OCR Text |
Show Settlement House Observes Golden Jubilee of Founding Founder Remains As Lone Director For 50-year Span I ' 5 I ,4 To the people of Cleveland, Ohio, Hiram House is synonymous synony-mous with good citizenship. For the past 50 years, Hiram House and its founder, George A. Bellamy, have labored .to build for Cleveland the finest kind of citizens possible. Now the institution, which is supported sup-ported by the Community Chest, is celebrating the 50th anniversary of its founding. This year also marks I the golden anniversary of Bellamy's ; connection with the institution. He j has the distinction of being not only ; the founder but also the first and ! only director. Bellamy's philosophy was developed devel-oped in the backwoods of Michigan, where he was born. In bringing his ideas and ideals to one of the country's coun-try's larger cities he became the first of his family to pioneer in a large community. All previous moves by his family had been back to the land. : Founded in 1896. Cleveland's first settlement house founded as such grew out of a chance remark made in 1896 in a Hiram college classroom. Boston's South End House was under discussion dis-cussion and someone said, "Why not a Hiram House for Cleveland?" That "someone" was George Bellamy. Bel-lamy. A few months after his graduation he went to Cleveland and Hiram House and George Bellamy Bel-lamy have chalked up many "firsts" in their 50-year association. It was the first settlement in the world having hav-ing a year-round, lighted playground play-ground with trained workers; this settlement inaugurated summer camping for healthy children who had never seen a woods or a farm animal; it had among the first cooking, cook-ing, sewing and manual training classes in Cleveland; studies made by Hiram House workers resulted in public bath houses for the city and improved standards for its public dance halls. Aids Other Projects. Bellamy has become famous for his association with movements designed de-signed to make Cleveland a better place in which to live. He was one of the original committee which organized the Babies' dispensary and hospital; he helped organize the Juvenile court, the Legal Aid society, Citizens' bureau and Cleveland Cleve-land Community Chest, the first community fund in the world and since adopted by more than 800 American cities. Because of the early help he received from them, Bellamy always has cherished a deep af- fection for country people and small town churches. In his struggling early years at Hiram House, it was the little churches surrounding Cleveland whose pennies, nickels and dimes helped keep the city settlement houses going. The people in the small towns near his camp for well children at Chagrin Falls gave him his original opportunity op-portunity to introduce poor boys and girls from the city's streets to the joys of country living. When Hiram House was opened in 1896 Cleveland's population was 300,000. Today the city boasts a population of a million persons. Among that million are many thousands thou-sands whose lives were influenced during their early years by contact with Hiram House. These include some of Cleveland's outstanding business and professional men. More than 90,000 persons, in all, have been associated with Hiram House clubs and classes during the settlement's half century. Many of these persons made scores of visits to the house, annual registration running as high as 450.000 to 500.000. GOOD CITIZEN . . . Just out of college, George Bellamy founded Hiram Eouse in 1896. For half a century he has remained as the first and only director of the institution, in-stitution, known for its promotion of good citizenship in Cleveland. first day of operation. They came to learn how to be good Americans, for help in burying their dead, marrying mar-rying the living and counselling the wayward. Gradually, Hiram House began to build a reputation as a model settlement settle-ment house, its founder and director direc-tor a man with extraordinary vision. Foreign countries began to send their representatives to the Cleveland Cleve-land settlement to study its program. pro-gram. More than 200 scientists interested in-terested themselves in Bellamy's seven-point program for the growth and development of the child. When, in 1906, Hiram House opened "Progress City," a model community with its own boy judges, : - $ " v : 3 x ..." .ur"-r tr.::-.--r. .-.j M.-.vJ.v!lft !A-A..-jMj.v.-...vlrfMjoMCJ6&t iW c A 1 n " i tea I i V ' j IN A DAY'S WORK ... . A game of checkers provides diversion for "young fry" at Hiram House, Cleveland's settlement house. The program isn't all play, hoivever ... opened his first settlement house at 143 Orange street The fh-st few months were hectic. There was very little money; the first furniture and for a time the only furniture was a baby crib and table loaned by a neighbor; the purchase pur-chase of a quarter's worth of soap brought half a dozen metal spoons as a premium; within a few months the landlord gave notice to vacate because too many young people were coming com-ing to the house and he feared for its foundations. The struggling little settlement house was moved to another Orange street location, where it operated for two years. By 1899 there was enough money to start building a new structure. The move to the new quarters at 2723 Orange avenue was made in 1900. Teaches Americanism. Men, women and children came to Hiram House in droves from its . . . for children also are taught the rudiments of sewing and other oth-er household arts. As summertime summer-time comes, the serving basket is discarded when . . . policemen, engineers and mayor, various cities studied its program with the thought of incorporating its best ideas in their own planning. plan-ning. Two representatives of the President of Czechoslovakia later lived at Hiram House for months, studying "Progress City." A little model cottage was built on the sand dunes of Cairo, Egypt, patterned pat-terned after the model cottage at Hiram House. Japan, 20 years ago, studied Hiram House with the view of copying its best points. . . . the date arrives for the settlement's set-tlement's annual summer camp at Chagrin Falls. Here boys and .girls joyfully bid farewell to cohorts co-horts leaving in the first bus. |