Boston YMHA-Hecht House records, undated, 1896-1971.

This collection contains the records of both the Boston Y.M.H.A and the Hecht House organizations when they were separate, including correspondence, reports, publications and photographs, as well as similar records from their ten years as a merged organization.Gift of the Hecht House.The Boston Y.M.H.A.-Hecht House began as two distinct organizations. The Young Men’s Hebrew Association was founded in 1882 in the South End of Boston before moving to Roxbury in 1909. The Hecht House was founded as the Hebrew Industrial School in 1889 by Lena Hecht, and was based in the North End of Boston before eventually settling in Dorchester as the Hecht Neighborhood House. Hecht’s vision was to provide practical education to Jewish female immigrants so that they may provide for themselves in America. Eventually both organizations became primary centers of recreation for the Jewish populations of Mattapan, Roxbury and Dorchester. However, dwindling membership and funding brought on by the move to the suburbs of Newton, Brighton and Brookline encouraged the organizations to merge in 1960. Unfortunately the merger was short-lived, and in 1970 the city of Boston approved the sale of Hecht House to the Lena Park Housing Development Corporation.Finding Aid available in Reading Room and on Internet.far031