A $2 million award from the state will allow Baden Street Settlement to move forward with demolishing a century old building on Vienna Street, clearing the way for a brand-new structure.
But it will need an additional $5 million to construct the new building.
The anti-poverty organization is planning to demolish a building at 13 Vienna Street that is over 100 years old and currently houses a basketball court, kitchen, and wellness center.
The new building would offer similar amenities. It would be handicap accessible and would include a larger gym along with a community kitchen and wellness center. Baden Street would also shrink its footprint from seven campuses spread throughout the city’s northeast to four.
The total cost of the redevelopment is estimated at $15 million. In 2024, the organization was awarded $8.1 million from the state to tear down the Vienna Street building and begin the redevelopment. The recently approved 2026-27 state budget allocates another $2 million to support the project.
Tyrese Bryant is chairperson of Baden Street’s board of directors. He described the process of filling in the funding gap as “challenging.”
“The majority of our patients and clients, once they've been successful, the biggest thing that happens with poor people in the community is they move; they leave the community,” Bryant said. “So, there's not this big donor base that we can reach out to. But there are a lot of alumni over the last 125 years that we are reaching, and there are a ton of foundations that we are having conversations with.”
Baden Street Settlement was founded in 1901 by Therese Katz and Fannie Garson of Temple B'rith Kodesh, at the height of the settlement house movement in the United States. That movement originated in England and sought to establish social service organizations in poor urban areas of cities. The first, and likely most well-known in the United States, was Hull House in Chicago. That settlement house began operation in 1889 and closed in 2012.
At the time of its founding, Baden Street Settlement sought to bridge service gaps for immigrants and people living in poverty. Over 120 years later, that mission remains largely the same. Today, the organization offers an array of services, from assistance with developing plans for people with mental or behavioral health issues to substance abuse services, emergency family assistance, and services for adults with developmental disorders.
“The interesting thing is that the demand for services really has not changed,” said Ron Thomas, executive director of Baden Street. “The reason for that is because the community remains poor. Ninety percent of the people whom we serve have household incomes less than $25,000. So as the community remains poor, the people who are dealing with issues around poverty, those issues remain the same.”
Thomas has been leading Baden Street for about 30 years. He said that he won’t retire until the redevelopment is finished. He said he only sees the demand for Baden Street’s services as likely to increase in coming years.
“What has happened over the last 30 years is that many of the houses in this community that were occupied are no longer occupied,” Thomas said. “There are now initiatives going on to build more affordable housing in this community. That means the number of poor people is going to increase, and therefore you will have an increase in the number of people seeking services.”
The interior of the Vienna Street building is now vacant, as Baden Street moves its resources out of the site and prepares for demolition. It hasn't been renovated since the 1950s and the interior shows significant signs of water damage and decay. The scent of mildew lingers in the air in virtually every part of the building.
Bryant said that the demolition is expected to happen this summer. It will be a major milestone for Baden Street and set it up for its next chapter, he added, so long as the money comes through.
“These buildings are 103 years old,” Bryant said. “We are building a new main campus and sports and wellness center for another 100 years. So, it's not cheap to do that when you're building a facility that's going to last the test of time for another 100 years, but that's what we're doing.”
