Rally Will Demand Boys' Club Postpone Sale Of Famed Clubhouse

EAST VILLAGE, NY — Elected officials and residents will gather Saturday at the Boys' Club of New York's Harriman Clubhouse, urging the group not to the sell the E. 10th street building that has served the community for 119 years.

Community members have sought to halt the sale since the Boys Club announced in June that it plans to sell its East Village building across from Tompkins Square Park on Avenue A. The clubhouse has served nearly one million boys since it opened in 1876 with a slew of educational, athletic and art programs, and local leaders fear what the community will loose — and gain — if the the clubhouse is sold.

“We’d loose, really, a crown jewel of youth and civic engagement precisely at a time in our city’s and nation’s history when we need these institutions for boys and young men,” State Senator Brad Hoylman told Patch, whose district includes the building.

“What we’re concerned about is that its services might be non-centrally located and that the clubhouse would be converted into condominiums and hotels, which would be a double whammy for the community.”

The Boys Club of New York has been mulling the sale for years and has decided to list the space given the wave of gentrification sweeping the area. The club plans to move elsewhere in the neighborhood and aims to use the funds from the sale for new facilities in other underserved parts of the city such as Brooklyn's East New York or the South Bronx.

But 28 percent of the more than 168,000 residents in the Lower East Side-Chinatown live below the federal poverty level. Residents say the Boys' Club of New York diminishing its services would leave a gapping hole in a community that is in dire need of its programming.

"My son goes there all the time he loves it — they have a pool, they have a gym. I'm not sure what we'd do without it, it's so affordable," said East Village resident Janice Biaggi, 46, whose 11-year-old frequents the E. 10th Street clubhouse. "It's just a shock, why would they leave when they have deep ties here and a unique building that serves the community so well. It's just appalling."

Several elected officials including State Senator Brad Hoylman, Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer, Assemblyman Harvey Epstein and City Councilwoman Carlina Rivera sent the club an Aug. 22 letter asking they postpone the sale and consult the public on the move with a community meeting.

The Boys' Club of New York's Executive Director Stephen Tosh declined in a Sept. 14 letter.

"Our role in the neighborhood defines us. It is also bigger than any one building," Tosh wrote in response. "Wherever out East Village clubhouse is situated, we remain a vital part of an ever-changing area."

The rally is slated for Saturday Sept. 29 at noon on the sidewalk outside of the Harriman Clubhouse at 287 E. 10th Street between First Avenue and Avenue A.

Photo courtesy of the Boys' Club of New York