Name Leake Watts | ||
 | ||
Rick Rubano - Leake and Watts Services, Inc
Leake and Watts Services, Inc. is a not-for-profit social services agency in New York City that provides services for children and families in the areas of foster care, adoption, special education, Head Start and other related subjects. It has facilities in Yonkers, New York in Westchester County and The Bronx and Upper Manhattan in New York City. The agency began as the Leake and Watts Orphan Asylum in Manhattan.
Contents
History
John George Leake (1752–1827) was a New York lawyer who had no children or siblings. He died on June 2, 1827 at his home on Park Row in Manhattan. His estate, which included personal property valued at about $300,000 and real estate worth an additional $86,000, he left to Robert Watts, the son of his best friend John Watts, with the stipulation that Robert Watts change his name to "Robert Leake." Watts made the change, but died a few months later, leaving no will. The Leake fortune would then have passed to his father, John Watts, but considering the circumstances Watts was uncomfortable with receiving the money.
In the legal papers of John Leake was an unsigned and undated draft of a will in his handwriting, in which he left money to create a home for orphaned children, and assigned his friend, John Watts, to administer the home. Watts petitioned the court to put the money to this use. The Public Administrator of New York took charge of the estate, ruling that Leake had died intestate. After a court decision the cash was released to the orphanage but his real estate was kept by New York State.
Originally located at Trinity Church, a new building for the orphanage at West 112th Street was completed in 1843, designed by Ithiel Town and constructed by Samuel Thomson in the Greek revival style. The site of the orphanage was purchased in 1891 by Bishop Henry Codman Potter for the Cathedral of Saint John the Divine, and the building was to be torn down. Instead the building was spared, and a renovation was completed in 2006. It is now the oldest building still standing in the Morningside Heights neighborhood.