Designated 3/18/2008
The Elizabeth Home for Girls, constructed in 1891-2, is a fine and rare remaining example of the lodging houses/industrial schools constructed and run by the Children’s Aid Society during the second half of the nineteenth century intended to improve the lives of the poor children of New York. This building, like the others Vaux designed, draws on the picturesque vocabulary of the High Victorian Gothic style along with German Renaissance or Dutch details such as the stepped gable. The variety and abundance of details and window openings and its warm brick and sandstone materials added visual richness to the cheerless, working class neighborhood in which it was built.