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Descriptive Summary
Creator:	Grand Street Boys' Association
Title:	Grand Street Boys' Association Records
Dates:	undated, 1907-1968
Abstract:	Founded by men who had moved from their old Lower East Side neighborhood in New York, the Grand Street Boys' Association began as a reunion and grew into an active men's club. Initially membership was confined to those born on Grand Street but expanded to all men regardless of religion, race, or class. Membership included such prominent names as Irving Berlin, Albert Einstein, Jonah Goldstein, and Nelson Rockefeller. The Association promoted welfare projects, acts of fellowship and tolerance, school scholarships, summer youth employment, war efforts, and the elimination of discrimination in sports, among other projects. The association is still active at 71 W. 23rd Street in New York. The collection contains a representative example of the Association's activities and includes correspondence, financial records, clippings, programs, publications, yearbooks, speeches, a musical score, negatives, and photographs.
Languages:	The collection is in English.
Quantity:	1.5 linear feet plus one MAP folder (3 manuscript boxes, 3 oversized folders, 1 MAP folder)
Identification:	I-312
Repository:	American Jewish Historical Society
Location:

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Historical Note

Grand Street Boys' Association

Grand Street in the early 1900s was the center of a large immigrant neighborhood in the Lower East Side of New York. Many of the first generation immigrant families later moved upward into more mobile areas of the city. In 1919 a group of men organized a reunion of Old East Siders that evolved a year later into a men's club called the Grand Street Boys' Association. At first only men who grew up on Grand Street were eligible to enroll, however; this restriction was soon removed and membership became open to all regardless of religion, race, or class. Membership spanned all sectors of social class and occupations, and included prominent names such as Irving Berlin, Eddie Cantor, Albert Einstein, Jonah Goldstein, Herbert H. Lehman, Nelson Rockefeller, and Franklin D. Roosevelt.

Describing themselves as the "headquarters of those who really love New York," Grand Street Boys' in the early and mid 1900s were involved in civic and patriotic work, welfare projects, war efforts, and acts of good fellowship and tolerance. Their projects included financing college and graduate level scholarships; assisting needy families with course tuition, school supplies, and other items; coordinating a "Hobbies for All Ages" program that supplied raw materials to elderly homes and underprivileged children; offering a fresh air camp and summer employment for youth; hosting a boy scouts troop in the clubhouse; and providing loans to recently released prisoners. Grand Street Boys' was devoted to eliminating discrimination in sports, and organized sports competitions on national and inter-scholastic levels. Grand Street Boys offered high school excellency awards, sponsored an annual high school essay contest, supported the Grand Street Post 1025 of the American Legion, and opened a recuperation center in Britain during World War II. The clubhouse also hosted several social activities, including an annual dinner for couples married fifty years or more.

Grand Street Boys Association is currently still in existence and is located in the Chelsea neighborhood (71 West 23^rd Street at 6^th Avenue) in Manhattan.

References

Compiled from the Records of the Grand Street Boys' Association, I-312.

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Scope and Content Note

Although the records of the Grand Street Boys' Association do not comprise all the documents of the organization, they are representative of the organization's activities between 1907 and 1968. Materials include financial records, correspondence, newspaper clippings, programs, publications, yearbooks, speeches, an article, a musical score, negatives, and photographs.

Of interest is correspondence regarding a screenplay written about Grand Street Boys that never took off the ground, an Irving Caesar musical score titled "The Grand Street Boys," correspondence relating to organizing an American team to the 4^th Maccabiah Games in Israel, case studies of scholarships and awards, and letters concerning fundraising. Among the correspondents are Jonah J. Goldstein, John D. Rockefeller, Sir Louis Sterling, and Leon Lowenstein.

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Arrangement

The records are organized into one series in alphabetical order by material title. Oversized items are located in Oversized Materials, with one map of London located in the Map collection.

• Collection Box List, undated, 1907-1968
• Separated Oversized Materials, undated, 1941-1942, 1956-1957

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Restrictions

Access Restrictions

The collection is open to all researchers by permission of the Director of Library and Archives of the American Jewish Historical Society, except items that are restricted due to their fragility.

Use Restrictions

Information concerning the literary rights may be obtained from the Executive Director of the American Jewish Historical Society. Users must apply in writing for permission to quote, reproduce or otherwise publish manuscript materials found in this collection. For more information contact:
American Jewish Historical Society, Center for Jewish History, 15 West 16^th Street, New York, NY 10011
email: info@ajhs.org

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Provenance

Undetermined.

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Preferred Citation

Published citations should take the following form:
Identification of item, date (if known); Grand Street Boys' Association Records; I-312; box number; folder number; American Jewish Historical Society, Boston, MA and New York, NY.

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Access Points

• Subject Topics:

  • Clubs -- London (England)
  • Clubs -- New York (N.Y.)

• Subject Places:

  • New York (N.Y.)

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Container List

The following section contains a detailed listing of the materials in the collection.

Collection Box List, undated, 1907-1968.
The collection is in English.
1.5 linear feet.
Arrangement: The folders comprising the entirety of the Grand Street Boys Association's records are organized alphabetically into one general series. Negatives in the collection appear in Box 3, Folder 34.
Scope and Content: This series encompasses a variety of the organization's activities involving charity, scholarships, social events, sports, youth, and the London World War II recuperation center. Material contained in this series include financial records, correspondence, newspaper clippings, programs, publications, yearbooks, speeches, an article, a musical score, negatives, and photographs. Please note that the oversized materials are primarily located in the AJHS branch in Newton Centre, MA.
Box	Folder	Title	Date
1	1	Allocations	undated, 1936-1966
1	2	Amateur Athletic Union Correspondence	undated, 1946-1955
1	3	Athletics	undated, 1939-1962
1	4	Foundation Investments [See also OS 2F]	undated, 1951-1957
1	5	Fundraising Campaigns	undated, 1937-1966
Box	Folder	Title	Date
1	6	General Correspondence	undated, 1936-1967
Box	Folder	Title	Date
1	7	London Administration [See also OS - Map 1]	1941-1944
1	8	London Newspaper Clippings [See also OS 1F]	undated, 1942
1	9	London Photographs	undated, 1944
1	10	Lou Freedman Newspaper Clippings	1923-1956
1	11	Membership	undated, 1958
1	12	Membership Correspondence	undated, 1936-1968
1	13	Miscellaneous Publications	undated, 1907-1941
1	14	New Year's Greetings [See also OS 1]	1938-1960
Box	Folder	Title	Date
1	15	Newspaper Clippings	1943-1958
Box	Folder	Title	Date
1	16	Nursing Scholarships	undated, 1954-1965
1	17	Photographs	undated, 1940-1953
1	18	Photographs	circa 1956
1	19	"Roast" for Bert Satz and Louis Freeman	1924
1	20	Scholarships and Awards Correspondence	undated, 1936-1967
Box	Folder	Title	Date
2	21	Speeches and Dinner Programs	undated, 1945-1959
2	22	20th Century Fox Correspondence	undated, 1942-1943
2	23	Wuxtra	1936-1940
2	24	Wuxtra	1941-1945
2	25	Wuxtra	1946-1949
2	26	Wuxtra	1950-1953
2	27	Wuxtra	1954-1957
Box	Folder	Title	Date
3	28	Wuxtra	1958-1961
3	29	Wuxtra	1962-1965
3	30	Wuxtra	1966-1967
3	31	Yearbook	1922
3	32	Yearbook	1958
3	33	Yearbook	1966
3	34	Negatives	undated

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Separated Oversized Materials, undated, 1941-1942, 1956-1957.
The collection is in English.
3 oversized folders and one MAP folder.
Arrangement: The materials reflect items from the collection that are housed separately from the main collection due to their size.
Scope and Content: The following materials are located in OS1, OS2 and MAP1.
Box	Folder	Title	Date
OS 1F	1	London Newspaper Clippings	1942
OS 1F	2	New Year's Greetings	1941
Box	Folder	Title	Date
OS 2F	1	Foundation Investments	undated, 1956-1957
Box	Folder	Title	Date
MAP 1	1	London Miscellaneous	undated

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