In 1889 Jewish philanthropist Lina Hecht (1848-1920) founded the Hebrew Industrial School (HIS) For Girls near the North Bennet Street Industrial School. After Hecht’s death, the settlement house opened for both boys and girls as The Hecht Neighborhood House and moved to Bowdoin Street in the West End. At a time when nearly a third of the North End’s population was Jewish, the school was established to help Eastern European Jewish immigrants adapt to American life. Anxious to teach their own youth, the Hebrew Ladies Sewing Society, reorganized by Hecht in the South End, donated cloth and sewing machines for HIS classes in millinery, pattern cutting, hand and machine sewing. In 1936, reconfigured as a community center, the organization followed the Jewish community into Dorchester. The Hecht House purchased the former Home for Destitute Jewish Children on American Legion Parkway where it operated for more than 20 years, merging with the Roxbury YMHA in the late 1950s. Again, reflecting the changes in demographics and needs of the community, the building was sold in 1970 to the Lena Park Housing Development Corporation.
