The New Century Guild, now the New Century Trust, is a historic women's support organization headquartered in

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania#Municipalities, largest city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the List of United States cities by population, sixth-largest city i ...

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania (; ( Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, ...

. Founded in 1882, it is one of the oldest and largest organizations devoted to meeting the needs of women in the labor force. From its founding, the organization's goal has been to address the specific needs of "self-supporting women." Its headquarters building at 1307 Locust Street in

Center City, Philadelphia Center City includes the central business district and central neighborhoods of Philadelphia. It comprises the area that made up the City of Philadelphia prior to the Act of Consolidation, 1854, which extended the city borders to be coterminous wi ...

is a

National Historic Landmark A National Historic Landmark (NHL) is a building, district, object, site, or structure that is officially recognized by the United States government for its outstanding historical significance. Only some 2,500 (~3%) of over 90,000 places listed ...

History

In 1882, Eliza Sproat Turner and other members of the New Century Club formed a committee for working women named the New Century Guild. It grew out a collection of evening classes for working women that began in 1880. She was assisted by artist Gabrielle D. Clements and

Florence Kelley Florence Moltrop Kelley (September 12, 1859 – February 17, 1932) was a social and political reformer and the pioneer of the term wage abolitionism. Her work against sweatshops and for the minimum wage, eight-hour workdays, and children's rig ...

(later Mrs. Wischnevetsky). Its purpose was to provide education and opportunities for working women to learn a vocation. Soon afterward, the Guild became a separate organization and it needed its own building by 1892 to support programs and classes. The New Century Trust was formed in 1893 to facilitate funding for its first building.

Historic headquarters

The Guild headquarters are in a four-story Italianate brick

rowhouse In architecture and city planning, a terrace or terraced house ( UK) or townhouse ( US) is a form of medium-density housing that originated in Europe in the 16th century, whereby a row of attached dwellings share side walls. In the United Sta ...

built in 1851. It was purchased by the Guild in 1906 from the estate of Dr. Thomas Drysdale. In addition to housing the offices of the guild, it has a library and meeting spaces available for its membership. The building was declared a

in 1993 in recognition of the guild's history. and

References

External links

Gender Justice Fund
legal successor to the New Century Guild * Th
New Century Trust Records (1854-2004)
including organizational records, photographs and other materials related to The New Century Trust and New Century Guild, are available for research use at the

Historical Society of Pennsylvania The Historical Society of Pennsylvania is a long-established research facility, based in Philadelphia. It is a repository for millions of historic items ranging across rare books, scholarly monographs, family chronicles, maps, press reports and v ...

. {{National Register of Historic Places in Pennsylvania National Historic Landmarks in Pennsylvania Buildings and structures on the National Register of Historic Places in Philadelphia Pennsylvania state historical marker significations Washington Square West, Philadelphia

History

Historic headquarters

See also

References

External links