USA > Pennsylvania > Allegheny County > Pittsburgh > Fifteen years of civic history. Civic club of Allegheny County, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. October, 1895-December, 1910 > Part 1
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HN 80 PLC6
UC-NRLF B 3 130 333
LIBRARY OF THE
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA. Cric club. GIFT OF Class
FIFTEEN YEARS OF CIVIC HISTORY
Civic Club of Allegheny County Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
LIBRARY
ODIVERSITY F
OCTOBER 1895
DECEMBER 1910
FIFTEEN YEARS OF CIVIC HISTORY
Civic Club of Allegheny County 11 Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
INCORPORATED SEPTEMBER 18, 1896
OCTOBER 1895
DECEMBER 1910
HN 80 P666
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http://www.archive.org/details/fifteenyearsofci00civirich
LIBRARY OF THE
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A FOREWORD.
It has been thought well to present to our mem- bers at this time a written detailed resume of the activ- ities of the Club during the fifteen years that have elapsed since its organization, not only as a matter of interest, but as a permanent record of our various lines of work. Many of our members who do not actively participate in the affairs of the Club will doubtless be surprised at the work revealed by this recapitulation, the briefest enumeration of which has required the printing of such a lengthy report.
Organized fitfteen years ago by a committee from the Twentieth Century Club, with the avowed purpose of promoting civic and sociologic advancement in every possible way, the Club has quietly but persistently car- ried on a campaign to that end ; sometimes with greater aggressiveness than at others, but on the whole steadily increasing in membership and usefulness until, on its fifteenth anniversary, it has an enrollment of seven hun- dred men and women and a well established place in Pittsburgh's annals as an organization that has been and is an important factor in all 'that pertains to our city's proper development.
Our Club has itself initiated and promoted a notice- ably large proportion of the progressive movements for civic betterment that have reached successful culmina- tion since its organization, and has co-operated with other associations in similar efforts.
In its principal undertakings the Club has remark- ably few failures to record. One of its chief character- istics, as well as one of the elements of its success, has been its quiet persistency. Its methods have never been spectacular, and while it has not infrequently met with temporary defeat, it has kept right on, with patience and dignity, sometimes for years, to eventual success. Its primary object is to achieve results; and, while not
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CIVIC CLUB OF ALLEGHENY COUNTY
afraid to criticize where criticism might serve good pur- pose, its policy in the main has been to work with material as it finds it, with a co-operative, rather than a critical, antagonistic spirit.
The Board chronicles with great sorrow the death during office of one of its four Presidents-Miss Kate Cassatt McKnight. In the passing away of this grand woman, whose labors in behalf of her city and her fel- lowman were so unflagging, not only this Club but the city suffered an irreparable loss.
The Board desires to express its appreciation of and extend its thanks to the various chairmen of depart- ments and committees and the working members there- of, who have so generously contributed their best thought and much personal service to the promotion of the many laudable undertakings of those departments ; and it feels that, while valuing to the full the earnest work of all, it may with propriety single out for special mention that of the Soho Baths Committee, whose labors, extending through a period of years, have been so arduous and so signally successful.
The Board gratefully acknowledges the indebted- ness of the Club to Mrs. William Thaw, Jr., by whose generosity Pittsburgh, through our Club, was given its first public bath house-our fine structure on Penn Ave- nue, known as the Peoples Baths.
The Board also feels that the Club has been especially fortunate in having for its Secretary one so capable, untiring and devoted as Miss Helena Marie Dermitt; who has given herself so unreservedly to ad- vancing the interests of the Club, largely increasing her regular, constant and all-absorbing duties by the prep- aration of this report which has involved a vast amount of labor; for all of which the Board here records its sincere appreciation.
By the Board.
.
OFFICERS AND DIRECTORS of the CIVIC CLUB OF ALLEGHENY COUNTY 1910-1911.
President HON. WILLIAM M. KENNEDY 1st Vice President MRS. FRANKLIN P. IAMS 2nd Vice President MR. OLIVER MCCLINTOCK 3rd Vice President MR. CORNELIUS D. SCULLY 4th Vice President. MR. ROBERT C. HALL Treasurer MRS. WILLIAM THAW, JR. Secretary MISS H. M. DERMITT
Directors MR. HAROLD ALLEN
MRS. CLIFFORD D. CLANEY
DR. THOMAS W. GRAYSON MISS HELEN GRIMES
MR. CHARLES W. HOUSTON
MR. FREDERICK G. KAY
MR. THOMAS J. KEENAN MRS. W. M. LEATHERMAN
MRS. ALFRED LONGMORE
MRS. WILLIAM MACRUM
MISS EMILIE MCCREERY
DR. S. B. McCORMICK MRS. ENOCH RAUH MR. WILLIAM A. ROBERTS
MRS. WILLIAM H. STEVENSON
MRS. GILLIFORD B. SWEENY
MR. FREDERICK S. WEBSTER MRS. WILLIAM T. WHITMAN
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CIVIC CLUB OF ALLEGHENY COUNTY
NOTE: In order to follow without interruption the individual movements undertaken by the Civic Club, they are headed under the year the work was initiated and carried through to completion. The continuous activity of the Club cannot be judged by the number or kinds of new work begun each year for the prolongation of such efforts, since Pure Water, Smoke, Associated Charities, Anti-Expectoration, Tene- ment House, Child Labor, The Allegheny County In- dustrial and Training School and many others, carried a vast amount of labor into the years following their initiation : an inheritance that affected certain years more than others.
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CIVIC CLUB OF ALLEGHENY COUNTY
ORGANIZATION The Civic Club of Allegheny 1895 County was organized October 8, 1895, as the result of a meeting called June 4, 1895, by a special committee of the Twen- tieth Century Club, composed of Miss Kate C. Mc- Knight, Miss Julia M. Harding, Mrs. Imogen B. Oak- ley, Mrs. F. F. Nicola and Mrs. John B. Herron, Jr.
It was originally planned to incorporate a Depart- ment of Civics in the general program of the Century Club work, but as the title suggests better municipal government, improved social conditions, increased edu- cational opportunities and a more beautiful city in which to live, so the object involved the co-operation of the busy businessman in order to study in detail any one of these civic problems.
To quote the Pittsburgh "Post" of October 9, 1895, "The credit of starting this movement belongs to the Twentieth Century Club. At the initiation of this or- ganization of women, a large assemblage of citizens gathered last evening in the rooms of the Club, 408 Penn Avenue. Preachers, lawyers, doctors and business men were there accompanied by their wives, who took as much interest in the movement as the men."
The Woman's Health Protective Association, a small society of women, which had already done much good in its short period of existence, was quickly merged with the new movement. From the first the organization, which was founded on broad lines, seemed to appeal to the sound judgment and good will of men and women alike, and resulted in the formation of this independent agency that has had to meet unexpected demands and new opportunities with efficiency and foresight in order that the work of to-day may not have to be undone to-morrow.
The purpose of The Civic Club of Allegheny County has been verified by a few of the things it accomplished in its first fifteen years.
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CIVIC CLUB OF ALLEGHENY COUNTY
It initiated :
THE PLAYGROUND MOVEMENT IN PITTSBURGH AND ALLEGHENY.
THE WORK OF THE LEGAL AID SOCIETY OF PITTSBURGH.
THE PUBLIC OBSERVANCE OF ARBOR DAY.
THE FREE MEDICAL INSPECTION IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS.
It conducted :
The public campaign for PURE WATER.
A vigorous campaign for SMOKE PREVEN- TION.
It secured by municipal legislation :
THE MUNICIPAL HOSPITAL (erected above Grant Boulevard).
THE FIRST TUBERCULOSIS PAVILION (erected at Marshalsea).
THE TREE COMMISSION OF PITTS- BURGH.
It drafted and is responsible for :
THE TENEMENT HOUSE LAWS governing cities of the second class in PENNSYL- VANIA.
THE ANTI-EXPECTORATION ORDI- NANCES forbidding expectoration on the streets, in street cars and public places.
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CIVIC CLUB OF ALLEGHENY COUNTY
1
The law providing the ALLEGHENY COUNTY INDUSTRIAL AND TRAINING SCHOOL FOR BOYS (located at Thorn Hill, Mar- shall Township, on the Butler, Harmony & New Castle R. R.)
It organized :
THE ASSOCIATED CHARITIES OF PITTS- BURGH.
THE CHILD LABOR ASSOCIATION OF ALLEGHENY COUNTY.
THE JUVENILE COURT OF ALLEGHENY COUNTY, in conjunction with the Perma- nent Civic Committee of Women's Clubs.
It owns and operates two public bath houses :
THE PEOPLE'S BATHS, valued at.$ 71,000.00
THE SOHO BATHS, valued at ..... 120,000.00
These and many other progressive and preventive measures have been advanced by the Civic Club. Their accomplishment has been obtained by a devotion to the public welfare through an active and generous ser- vice-giving membership in whose faithful personal per- formance of the duties involved is found the answer to the Club's right to exist and to demand the earnest con- sideration of the citizens of Pittsburgh.
PRESIDENTS The first officers of the Club were appointed on the date of the meeting called to organize, to serve six months. Professor John A. Brashear acted as Chairman for this period. Hon.
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CIVIC CLUB OF ALLEGHENY COUNTY
Henry Kirke Porter was the first President and served from May, 1897 to December, 1899; Hon. William M. Kennedy, the second President, from December, 1899, to December, 1900; Mr. Edwin Z. Smith, the third Presi- dent, from December, 1900, to November, 1902; Miss Kate Cassatt McKnight, the fourth President, from No-
vember, 1902, until her death, August, 1907. Hon. William M. Kennedy, the first Vice President at the time of Miss McKnight's death, served as acting Presi- dent until the Annual Meeting in November, 1907, wh n he was elected fifth President of the Civic Club. Mr. Kennedy has been one of the officers or a director on the Board since the Civic Club's inception. That his loyalty to its work and aims has been unceasing through fifteen years is evidenced by the fact that on its anniversary in 1910, he was re-elected for the fifth time to serve as its President.
TREASURERS The office of Treasurer has been filled by five successive incumbents. Mr. John B. Jackson was appointed at the first meeting and served until May, 1897. From this date Mr. James R. Mellon served to October, 1898; Mr. T. H. B. Mc- Knight from October, 1898, to October, 1902; Mrs. Lil- lian Marshal Brown from October, 1902, to February, 1903. Mrs. William Thaw, Jr., was elected February; 1903, and with her re-election in 1910 for the eighth time continues faithfully to serve the Civic Club in this ex- acting and responsible capacity as its fifth treasurer.
SECRETARIES The office of Secretary has exper- ienced a greater number of changes.
During several periods an officer pro tem filled the gap between definite appointments. Mrs. Mary Biddle An-
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CIVIC CLUB OF ALLEGHENY COUNTY
derson, Secretary of the Educational Department, dur- ing an exceptionally busy period rendered valuable ser- vice in the first years of the Club's work. Mr. James O. Handy was the Club's first Secretary, followed by Mrs. Imogene B. Oakley, Mr. Curtis G. Hussey, Mrs. Susan Ewing Hays, Mrs. Herbert L. Stitt, Miss Mary Y. Wheeler, Mrs. Dallas Albert, Miss Hannah Patterson and Miss Helena Marie Dermitt.
DEPARTMENT OF The Chairmen of the Depart- GOVERNMENT
ments of Government have been Mr. E. Z. Smith, who served until 1898; Mr. Edwin L. Mattern, from 1899 to 1902; Mr. Charles B. Price, from 1902 to 1908. From this date the President has made the appointment of com- mittees under this department.
EDUCATIONAL DEPARTMENT The Educational Department has been most ably conducted by Mrs. David Kirk from October, 1895 to June, 1896; Miss Beulah Kennard from 1896 to Novem- ber, 1901. Following this date Mrs. George H. Wilson, Mrs. J. J. Covert and Miss Nannie Mackrell filled the office consecutively until Mrs. William Macrum took the chair in November, 1905. In January, 1907, owing to ill health, Mrs. Macrum resigned the office to Mrs. James L. Francis, who in turn directed the work of the department until January, 1909, when with her change of residence, Mrs. Macrum again resumed the office, and is at present its very efficient Chairman. By her good judgment, firmness and capable management Mrs. Macrum has rendered invaluable service through this Department.
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CIVIC CLUB OF ALLEGHENY COUNTY
SOCIAL SCIENCE The Social Science Department DEPARTMENT has been equally fortunate in its quota of Chairman. Dr. Frank LeMoyne was appointed with the organization of the Civic Club, and served until January, 1898. Mr. Robert D. McGonnigle, Mrs. F. F. Nicola and Miss Mary Lippin- cott presided in turn until 1902, when Mrs. Franklin P. Iams was appointed. Not only has Mrs. Iams been a directing executive in this department but as Chairman of the Legislative Committee has assisted every other department with its laws and ordinances. She has largely anticipated and actively followed the work of every committee in the Club as its First Vice President for the same number of years, and not only has given more liberally of her time and strength than the law allows, but has given to the city the benefit of her study and careful observation of existing conditions. Through countless interviews, intercessions and some interferences, where it has been necessary, she has been a potent factor in all movements that look toward the betterment of the city.
DEPARTMENT The Department of Art has been
OF ART served by four Chairmen; Mr. Frank S. Bissell, Mrs. William Thaw, Jr., Miss Ida Smith and Mr. John W. Beatty.
PURE WATER The opening year, in fact the first 1895 meeting of the Civic Club, held October, 1895, was auspicious through its presentation to the public of the necessity of a pure water supply for Pittsburgh. In 1893 several organizations had held a meeting for this purpose, but nothing more had been done until the Citizens League
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CIVIC CLUB OF ALLEGHENY COUNTY
of the Unitarian Church made a bacteriological test and public illustration of the possibility of sand filtra- tion. Mr. James O. Handy, a member of the League and Recording Secretary of the Civic Club at that time, was a leader in the movement, and following the erec- tion of a sand filter on the church property in Septem- ber, 1895, directed the Civic Club Board in an active campaign to bring the matter before the public. The October meeting was followed by a mass meeting in December of the same year and others in February and June of 1896, when various speakers described methods followed in other countries. Nothing of moment was done from this time until December, 1903, when the Butler epidemic prompted the Civic Club to petition Mayor Hays and the Councils to take more speedy remedial measures for furnishing a purer supply of water.
From this time, in each year through to 1906, public attention was called to this supremely important mat- ter. Petitions were sent to the medical societies and chemists, to Director Ridgeway and the Board of Health, urging them to take steps toward having the traction companies post signs in their cars to "boil the drinking water". These signs were also put on hy- drants and in conspicuous places. The Civic Club may fairly claim a large share of the success of this move- ment, which was taken up and ably forwarded by others. Following the appointment of a Water Filtration Com- mission and the appropriation of over four million dol- lars, the crystallization of the agitation came in the building of the Filtration Plant at Aspinwall.
1895
GARBAGE The passage of ordinances in Pittsburgh and Allegheny, January and February, 1895, regulating the disposal of garbage, was due to the efforts of the Woman's Health Protec-
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CIVIC CLUB OF ALLEGHENY COUNTY
tive Association. Immediately upon its assimilation with the Civic Club its endeavors were continued in the Social Science Department.
The desirability of placing cans or boxes in public places for the receipt of waste paper and the like was advocated and in 1896 and 1897 a number of cans were purchased and placed in the streets where the public and the school children could assist in keeping the streets clean.
The granting of the provision empowering the city to remove and dispose of the garbage was followed by a serious consideration of the city's facilities to per- form the obligation imposed upon the Bureau of Health. The Civic Club's agitation of this question directly re- sulted in the passage of ordinances in both cities grant- ing the contract for the regular collection of such waste, to private companies.
It was not intended at the time that this arrange- ment should be permanent, as even then it was deemed extravagant. The passage of the yearly contract ordi- nance, however, has held in abeyance the object sought in that time, viz .: the scientific and up-to-date method adopted in other cities through a municipal incineration plant. In 1908 the Civic Club heartily endorsed Dr. Edward's plans and recommendations for the removal and disposal of waste by the municipality. It earnestly hopes the necessary money may soon be available for the building of an incineration plant in accordance with the plans as authorized by the bond issue.
PLAYGROUNDS With the belief that one of the 1896 greatest responsibilities of this gen- eration is the laying of the founda- tion for future citizenship, comes the realization that to be a good citizen the child must learn to respect author- ity, to recognize the rights of others, and to observe the
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CIVIC CLUB OF ALLEGHENY COUNTY
principle of "playing fair" in matters of mutual depen- dence. Where are children to learn these principles of life if they do not start in the playground?
In 1896 the Civic Club came face to face with the fact that the streets of Pittsburgh afforded the only playground the children knew (especially in the crowded districts), and it resulted in the most important work undertaken by the Club during its initial year, the first step in what to-day is the largest and most far-reaching social influence in Greater Pittsburgh, namely, the opening of the first summer playgrounds in July 6, 1896, in the Forbes School under the Department of Educa- tion, Mrs. David Kirk, chairman, with Miss Beulah Kennard, Chairman of the Committee in charge. The cost of this first year's work was $125.00. In 1897 four school-yard playgrounds were conducted-the Forbes and Ralston in Pittsburgh and the 5th and 9th Wards in Allegheny, at a cost of $603.72. In 1898 there were seven school-yard playgrounds-Soho, Birmingham, O'Hara, High School, and the 1st, 3d, and 9th Wards in Allegheny, at a cost of $901.50. In 1899 there were nine school-yard playgrounds in Pittsburgh-the O'Hara, Ralston, Grant, Lincoln, Central High School, Birmingham, Monongahela, Morse and Humboldt, with one vacation school in the Franklin building, and three school-yard playgrounds in Allegheny-the 3d, 5th, and 9th Wards. For the first three years this work was supported entirely by the Civic Club through contribu- tions of its members and interested friends; for the fourth year, of the total expense of $1,982.42-$1,421.40 was appropriated by the Central Board of Education of Pittsburgh for the work in the Pittsburgh district. The balance, or $561.05, was paid out of the Civic Club treas- ury for the Allegheny Playgrounds.
The Civic Club having proved the summer schools a success and believing the time had come when they should be supported by city appropriation and become a permanent institution, directed the committee to take
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CIVIC CLUB OF ALLEGHENY COUNTY
steps toward more extended plans. In 1900 a joint com- mittee of women's clubs of Pittsburgh was asked to co- operate with it, and they took up the work most en- thusiastically, secured city appropriation and later be- came two separate organizations. The Allegheny divi- sion, under its capable President, Mrs. John W. Cow- ley, has become a success far beyond the dreams of the first committee. The Pittsburgh division remains under the continued leadership of Miss Kennard, the President, who, from the beginning of the movement in the Civic Club on through to this date has, by her keen sympathy for the social needs of the city, her personal service and untiring efforts, contributed most generously to the won- derful success of the playground movement in Pitts- burgh.
EXPECTORATION 1896 In this same year, 1896, the campaign against expectoration in the street cars was instituted. Through continued and eventually successful efforts, the committee induced the traction companies to put signs in their cars. As a result of petitions signed and presented to the councils of both cities asking for an ordinance forbidding expectoration in public places, ordinances were passed in 1896 in both Pittsburgh and Allegheny forbidding expectoration in street cars. This law which has been enforced with varying degrees of success was good as far as it went, and was especially valuable as an educative measure, helping to prepare the public for a much more rigid one. Several ordinances were presented and lost, but finally in July, 1906, one prepared and presented by the Social Science Depart- ment of the Civic Club passed the city councils and is now a law. A grateful acknowledgement is hereby ex- tended to Dr. E. R. Walters through whom the ordi- nance was introduced and passed.
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CIVIC CLUB OF ALLEGHENY COUNTY
While the Committee, under the Chairmanship of Mrs. W. W. Wishart, was painfully working this ordi- nance through the city legislative bodies, it was at the same time making efforts with the State legislature for the passage of a State law regulating this offensive and dangerous habit, and twice presented bills to that body ; one in 1903, which was passed, but vetoed by Governor Pennypacker, on the ground that it gave too much power to conductors; and another in 1905, which had to be re- vised so many times, to meet objections of various members, that the legislature finally adjourned before its passage was secured.
In 1907 the legislative committee used its influence for the passage of a comprehensive bill which became a law that year, which covers not only cities but boroughs, townships and all public conveyances, including railroad cars, etc.
The ordinance now in force in this city forbids ex- pectoration not only on the floors of public buildings and conveyances, but also on the sidewalks, and gives the police power to arrest all offenders, who are subject to fine and imprisonment. It also provides that the city shall keep at all times posted notices on the streets for- bidding the vile practice, and that all owners of public buildings and public vehicles shall at all times keep such notices conspicuously posted, failure to do which sub- jects them to fine. The Bureau of Health is charged with the enforcement of this law, the appropriation for the little blue and white street signs (which are monu- ments to the persistence of the Civic Club) being in- cluded in its budget. The street car company after sufficient pressure changed the paste-board signs which frequently slipped out of place, to metal ones. While the conditions have greatly improved, the education of the careless has been slow and up to this date the Civic Club calls the attention of the Department and street car company to the continued violations. The officers of both being apparently anxious to enforce the law, but
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CIVIC CLUB OF ALLEGHENY COUNTY
the police and conductors do not faithfully carry out the provisions as instructed.
MUNICIPAL The crying necessity for a municipal HOSPITAL isolation hospital for contagious dis- 1896 eases was another subject which, be- ginning with the year 1896, engaged the interest of the Social Science Department under Dr. Frank LeMoyne, and in conjunction with the local med- ical societies, the matter was thoroughly canvassed and earnestly pressed upon the attention of the municipal authorities. An appropriation through a bond issue was secured, and the experimental plans prepared by Dr. Thos. Turnbull of this Department were used as the starting point in carrying out this plan, and the Municipal Hospital above the Grant Boulevard is the visible result. 1
PEOPLES One of the most interesting experiments GARDENS tried in 1896 was what was known then 1896 as the "Pingree potato patch idea", with Mr. Frank S. Bissell as Chairman of the Committee in charge. Quite a sum of money was raised, 40 acres of land were secured and put into 120 garden plots throughout the city, to be cultivated by poor fam- ilies under expert supervision. Owing to an unusually wet and rainy summer, this experiment did not prove entirely successful, as many of the vegetables planted, rotted in the ground, so it was not tried the second year.
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