The Henry Street Settlement, co-founded in 1893 by affluent German Jewish American Lillian Wald, provided healthcare, education, and vocational training for the immigrant community on the Lower East Side. Wald was one of many middle-class progressive reformers who decried and set out to remedy the lack of social services for the poor.

The Henry Street Settlement House began in a tenement at 27 Jefferson Street. Two years later, with a donation from philanthropist Jacob Henry Schiff, it moved to the home it occupies today at 265 Henry Street. Under Wald’s leadership, by 1903 the organization had expanded to several nearby buildings.

Today, the organization's services are far-reaching. It continues to support lower income families with healthcare and educational services, as well as an active hand in providing access to the arts through its Abrons Arts Center and since 1923, the Henry Street Music School.