Collins, Ellen (1828–1912)

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Collins, Ellen (1828–1912)

American housing reformer and philanthropist. Born Dec 1828, in New York, NY; died July 8, 1912, in New York, NY; dau. of Joseph B. and Sarah (Mintern) Collins; granddau. of Isaac Collins (Quaker printer).

Joined Woman's Central Association of Relief in NY during Civil War (1861); worked for New York National Freedmen's Relief Association on behalf of Negro education; inspected schools for Negroes in VA with philanthropist Josephine Shaw Lowell (1866); appointed visitor of public charitable institutions in New York County; in housing experiment to provide for needs of the very poor, purchased 3 old tenement houses in Cherry Hill, the Lower East Side (1880), which were fully occupied by renters during her 23 years of ownership.

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Collins, Ellen (1828–1912)

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