Spanish Benevolent Society

The Spanish Benevolent Society (La Nacional) is a private social club in New York City founded in 1868 to serve the Spanish-American community in Manhattan. It is located at 239 West 14th Street and is in the heart of the now disappeared Little Spain.

Many prominent Spanish artists, expatriates, immigrants, and personalities have lived at the society as resident artists during the more than 150 years of its existence, like Picasso, Dalí, Buñuel, or Federico García Lorca. In 2010 Spanish American filmmaker and writer Artur Balder, who lived in the building as resident artist for more than one year, created the documentary Little Spain, displaying for first time the untold history of this society. The archive contains more than 450 photographs and 150 documents that have never been publicly displayed. They present the history of the streets of Little Spain in New York City throughout the 20th Century.

Since its founding in 1868 the primary objective of the Centro Español – Spanish Benevolent Society is to "promote, encourage and spread the spirit of fraternity and solidarity among Spanish and Hispanic-American residents of this country.”

In those early years, the Society served as an essential support system for Spaniards immigrating to the United States – providing food and shelter; tending to their health care needs; arranging afterlife services; and acting as their de facto home away from home in New York. While the needs of their members have changed greatly since that time, the Spanish Benevolent Society still remains committed to assisting individuals who come from Spain to seek a new way of life in New York.

Spaniards of all kinds: tourists, artisans, professionals and many others have benefitted from this little corner of Spain in the Big Apple. It has served as a meeting ground for political dissidents and revolutionaries, avant-garde poets and artists – including the groundbreaking director Luis Buñuel and the modernist poet Federico Garcia Lorca, who wrote sections of his famous anthology “Poet in New York” during his stay at the Society. It is even said that Picasso stopped in for a taste of home.

The Centro Español – Spanish Benevolent Society is also committed to the historical preservation of this dynamic community. The Society is the final remnant of the once-thriving enclave on 14th street between 7th and 8th avenues known as “Little Spain.” The Society was the heart of the block then and will remain at the core of the revival of our “Pequeña España”.

...
Wikipedia