USA > New York > Bronx County > The Bronx and its people; a history, 1609-1927, Volume II > Part 23
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The Bronx Nursing Centers are as follows :
Morrisania Center, No. 320 East 149th Street-At the urgent re-
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quest of the people living in the section around Public School No. 1, College Avenue and 145th Street, led by Miss Abbey Porter Leland, principal of that school, The Bronx Chapter of the American Red Cross, agreed to finance an intensive health service in the section covered by this school. The Henry Street Visiting Nurse Service was asked to conduct this, which was begun in June, 1920. A sub-station was opened at the corner of College Avenue and 143rd Street. In 1922, the Red Cross discontinued the financing of this center. The work con- tinued, the nurses being paid by Henry Street, the doctors volunteering their services in the clinics, and the landlord donating the rent. In June, 1923, it was found necessary to combine the center at 143rd Street and the one at Morris Avenue at its present headquarters, No. 320 East 149th Street. The Morrisania Nursing Service covers the following territory : North-149th Street, 3rd Avenue, 157-Melrose, 162-River; South-Bronx Kills; East-Bronx Kills; West-Harlem River. Center activities : Mothers' Club, once a week. The supervisor of this office is Miss Sarah Ward Gould. There are twelve nurses covering this district, which includes Italians, Russians, Germans, Americans, and Irish.
Melrose Center-The Melrose center moved from its shabby second- floor quarters on 163rd Street and Third Avenue to No. 916 Brook Ave- nue in June, 1920. It remained there until May, 1924, when it was found that more reasonable and more suitable headquarters could be secured at its present location, No. 1160 Jackson Avenue. Boundaries : North- 168th Street to Jerome Avenue to 170th Street and St. Paul's Place to Crotona Park South to Prospect and Freeman streets; South-149tl Street to 3rd Avenue to 157th Melrose, 159, Courtland, 160, Park, 156, Morris to 161st to Harlem River; East-East River; West-Harlem River. This center conducts a Pre-Natal Clinic, Mothers' Club and Baby Conference. The supervisor, Miss Gladys Park, and thirteen nurses cover the district.
Tremont Center-Tremont center moved from its second-floor loca- tion on Tremont Avenue, near Third Avenue, to its present location, No. 2021 Arthur Avenue, in February, 1921. Boundaries : North-Ford- ham Road; South-168th, Jerome Avenue; East-168th, Shakespeare ; West-Harlem River, Ship Canal. Center activities : Baby Conference, Nurses Baby Conference, Pre-Natal Clinic and Mothers' Club. The patients are mostly Russians and Italians.
Fordham Center-The Villa Avenue center, now called the Fordham center, was begun in May, 1921. An effort was made to organize the community which has consistently helped in the support of this center. The Red Cross also contributed. It was begun with just one nurse working a few blocks in the vicinity of the center. Soon more nurses were added as well as more territory. In April, 1924, the center moved to No. 2737 Webster Avenue, combining with Kingsbridge, and now
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covers the territory from the Hudson River to Eastchester Bay from Fordham Road to the city line. In 1915, the Nursing Service was ex- tended to Inwood, Marble Hill, Spuyten Duyvil, and Kingsbridge. Mrs. Kjaer, the nurse, interested Mr. Johnson, head of the foundry, in the work. His cooperation gave an impetus to the work in this district. The first automobile used in this territory was given by him to the service. In 1917, the Van Courtland Chapter of the American Red Cross estab- lished an office in Kingsbridge, which the nurses were invited to make their headquarters. Later, a supervisor and two nurses were added to the staff, the Red Cross paying part of the supervisor's salary. A short time after a children's clinic was organized, the Red Cross paying the doctor's salary. In June, 1920, the Van Courtland Chapter had to curtail its work. Miss Emily Perkins of the Red Cross Chapter, who had been very much interested in the health work, was most eager that the Kingsbridge community support this service. The Kingsbridge Health Association was formed. This organization attempted to or- ganize the clinic on a self-supporting basis. It met the rent and the doctor's salary, but at no time was able to meet any of the nurses' salaries. In April, 1924, the nurses moved to the Fordham Center and the clinic was discontinued by the Kingsbridge Health Association. Boundaries : North-City Line; South-Fordham Road and Pelham Parkway; East-Hutchinson River and Eastchester Bay, City Island and Hart Island; West-Hudson and Harlem rivers. Activities : Mothers' Club, Nurses' and Babies' Conference. Miss Margaret Reid, supervisor, and five nurses cover the territory.
Westchester Office, No. 2169 Westchester Avenue-This office was organized by a committee of twenty women, who volunteered to finance the overhead expenses of the office, amounting to $150 a month. This fund they raised through the community-each family being responsible for a dollar, to be procured by the Committee. Sometimes dinners and card-parties are arranged to raise the necessary amount. The activities in this center are: Baby welfare clinics, pre-school clinics, Mothers' Club, and Nutrition Class. About a thousand visits are made each month. Included in this area are about 65,000 people. Boundaries : North of Bronx River, East of Pelham Bay to the Sound. The super- visor is Miss Elizabeth G. Neary and six nurses cover the district.
Each one of the nurses giving service in the Visiting Nurse Service of the Henry Street Settlement is a graduate nurse and averages eight visits a day. They report at their office at 8.30 A. M., leave for duty at 8.45, report back at 12.45 P. M., and then go into the field again at 2 to remain until 5 P. M. The calls for nursing care are received from the doctors, the families of the patients, or the Metropolitan Life In- surance Company and industrial firms. . They cover maternity cases, new-born, general cases, and communicable diseases, without regard
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to race, creed, or color. For general cases, treatments are given as per doctor's orders. Advice and health education of the families are given. Welfare visits, which are purely educational, are made, and mothers are instructed in hygiene and nutrition. There is a charge for active visits of $1.15 per visit and $1.65 for mother and child. An hourly service for which there is a charge of $2.00 for the first hour and $1.75 for every additional hour, is maintained for people who want a nurse for a special time. The Visiting Nurse Service of the Henry Street Settle- ment does not conduct baby clinics in districts which are covered by the Board of Health Clinics.
Bronx Catholic Big Brothers League-The Bronx Catholic Big Bro- thers League was organized on February 15, 1916. Its officers are as follows: Spiritual Adviser, Rev. Joseph C. Ryan; President, Hon. John E. McGeehan; Secretary, Harry A. Weber; Treasurer, Charles B. Mc- Groddy; Chairman of the Law Committee, Felix A. Muldoon; Chair- man of the Medical Committee, W. E. Howley, M. D. This is the plan and scope of the work: There is a staff of paid workers, supplemented by volunteers, lawyers, physicians, merchants, executives, teachers, all busy men selected because of their good will and natural ability to do effective work. The Little Brothers are boys referred by parents, hos- pitals, police courts, by other boys, and by the boys themselves. They are sometimes sons of widows, inebriates, prisoners, of careless or ignorant parents, boys who are largely the victims of their environment. The task is to ascertain the cause of the boy's trouble, whether it be truancy, stealing, lying, running away from home, etc .; then with the cooperation of parents, through the mediation of the Big Brothers, to build up within the boy a sense of honor and good citizenship.
Jewish Ladies' Day Nursery-This institution was founded in Oc- tober, 1916. The officers of the institution are: Mrs. K. Cherr, Pres- ident; Mrs. M. Field, Vice-President; Mrs. B. Solomon, Treasurer ; Mrs. A. Tellis, Comptroller; Mrs. S. Glouberman, Recording Secretary ; Mrs I. Kuller, Financial and Corresponding Secretary. The Jewish Ladies' Day Nursery cares for orphaned and deserted destitute chil- dren ; providing them with shelter, food, clothing and all possible recrea- tion. Free medical and dental service is provided. There is no discrim- ination in regard to race, creed, or religion. There is capacity for a hundred children, the number usually in charge of the institution. It is the only institution of its kind in The Bronx that admits infants. The ages of the children vary from four months to fourteen years.
Kingsland Orphan Children's Home-This institution, located at Pel- ham Parkway and Stillwell Avenue, represents in The Bronx the Edwin Gould Foundation for Children, Inc., which is located at No. 598 Madison Avenue at 57th Street. The officers of the Foundation, which was
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established on March 7, 1923, are: Mrs. George F. Shrady, Honorary President ; Edwin Gould, President and Treasurer ; A. S. McClain, Vice- President; Edmund G. Vaughan, Vice-President and Secretary ; Miss Florence MacDermid, Assistant Secretary. The purpose of the work is to be a quarantine station for children going into Protestant institu- tions. The general report of the Treasurer, Edwin Gould, to the Board of Trustees, furnishes details of the Foundation's administration :
Your Treasurer became a member of the Messiah Home for Children on December 4, 1916; was made chairman of the Committee of Admissions; and when the Messiah Home property at Andrews and West Tremont avenues, New York City, was sold and the money put into an endowment fund, provided the place for the Messiah Home at Spring Valley, New York, thus establishing Lake- side Chapel. There is a State Law that provides that any child entering an institution must be quarantined, and as the Messiah Home had no facilities for quarantining children, whenever children were admitted to the Institution, they had to be quarantined with some other organization that had facilities for this purpose. During the years 1920-1923, your Treasurer quarantined children for the Messiah Home in various institutions, including, among other places, the Five Points House of Industry, Home for the Friendless, Industrial School on South Third Street, Brooklyn, New York, and the Sheltering Arms.
Mayor Mitchel during his administration, established a Clearing Bureau for dependent children, using the Messiah Home Building for this purpose.
Meanwhile your Treasurer had under advisement the plan of starting another Home for Children, and the Kingsland Avenue Children's Home was incorporated and property secured by it from the Five Boroughs Realty Company on April 25, 1922. However, upon further investigation it was discovered that such a Home was not so much needed as an Organization that would provide a large central quarantine station or Clearing Bureau where any children seeking admission to the institution we are connected with could remain for the quarantine period, doing away with the more or less inadequate separate quarantine in each in- stitution.
It was found that often times the quarantine of an institution where a child had been accepted might be filled when a mother or father was forced by cir- cumstances to go to work and place the child either temporarily or permanently in an institution; also that this plan would save a great deal of money to the present institutions, as quarantining the children is a very expensive process if done properly. Separate quarantines run by the institutions would each have to engage someone to perhaps care for only one or two children at a time who would have to be capable of taking care of a unit of twenty or twenty-five. Another disadvantage of the individual quarantine was that the children in quarantine re- ceived no schooling. This has been obviated in the quarantine or Cleaning Bureau now in operation by the Edwin Gould Foundation, as it is an annex to Public School No. 12, and a public school teacher is furnished for each one of our quarantine cottages. Your treasurer, thinking that a great improvement could be made in the quarantining of children over the previous methods, established in March 7, 1923, the Edwin Gould Foundation for Children; and the Clearing Bureau was put into operation in March, 1923, at Pelham Parkway and Stillwell Avenue, The Bronx, New York City, and took over the work that had previously been done through various other institutions.
Hebrew United Charities-The Hebrew United Charities was or-
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ganized in 1874 and incorporated in 1877. Its present officers are the following: Leopold Plaut, President; Walter H. Liebman, Vice-Pres- ident; Edgar J. Nathan, Vice-President; Mark E. Stroock, Secretary ; Louis J. Grumbach, Treasurer.
The purpose of the Hebrew United Charities is expressed in its By- Laws: "The purposes of this Society shall be through service, relief of material need, and the coordination of community resources, to conserve and develop normal family life in the Jewish Community." The or- ganization operates through its administrative office at No. 125 East 46th Street, where in addition to the administrative staff are housed its de- partments: Mental Hygiene Department; Self Support Department ; Home Economics Department; Vocational Guidance Department ; Homeless Men Department. In addition to this, work with families is carried on through seven district offices at the following addresses: District No. 1, No. 239 East Broadway ; District No. 2, No. 150 Delancey Street; District No. 3, No. 799 Broadway; Stuyvesant, No. 13 Astor Place ; Yorkville, No. 318 East 86th Street; Harlem, No. 345 East 116th Street; Bronx, No. 322 East 149th Street.
The budget of the Hebrew United Charities is in the neighborhood of $700,000 annually. A large proportion of the families under care reside in The Bronx, and The Bronx District is one of the most active ones in the organization.
Baby Welfare Station-The Baby Welfare Station of the Westches- ter Methodist Episcopal Church is situated at No. 2547 East Tremont Avenue, The Bronx. The officers are: Miss Regina Jaudas, Supervisor ; Mrs. J. E. Needham, President; Mrs. M. Morse, Secretary; Mrs. P. Herold, Treasurer. The Station was opened in October, 1923, and in May, 1924, a license was granted. Babies are weighed each week. The work includes the regulation of formulae, and advice in general is given to mothers for improving the health of their babies by the phys- ician in charge. Pre-school and older children are also weighed and advice in respect to diet given. Homes are visited by a nurse who renders such aid as is necessary to the physical welfare of the babies and the older children.
Bronx Day Nursery-The Bronx Day Nursery is situated at Abby House, No. 339 East 142nd Street, New York. It was founded in memory of Abby Pittman Lathers, and Abby Caroline Lathers. The officers are: Honorary President, Miss Julia Lathers; President, Mrs. J. M. Hodson; Vice-President, Mrs. W. P. Hoffman; Treasurer, Miss Mary Eustis; Corresponding Secretary, Mrs. H. R. Howard; Recording Sec- retary, Mrs. O. J. Stephens. The Board of Managers includes: Mrs. G. S. Blakely, Mrs. W. R. Blair, Mrs. H. C. Banks, Mrs. J. W. Edgerly, Mrs. W. B. Edwards, Mrs. J. A. Goewey, Mrs. A. Haring, Mrs. O. C.
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Mees, Mrs. C. C. Miller, Miss Hazel McDonald, Mrs. J. S. Taylor, Mrs. N. B. Van Etten. The chairmen of committees who are also on the Board of Managers are : Membership, Mrs. W. Fraser; House, Mrs. H. H. Plough; Nursery Banks, Mrs. J. S. Francis. A statement given out by the Nursery indicates its plan and purpose :
Everyone knows that there are mothers who must work to support their children. Few, however, stop to consider what becomes of the children while the mothers are at work. There are places where they may be left for the day. There is such a place in The Bronx-it is called the Bronx Day Nursery, Abby House. It is the only non-sectarian institution of this sort among nearly 1,000,000 people of the borough. There is need for this service. To be convinced of this one need only listen to some of the stories the superintendent hears every day. She meets mothers whose husbande have died leaving five small children to be cared for. Mothers whose husbands have deserted them with babies to be reared. How she cares for the children is worth knowing. On 134th Street there is a small family. The father is dead. Every morning at seven-thirty the mother arrives at the Nursery with her two children, leaves them in the superintendent's care, and goes to her work in a department store. The baby is taken up to the nursery, a light airy room on the third floor. There she receives the best care a competent nurse can give. She eats nourishing food at a low table with the others, and sleeps in a white crib. Her waking hours on pleasant days are spent on the porch. When her mother comes for her at six she finds a healthier, happier baby than she left in the morning.
Meanwhile big brother-age five-spends the morning in a delightful school, directed in his play-for it isn't work-by a Montessori teacher. Then a whole- some meal and nap and an afternoon in the yard where there are swings and a see-saw and sandpiles and other boys to play with. Then another hot meal before they go home. Is there any wonder that the mother goes to her work free from worry? That is the story of two children. There are fifty more. There might be twice as many. The need is proven in each case before the child is admitted to the Nursery. How much does the mother pay for this service? Less than the cost of the food that the child eats.
Thirteen years ago Miss Mary Conlon, then as now principal of Pub- lic School No. 30, The Bronx, found that the children in her charge were often absent because they had to take care of younger brothers or sis- ters in family emergencies. If the mother was ill or had to go to Har- lem to shop, if the father was laid off and the mother had to go to work, it was the child of school age who stayed at home to fill her place. "A day nursery in the neighborhood would take care of the babies and keep the older children in school-and do a great deal besides," thought Miss Conlon; and she spoke to Miss Julia Lathers about it. Miss Lath- ers, although not then or later, a resident of The Bronx, saw the need of the neighborhood and set about to meet it. Abby House, named for her mother and sister, were the result. After six years at No. 365 East 141st Street, the Nursery was moved to its present quarters at No. 339 East 142nd Street. Miss Lathers' connection with other charities, notably the Clothing Bureau which she founded, has kept her latterly from ac-
THE ANDREW FREEDMAN HOME,
GRAND CONCOURSE
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tive work in the Day Nursery, but on every Founders' Day, November 22 and March 9, the children are reminded by pleasant parties that they have her interest, and throughout the year those who are carrying on the work confess themselves conscious of the friendly furtherance of the president of the Nursery.
The following is an extract from the superintendent's annual report of the Bronx Day Nursery for 1924:
Happy countries have no history, it is said. So healthy nurseries have less to report than those which must tell of illness and disaster. Our year has been happily uneventful. We have had no contagious diseases in the Nursery, and little illness of any kind. Dr. Sheinberg has made regular weekly visits and has been generous in making extra calls both at the Nursery and at the homes of our families. Through his advice several pairs of tonsils and adenoid growths were removed last spring and the early fall. Lincoln Hospital is always ready to take these cases for us and to render any medical or surgical help we need. After a year and a half of planning and of searching for suitable material and equipment suitably priced, our dental clinic is at last a working reality. The dentist's examinations show that the very little children's teeth are in good con- dition, but those of the school children are very poor. This situation warns us that we must watch the little ones and care for their teeth at the first sign of trouble. In the future we shall send children from here to school with sound, healthy, well-cared-for teeth. This will mean much to them as they grow older. Even after they leave us many of the mothers who otherwise would not bother about teeth until their children were crying with toothache will follow our example of watchfulness and care. The statistics of family conditions show that most of the parents who bring children here are American-born. Nearly half of the women have been deserted; one-fifth are widows; and the others come because of illness, debt, or prison terms for their husbands.
New York Catholic Protectory-The Managers of the New York Catholic Protectory for the year ending December 31, 1924, were as fol- lows: George B. Robinson, William H. Hurst, Charles V. Fornes, Thomas F. McAvoy, James Clarke, John J. Pulleyn, Robert Louis Ho- guet, John J. O'Donohue, Francis J. Quinlan, M. D., John J. Fallahee, Joseph P. Grace, Gerald M. Borden, Louis J. de Milhau, Edward F. Mc- Manus, William F. Heide, John D. Ryan, Alfred J. Amend, James F. McNaboe, Nicholas F. Brady, Myles J. Tierney, M. D., Arthur Kenedy, Hubert McDonnell, Edwin S. McManus, Peter J. Carey, Thomas A. Reynolds, Rev. John J. Mitty, D. D., the last three elected June 5, 1924.
The officers for 1924 were : Francis J. Quinlan, M. D., President ; Rob- ert Louis Hoguet, First Vice-President ; Joseph P. Grace, Second Vice- President ; John J. Fallahee, Treasurer ; Myles J. Tierney, M. D., Sec- retary; Executive Committee-Robert Louis Hoguet, Chairman ; Charles V. Fornes, William F. Heide, Alfred J. Amend, Edwin S. Mc- Manus.
The New York Catholic Protectory was founded in the year 1862 for the protection of wayward and destitute boys and girls of the Ro-
Bronx-41
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man Catholic faith. The great Civil War between the Northern and Southern States broke out in 1861. One of the immediate results of this gigantic struggle was to leave orphaned, and in many cases, homeless, thousands of Catholic children, whose patriotic fathers and brothers had fallen on the field of battle, while fighting for the preservation of the Union. To these were soon added other thousands, the sons and daugh- ters of impoverished immigrants from Catholic countries, at that time chiefly from Ireland. To save these boys and girls and gather them into a home where they would be educated and taught a useful trade and brought up in the religion of their parents, was the object of the founders.
In the latter part of the year 1862 a number of prominent Catholic gentlemen met in the Rectory of the Church of the Annunciation, Man- hattanville, New York, to discuss ways and means for the proposed foundation. Among those present were Archbishop Hughes, Rev. John Breen, pastor of the Annunciation Church; Rev. William Quinn, pastor of St. Peter's; the Rev. Brother Patrick, President of Manhattan Col- lege; and Dr. Levi Stillman Ives, a convert, who had formerly been Protestant Episcopal Bishop of North Carolina. Several other gentle- men completed the gathering. It was then and there decided that a Protectory should be established without any unnecessary delay ; that accommodation should be secured; that the Brothers of the Christian Schools be invited to direct the Male Department, and the American Sisters of Charity, founded in 1809 by Mother Seton, be given charge of the Female Department. Brother Patrick promised in the name of Brother Philippe, Superior General, to supply the Brothers and until his death in 1891, took the liveliest interest in the progress of the new institution.
The work of organization took a further step in advance at a meeting called for February 11, 1863, at No. 15 Barclay Street, New York, the pas- toral residence of Father Quinn. Seven gentlemen were appointed to go to Albany, the capital of the State of New York, and endeavor to obtain a charter. They succeeded. On April 14, 1863, the Legislature granted the charter under the title of "The Society for the Protection of Destitute Roman Catholic Children of the City of New York." For the immediate accommodation of the youthful inmates two private dwellings in the heart of the city were rented, and here the boys found their first home and shelter under the care of Brother Teliow. About the same time the Managers succeeded in renting a suitable building in an- other part of the city for the reception of girls. These they placed un- der the direction of the Sisters of Charity. Thus was begun, in limited rented quarters, in the heart of the great American metropolis, with ac- commodations for about 1,000 children, the New York Catholic Protec- tory, which has since grown to proportions that enable it to care for
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