Statement of Significance (as of designation - July 17, 1991):
Completed in 1893 and built entirely at the expense of a wealthy businessman, this building was intended to provide charitable groups with a central building and lower rent than they would have elsewhere. The original tenants were the Charities Organizations Society, the Association for the Improvement of the Condition of the Poor, the Children's Aid Society, and the New York City Mission and Tract Society; a later and perhaps most important tenant was the National Consumer's League, an influential reform organization which fought for legislation regulating child labor, women's labor, and wages and hours in general.