Charles Bunstein Stover | |
---|---|
Parks Commissioner for New York City | |
Personal details | |
Born |
Riegelsville, Pennsylvania |
July 14, 1861
Died | April 25, 1929 University Settlement House New York City |
(aged 67)
Education | Lafayette College |
Charles Bunstein Stover (July 14, 1861 - April 25, 1929) was the Parks Commissioner for New York City.
He was born in Riegelsville, Pennsylvania, on July 14, 1861. He attended Lafayette College and graduated in 1881. He was studied to become a Presbyterian minister at the Union Theological Seminary and graduated in 1884. He also took classes at the University of Berlin, before moving to Manhattan's Lower East Side.
In 1886 he founded the Neighborhood Guild on Forsyth Street, the first settlement house in the United States.
In 1913 he told his staff and coworkers that he was going out for lunch then he disappeared for a total of 39 days. He was erroneously thought to be dead in Delaware when a body resembling him was found. After a nationwide search he was found in the Midwest. Ardolph Loges Kline, the Mayor of New York City had Stover suspended, and he mailed in a letter of resignation from Cincinnati. On January 28, 1914, he returned to the University Settlement House. Stover spent the rest of his days developing a summer camp at Beacon, New York, operated by the University Settlement House.
He died at the University Settlement House on April 25, 1929, at the age of 68.
The granite Stover Memorial Bench overlooking Central Park's Shakespeare Garden, was installed in 1936 to commemorate him.