Irene Kauffman Settlement

In 1909, members of the Columbian Council approached Henry Kaufmann (1860-1955) and his wife Theresa, requesting funds for a larger, professionally-staffed settlement house.  Since 1896, the Columbian Council had operated a volunteer-run facility that offered educational and recreational actitivities to Jewish immigrants living in Pittsburgh's Hill District.  As the number of Jewish immigrants arriving in Pittsburgh increased, programs offered by the Council School and Settlement were more heavily used.  The small building was soon overcrowded, and a professional staff was needed to meet the demands of the Council School's expanding programs. 

In memory of their daughter Irene, the Kaufmanns donated $150,000 for the construction of the settlement building on Centre Avenue and $40,000 for an endowment.  Known as the Irene Kaufmann Settlement (IKS), the building became the center of neighborhood life in the Hill District and one of the country's largest and most successful settlement houses. Immigrant services, extensive healthcare programs, Americanization and enrichment classes, art, music, and sports were some of the many activities offered at the settlement house. 

From its founding, the IKS served all who lived in the Hill District, including non-Jewish immigrants and African Americans, who had begun settling there in the 1920s.  By the end of World War II, there were few Jews left in the Hill District as the Jewish population moved to the Squirrel Hill and East End neighborhoods of Pittsburgh.  In 1948, the IKS began to offer services to the Jewish community in those areas as the Irene Kaufmann Center (IKC).  The IKS building in the Hill District was renamed the Hill House, and its administration was passed on to a non-Jewish organization.  In order to offer services more efficiently, the IKC and the Young Men and Women's Hebrew Association, which was located on Bellefield Avenue in Oakland, merged in 1960, forming the Y-IKC, which was renamed the Jewish Community Center in 1974.

From the Rauh Jewish Archives:
https://www.jewishhistoryhhc.org/timeline.aspx#074c4a29-1921-4827-8b4d-3b9d1fb46da1