This building has the best neighborhood memorials to famous labor activists, Emma Goldman (anarchist and social critic) and Clara Lemlich (teen-age leader of the 1909 Strike of 20,000). The recently restored traditional marble memorial plaques have names from 3 languages, Yiddish, Hebrew and English and form the base for murals from which the activists spring to life. Goldman's caption reads: “She spoke wrote and conspired. Opposed the state, religion and capitalism. She fought for ... the 8 hour day. Worked as a seamstress and midwife, loved dancing and theater...”. The muralists’ work seems particularly fitting in a neighborhood where recycled memory and its associations have become a type of currency, a part of its evolution into the New, Old Country (in Yiddish, the Naye Alte Heym).
Today the building has an active Community Supported Agriculture program (CSA), along with a variety of youth programs. The building housed the EarthCelebrations garden pageant for many years. Photo by Elissa Sampson
