Isabella Geriatric Center

Isabella Geriatric Center is a non-profit, non-sectarian organization that has provided residential and community-based services for elderly residents of New York City since 1875. The main campus is located in the Washington Heights neighborhood of Manhattan at 515 Audubon Avenue at the corner of 190th Street.

When Anna and Oswald Ottendorfer opened the first home in 1875, they named it in honor of Anna's daughter, Isabella Uhl, whose early death at the age of 27 cut short her career in caring for the poor. Isabella had been impressed by the precarious position of aged women without home or family. When confined to bed, Isabella expressed to her mother the wish that she establish an institution to ensure these women refuge and protection. Two years after Isabella's death, Anna Ottendorfer opened Isabella Heimath in Astoria, Queens. The home was originally dedicated to the care of indigent elderly women, per Isabella Uhl's wishes. Isabella Home moved to its present location in 1889 and simultaneously expanded its mission to care for both women and men, without regard to race, creed or nationality.

In 1899, the United States Commission to the Paris exposition of 1900 requested that Isabella Heimath provide photographs for an exhibition on American Charities. For this submission, the home was awarded the Silver Medal for excellence of its building, services and purposes.

After 76 years Isabella outgrew its capacity of 132 residents and the Board of Managers moved to make provisions for more space and expanded services. On December 7, 1965, Nelson A. Rockefeller, then Governor of New York State, dedicated Isabella House, a 17-story building containing 12 floors of furnished apartments, three floors of nursing care and two floors for services and public spaces.

The House provided independent living for approximately 250 aged residents. This affordable housing residence for the well elderly was a new concept in institutional care for the aged. At the time, it was the first housing program for the elderly which offered medical and nursing care and a package of social services in a setting where personal freedom and independence was assured.

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