in 1975.[2]
On February 14, 1814, the Society for the Relief of Indigent Respectable Females, as it was first known, was established in New York City. The Society raised private donations, and gave clothing, small stoves, and food to elderly impoverished women "to relieve and comfort those aged females, who once enjoyed a good degree of affluence, but now reduced to poverty by the vicissitudes of Providence."[3] It was run by women, and its first director was Ann Dominick in 1814. With the help ofJohn Jacob Astor and Peter G. Stuyvesant, the Association built an asylum in 1837–38 at 226 East 20th Street and in 1845 added an infirmary.In 1881 the Association bought the lot on Amsterdam Avenue for $77,500 and construction began that fall by contractor John J. Tucker. The choice of the location was influenced by the construction ofan elevated railway one block west onNinth Avenue. The building was completed at a cost of $100,000 in 1883. At its dedication ceremonyThe New York Times stated that "the degree of comfort, almost amounting to luxury, manifest in every detail of the establishment, elicited from many visitors yesterday the remark that 'they would like to be old women'."[4][5] The Association operated at the Amsterdam Avenue address until at least 1968.
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Richard Morris Hunt was considered the dean of American architects. He was the first American architect trained at theÉcole des Beaux-Arts in Paris. He worked withThomas U. Walter in expanding theUnited States Capitol and designed the base of theStatue of Liberty. Though he designed many types of buildings, he is best known for designing the homes of wealthy families such as the Astors and Vanderbilts, alongFifth Avenue in New York City and inNewport, Rhode Island. He designedBiltmore forGeorge W. Vanderbilt.[6]
Hunt's first designs for the Association for the Relief of Respectable, Aged and Indigent Females was made in 1868, though the building wasn't started until 1881. In 1881 he was hired again and produced several variants based on the original plans. Fewer than twenty of the 75 Hunt designed buildings erected in New York City still survive.[7]
Financial problems due to the longer life expectancy of residents began following World War II.Robert Moses proposed razing the building as part of anUpper West Sideslum clearance project.WhenMedicaid funds became available to nursing homes in the early 1970s, the Association planned to tear down and replace the building with a modern facility. A group of historic preservationists with ties to nearbyColumbia University fought to preserve the building, making it into a community cause. Despite a fire during theNew York City blackout of 1977 the preservationists prevailed and by the late 1970s, the building was acquired by the City of New York, and declared aNew York City Landmark in 1983. During the 1980s the building was unoccupied as American Youth Hostels arranged neighborhood and government support for rehabilitating the building. They opened the hostel in January 1990 and with 670 beds it is now the largest hostel in North America.[8][9]
