Phipps Houses was founded in 1905 with a $1 million gift by Henry Phipps to provide affordable and well-designed housing for working class New Yorkers. Funds generated by the 4% earnings target were to be reinvested in new housing, under an innovative corporate structure which required a special act of the New York State legislature. In 1906, Phipps Houses completed its first model building on East 31st Street with spacious apartments, recreation areas, and conveniences, including baths with showers, not ordinarily provided in working-class housing. Properties were also purchased on West 63rd and 64th Streets, on which two groups of apartment buildings were constructed for African-American tenants, whose housing needs were adversely affected by the racial discrimination practices of the era.

Henry Phipps became a New York City resident in 1901, following the sale that same year by Henry Phipps and Andrew Carnegie, his lifetime friend and partner, of their interest in the Carnegie Steel Company, as a part of the formation of U.S. Steel. From 1901 until his death in 1930, Henry Phipps' chief interests were his family's long term financial future and his continuing philanthropies, which commenced with the Phipps Conservatory (1893) in his home town of Pittsburgh, Pa. In 1903, Henry Phipps established "The Institute for Study, Treatment and Prevention of Tuberculosis" in Philadelphia. The formation of Phipps Houses in 1905 resulted from his concern over slum conditions in New York City, which were a primary contributor to the spread of tuberculosis.

During the Depression years of the early 1930's, the organization built the Phipps Garden Apartments with their beautifully landscaped gardens in Sunnyside, Queens. This complex is still home to 472 families. During the period from 1950 to 1970, hospitals found themselves in need of apartments for doctors, nurses and staff conveniently located to the hospitals. Phipps Houses helped meet this need by building and managing apartments for New York Hospital.

Subsequently, Phipps Houses was appointed sponsor of practically all of the housing created in the Bellevue South Urban Renewal Area on Manhattan's east side. In addition to stabilizing neighborhood conditions in the vicinity of Bellevue Hospital, a purpose of the project was to fulfill the staff housing requirements for a crucial city institution. Today the Kips Bay Plaza (formerly Henry Phipps Plaza) buildings continue to provide 1600 housing units for low and middle income families.

In the 1970's Phipps Houses launched its first housing project in the South Bronx, an area of urban blight precipitated by construction of the Cross Bronx Expressway. In the early 1970's, Phipps sponsored the building of Lambert Houses, providing 731 apartment units for lower income families, in West Farms, an area near the Bronx Zoo.

In the past 30 years, Phipps Houses has developed numerous Bronx and Manhattan properties for low-income and formerly homeless families, including: Extra Place Apartments (42 units); La Casa de Felicidad (85 units for the elderly); Honeywell Apartments (79 units), Fulton Jefferson Apartments (107 units), La Puerta de Vitalidad (61 units); Lee Goodwin (41 units); Mapes Court (91 units); Sojourner Truth (63 units); and ECHO Apartments (99 units for the elderly) and 20 buildings comprising Lynda Simmons Homes/Crotona Park West (563 units). Currently in development are 19 new projects totaling more than 2,500 apartments including Via Verde, a 221-unit apartment complex that won the first juried design competition for affordable and sustainable housing, and Courtlandt Corners, a 323-unit Energy Star-certified apartment complex.

Phipps Community Development Corporation (Phipps CDC), a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit organization, was established in 1972 as the human services affiliate of Phipps Houses. Serving the communities of West Farms, Melrose and Morrisania in the Bronx, and Bellevue South in Manhattan, Phipps CDC provides on-site and neighborhood-based social, education, and career services such as Head Start, after-school, summer camp, literacy & ESL, GED prep, college advisement, work readiness, and family support for children and adults residing in Phipps Houses and the surrounding communities.

Mission and Operations

Today, Phipps Houses is New York City's oldest and largest not-for-profit developer, sponsor and owner of housing for low and moderate-income families. The collaborative mission of The Phipps Houses Group of Companies is the creation of enduring communities for such families, through housing development, related property management and social and educational services.