Lighthouse Guild history

1913 –The Filomen M. D’Agostino Greenberg Music School opens its doors.

1914 – The first formal meeting of the New York Guild for the Jewish Blind is held.

1919 – The Guild opens a home in Yonkers to care for blind children.

1923 – More than a decade after opening the first Lighthouse camp for children with vision loss, River Lighthouse, a second summer program launches with the opening of Camp Munger.

1935 – The Guild opens the Braille Library, which will go on to become famous for transcribing textbooks for blind children.

1951 – The Guild School opens its doors providing education and therapeutic services for children age 5-21 from the metropolitan area who are blind, have vision loss or deaf/blind, and with additional disabilities.

1952 – The Lighthouse forges an affiliation with the Ophthalmology Foundation, which begins conducting first-of-its-kind blindness research for the organization.

1960 – The New York Guild for the Jewish Blind is renamed The Jewish Guild for the Blind to reflect its non-sectarian status.

1961 – The Guild opens its psychiatric clinic – the first to specialize in blindness – which continues to improve people’s lives today, and remains the only multi-disciplinary psychiatric clinic of its kind in the country.

1967 – The Lighthouse opens a child development center.

1971 – The Guild opened the Estelle R. Newman City Center at 15 West 65th Street in Manhattan.

1975 – The first American Medical Association-accredited professional training program in low vision care is established at The Lighthouse.

1981 – The Pisart Award is inaugurated to recognize a person who has made a noteworthy contribution to the prevention, cure or treatment of severe vision loss or blindness.

1984 – GuildCare, the Guild’s Adult Day Health Care Program, opens at the Guild Home and in the Bronx.

1989 – The Guild’s Elizabeth L. Newman Preschool opens in Manhattan.The New York Association for the Blind Inc. officially becomes known as The Lighthouse Inc. to reflect the deep philosophical shift embraced by the organization to define people for their potential rather than disability.

1990 – The Guild opens its Day Treatment Program to serve people who have vision loss, are hearing impaired and multi-disabled.

1994 – The Guild opens the Diagnostic Treatment Center at the 65th Street location, offering medical, diabetes and low vision rehabilitation services.

1997 – The Guild establishes GuildNet, a managed long-term care program that, for the next 18 years, will provide in-home care to thousands of New Yorkers.

1998 – The Lighthouse Inc. becomes Lighthouse International in recognition of its outreach on behalf of people worldwide who are visually impaired.

2000 – Sightcare, the Guild’s program to educate caregivers for blind and people with vision loss, commences training.

2001 – Lighthouse International inaugurates The Henry Grunwald Award for Public Service and names Grunwald its first recipient for his significant contributions in raising public awareness of vision impairment.

2003 – The Guild awards the first Alfred W. Bressler Prize in Vision Science, a prize given to a professional who’s made important advancements in the treatment of eye disease or rehabilitation of persons with vision loss, to Richard A. Lewis, MD, MS.

2004 – The national GuildScholar Program begins, which awards scholarships to help legally blind young adults successfully transition to college, to support their post-graduate education, and to facilitate career development.

2006 – The Guild’s Children’s Vision Health program starts.

Lighthouse Guild was officially formed in December 2013 when Jewish Guild Healthcare and Lighthouse International combined, to become the leading not-for-profit vision and healthcare organization.

2014 –The combined organization, Lighthouse Guild, officially launches and focuses efforts on integrating vision and healthcare services and expanding access through education and awareness.

2018 – Lighthouse Guild rebrands and expressly defines its mission as addressing and preventing vision loss and moves to its current location at 250 West 64th Street, New York, New York.