Gaylord White Houses

The Gaylord White Houses at 2025 Second Avenue stand as a distinctive landmark in East Harlem for a specific historical reason. Completed in 1964, this twenty-story tower holds the title of the first public housing development in New York City built exclusively for senior citizens. Its construction grew directly out of the work of the Union Settlement Association, a long-standing community organization that has operated on this block since the late nineteenth century. The building was named in honor of the Reverend Gaylord Starin White, a social reformer who served as the settlement's head worker and a professor at the nearby Union Theological Seminary for many years.