The Rhinelander Industrial School was founded in 1891 when the Rhinelander sisters, Serena and Julia, donated property and funds to CAS. The building was designed by Calvert Vaux and George Radford (Vaux later gained fame as co-designer of Central Park and Brooklyn's Prospect Park).

Rhinelander was the first industrial school in New York where girls learned trades -- jewelry and lace making -- and Rhinelander later became a school for handicapped children. Transportation posed a great dilemma, but through the generous assistance of Mrs. Carnegie, four wagons were provided to take youngsters to and from the center. Rhinelander and CAS opened the City's first dental clinic in 1909, as well as the first mental health clinic for children. Over the last several decades, Rhinelander has offered services to the underprivileged and working class families of Yorkville with after school programs, drug prevention, tutoring, mental health, job readiness programs and more.

With more professional families moving into the Yorkville area over the last 30 years, Rhinelander and The Children's Aid Society took a new look at the Center's programs. CAS decided to develop resources for the many single-parent and middle-class families in the community grappling with the challenges of raising healthy children in a stressful urban environment. The old Rhinelander building was completely renovated in 1989 and an additional Nursery classroom was added in the fall of 1997. In September of 1989, an After School Program for children 4 to 11 years began and in February 1990, the Early Childhood Program for children ages 6 months to 4 years was introduced. Rhinelander's beautiful state-of-the-art facility was designed to provide programs and services to accommodate the needs of a constantly changing population.

Also, The Children's Aid Society's National Training Center for Family Life Education is housed on the third floor of the Rhinelander building. Professionals in New York City and throughout the country are trained to work with teenagers following a successful model of pregnancy prevention developed at CAS under the direction of Dr. Michael Carrera.