Euzko Etxea of New York

The Euzko Etxea of New York is the former Centro Vasco-Americano, the charitable and social society that thirteen Basques registered in the city in 1913. It grew out of the informal gatherings that had been held in Manhattan since 1905. Among the founders was the hotelier Valentín Aguirre, and they were helped by Italian friends, among them a young lawyer, Fiorello La Guardia, who would later be mayor of the city. In 1928 it opened its own building at 48 Cherry Street, the street of the Basque boardinghouses, with an indoor fronton, a bar and a restaurant; when the buildings on the street were demolished it moved through several premises, until in 1973 it bought a former church on Eckford Street, in the Greenpoint neighbourhood (Brooklyn). In 1980 it took the name Euzko Etxea, and in 1993 it joined NABO.