Alfred T. White Tower and Home and Riverside Apartment Buildings records
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Abstract
This collection spans the period 1878 to 1949 and consists of 15 oversize journals, cash books, and ledgers used by Alfred T. White and his heirs for the management of the low-rent Tower and Home and Riverside Apartment Buildings in Brooklyn. Alfred T. White (1846-1921) was one of Brooklyn's most prominent philanthropists and a civil engineer by trade.
Biographical Note
Alfred T. White (1846-1921) was one of Brooklyn's most prominent philanthropists and a civil engineer by trade. In 1876, White oversaw the building of the Tower and Home Apartments on Hicks and Baltic Streets, the first low-rent housing project in the United States. The apartment units, which featured a central garden and exterior iron staircases, were designed by White with the architectural firm William Field & Son. White also built his own dwellings around the perimeter of the property so that the interior half of his land could be used for gardens and recreational purposes. Another of White's low-rent housing projects, the Riverside Apartments on Furman, Columbia, and Joralemon Streets, was built in 1890. Though low in rent, White's housing projects proved to be a great financial success. In 1935, White's heirs and new owners of the apartments modernized all units, adding bathrooms, a central heating plant, electric lights, gas ranges, and refrigerators.
Scope and Contents
This collection spans the period 1878 to 1949 and consists of 15 oversize journals, cash books, and ledgers used by Alfred T. White and his heirs for the management of the low-rent Tower and Home and Riverside Apartment Buildings in Brooklyn.
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People
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Places
Conditions Governing Access
Open to researchers without restriction.
Preferred Citation
Identification of item, date (if known); Alfred T. White Tower and Home and Riverside Apartment Buildings records, 1978.154, Box and Folder number; Brooklyn Historical Society.
Immediate Source of Acquisition
Source and date of acquisition unknown. Formally accessioned in 1978.
About this Guide
Processing Information
Minimally processed to the collection level by Nicholas Pavlik, August 2011. Collection rehoused in flat boxes by John Zarrillo, February 2015.