by Shannon Butler
How many of you remember spending a day at Lincoln Center? Perhaps you enjoyed playing basketball or cooling off in the wading pool? Did you attend any classes in woodworking or weaving? Or maybe you joined up with the drum corps or rhythm band? The south side of Poughkeepsie was quite fortunate to have a place where kids could go to learn, play, and connect with their community in a positive way. For over 40 years, Lincoln Center was a place that felt like home to many, and it inspired the young people of Poughkeepsie to be better and to do good works.
The idea for such a place started off with the desire for students and staff at Vassar College to become more engaged with the community. It was 1917 when a group of students first created a play group for local children. The timing was right, as there was certainly a need for a safe place for children to be and the poor side of Poughkeepsie began to become more obvious and more defined. Within a year of its creation, the flu epidemic broke out and Lincoln Center (which was then renting a small space on Church Street) quickly became a place for learning about and treating local cases of the illness. By the early 1920s, there were a few paid staffers, a director and a couple of people who could teach crafts. Also by that time, more and more children were attending, revealing a desperate need for more space, both indoors and out.
It was suggested that the Lincoln Center take over the old Riverview Military Academy site, as it was sitting unused and was owned by the City of Poughkeepsie, with no plans to convert it into anything. So in 1925, some $3,000 in funds were raised, and members of local Building Trades Unions joined in on the project of reconstructing one of the old buildings on the property (the building on the left, seen in the first image on the right). By Thanksgiving of that year, “there emerged a clean, gay settlement for the people of Poughkeepsie, of any race, creed, or color.” The main goals were to prevent juvenile delinquency, and also to create a “better interracial understanding through inter-group relations.” In order to accomplish this, a diverse selection of activities and learning opportunities were offered to all who attended.
In 1936, the Mayor George Spratt and the Board of Alderman authorized a W.P.A. project, and a new gymnasium was constructed on the grounds alongside the old Riverview building, using local fieldstone (a trademark of local Franklin Roosevelt era buildings). The construction cost about $36,000. By the beginning of World War II, close to 1,000 children had enrolled in at least one of the programs offered and the children learned to plant victory gardens to assist with the war effort. However, there seemed to be much less interest in the center as a whole by the 1950s. Even Eleanor Roosevelt wrote in her daily column, “My Day,” that the center was in desperate need of local support, and it wasn’t getting it:
“Lincoln Center, a settlement house which should be able to do much more work for the youth of the community, is hampered by the fact that very few people are really interested. Not enough money is raised, so the staff is small and their appeals have to go to people living outside of Poughkeepsie!”
She wrote again a couple of months later,
“In Poughkeepsie, N.Y., there is a neighborhood house called Lincoln Center in which Vassar College has been interested because it helped to start it. Poughkeepsie itself, however, seems much less aware of the needs and advantages of such a center than its citizens should be!”
The Lincoln Center disbanded and was replaced by the Neighborhood Service Organization in 1961. However, they lost the use of the gymnasium when it was deliberately set on fire in 1979. Even with its sad end, there are still many who remember the positive effect that the Lincoln Center had on them.
Resources:
“Lincoln Center Comes of Age” – By Marjorie MacCracken, Vassar Alumnae Mag. Apr 1938 – LH Collections
Lincoln Center, Subject File 1937 – LH Collections
“Poughkeepsie Grasps a Helping Hand”, W.P.A. pamphlet – LH Collections
Lincoln Center, Annual Report – 1948-1949 – LH Collections
“My Day” by Eleanor Roosevelt, Feb 10 1948, Apr 2 1948
Poughkeepsie Journal, Apr 1 1979
Images:
01 – Postcard of the Riverview Military Academy – LH Collections
02 – Lincoln Center Program for Activities, 1946 – LH Collections
03 – Image showing the new gym and the old building – LH Collections
04 – Basketball game inside the gym, 1949 – LH Collections
05 – Eleanor Roosevelt addressing the Lincoln Center, 1949 – LH Collec
06 – Lincoln Center Brochure, 1948 – LH Collections
07 – Poughkeepsie Journal photo of the fire at the gym, 1979
