page_title: Women's Health Protective Association
section_title: Manhattan, New York
hierarchical_section_title: Women's Health Protective Association / Manhattan, New York
caption_attribution_description: English: Looking west at commemorative fountain at the foot of West 116th Street on a sunny afternoon.
context_page_description: Women's Health Protective Association was a US women's organization focused on improving a city's public health and protecting the immediate neighborhood. It was founded in New York City in November 1884 as the Ladies' Health Protective Association.
  The impetus for the association occurred when a few women were annoyed by a nuisance maintained in the immediate neighborhood of their homes. They assembled in the parlor of one of the women to talk over the situation and devise some plan of concerted effort that could be brought to bear upon the New York City Metropolitan Board of Health to induce it to abate this nuisance. The result led to the formation of "The Ladies' Health Protective Association." It commanded public attention because its work was public and for the public. The meetings became important enough to have reporters assigned from the daily papers attend them, and reports appeared.
  Associations were formed in other cities on the same general principles. The newer associations substituted the word "woman," or "women," for " ladies," although the original charter granted by New York State was to "The Ladies' Health Protective Association."
context_section_description: In November, 1884, eleven women residing on Beekman Hill, whose houses were located on a high bluff overlooking the East River, were so outraged at the continuance of the foul odors which polluted the atmosphere of the entire neighborhood, causing them to keep windows closed in the hottest weather, and depriving them of their right to pure air, that they resolved to investigate the cause of this nuisance. Accordingly, they made a tour of the neighborhood, in that section of the city known as the abattoir district, which extends on First Avenue from Forty-third Street to 47th Street. Their first visit was a revelation, and while they returned to their homes ill from the inspection and the discovery of the nuisance, they decided that some action must be taken to better the conditions. The following morning their number was increased to fifteen, and it was resolved that these women should form themselves into an organization, to be known as the Ladies' Health Protective Association.
  They found that relief would require more than protests, and probably a struggle of some months, at least, with official greed and public indifference. For efficiency, they formed an association afterwards christened "The Ladies Health Protective Association of New York". Only after ten years of persistent effort was their original purpose accomplished. In the meantime, however, they accomplished other things no less important. They demonstrated woman's power and fitness to cope with these questions. They formed committees to investigate the water supply, gas houses, school hygiene, street cleaning, garbage disposal, sewer system, sanitation of prisons and tenements, and in several instances influenced the legislature to pass sanitary laws. The group's first convention occurred May 14–15, 1896 at the New York Academy of Medicine.
  A marble stele and drinking fountain, designed by Bruno Louis Zimm were placed at Riverside Drive and 116th Street in 1909 to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the organization.
caption: Women's Health Protective Association fountain, Riverside Park
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