by Paul R. Spitzzeri
Having covered some of the general Charity Account aspects of this report by City Auditor Lewis H. Schwaebe, we turn towards specific filings by a number of organizations assisted by the city through that account.
Nearly fifty organizations were listed as charitable ones within the city, including such examples of Jewish entities (benevolent societies run by men and women, and the Kaspare Cohn hospital); Roman Catholic associations (including the Brownson Settlement House, the president of which was Mary Julia Workman, daughter of the former mayor and current city treasurer, William H. Workman); the Hollenbeck Home for Aged People and the Los Angeles Orphans Asylum and School in Boyle Heights; the French Benevolent Society; the humane society and chapter of the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals; the Salvation Army; homes for working girls and boys; industrial schools; the Association of the Deaf; the Children’s Hospital; and several chapters of the Woman’s Relief Corps, auxiliary of the Grand Army of the Republic, the veterans organization of those fought for the Union during the Civil War.
Several of these provided reports, as well, including the Humane Society, which provided office space for the SPCA and which had income of $1,319 and expenses of $1,216.90, almost two thirds of the latter coming from salaries, while more than 80% of revenue came from the city. Under “Work Accomplished” were instances of complaints and investigations; cases in which the organizations were involved and relieved; fines collected ($100); and reprimands and warnings. The Humane Society officer added that he made six vagrancy arrests, of which four were handled in the city’s Police Court.
The Good Samaritan Mission reported lodging more than 52,000 persons with 27% provided this for free and the rest able to pay at least a nickel or more. Nearly 5,500 sick and convalescent destitute persons were cared for, mainly in a hospital, while there were free baths given to 18,250 persons. Employment was obtained for 327 persons. There was a slight deficit of $332, with income being mainly comprised, to the tune of 80%, from lodging, and small amounts from contributions (under $300), Thanksgiving gifts from churches and $600 from the city.
Expenses included almost a quarter for the manager’s salary and another 27% for other paid workers, while 16% involved insurance, taxes and interest payments. These rest involved food, incidentals, laundry, lights and the maintenance of a wagon and horse. Manager J.W. Johnson briefly noted that gospel services, baths with soap and towels and a reading room were provided free, while those being lodged had to be in the building by 7:30 p.m. and allowed to leave after 6 a.m., “thus taking them off the street.”
The Los Angeles Coffee Club ran locations for patrons to read, rest, and find amusement “from any harmful influence,” while a lunchroom offered meals and coffee “at a moderate price.” Operated mainly by Christian Endeavor organizations from various churches, the Club operated two stations, on Second and on Court streets, with magazines and newspapers, board games, restrooms, telephone and parcel service and other offerings. The Second Street location, just east of Main, also had a labor bureau as “many men are out of work and do not possess the means to secure a job from employment agencies.”
In addition to managers, about 25 men worked in the two locations and 485,000 meals were served. Income was about $39,000 and expenses were above $40,000, though it was added that equipment was valued at $3,300 for a net positive financial statement. The Court Street superintendent, O.D. Conrey, added that “the saloon’s biggest stock in trade is that it touches the social side of men and that is what the Coffee Club proposes to do it . . without the harmful after effects that come to a man who spends his idle time in a saloon.”
The Los Angeles Settlement Association gave its seventh report of the visiting nurse, noting that, for almost all of 1904, there were 855 cases and 4,403 visits, these including with eight city schools. The financial report showed a balance of some $300, with almost all of the expense being the nurse’s $75 monthly salary and income almost completely from city warrants.
The King’s Daughters ‘ Day Nursery was formed in 1895 by the Bethlehem Church (sometimes referred to as an Institute) to care for children of working mothers and, since then, the facility moved four times and, in its current location near today’s Union Station, had a dozen rooms and 40 wards under its care, aged one to nine years. There was a requirement that the children “shall be of honest parentage, be clean and obedient” and be vaccinated. While it was added that the nursery was non-sectarian and with “no race or creed being barred out,” the report went on to comment that “we have had colored children, but as there is now a Day Nursery connected with the colored church, at Ninth and Towne streets, “we now confine our labors to those of our own race.”
A charge of ten cents was made, with a noon meal and a “very light supper at night” because mothers working late could not feed their children until an unreasonable hour. The organization built a cottage at Manhattan Beach for $600 (imagine the value of such a place now!), but awaited funds for plumbing and other improvements. There was also an employment bureau for mothers, as well as sewing classes for children, a missionary’s band and a $6 dollar annual donation to foreign mission work. Particular attention was made to a donation of sand by a minister, so that the children reveled in playing in the pile. A surplus of $327 was reported with more than half of the expenses being for the matron and assistant’s salaries, and nursery fees comprising 38% of revenue, a donor giving $125, and the city paying $240 or about 20% of income.
The Ransom Industrial Home Association, located in Highland Park, was established in 1885 by the Social Purity League, including creating a home “for erring and penitent women” with the first home opened four years later and “the first inmate was a deserted wife.” Subsequently, the facility, in rented quarters, was operated by the regional chapter of the Women’s Christian Temperance Union and, in 1900, incorporated under its current name, Eleanor C. Ransom being an early active figure in the League. Its mission included providing shelter for “friendless women and children” and “to reclaim and save the erring among women and children, and to promote purity.”
The Highland Park home, of 20 rooms on 2 1/2 acres, was opened at the end of 1903 and was done so with a mortgage or debt, with much donation of labor by contractors as well as material provided by merchants at no cost. With eucalyptus trees for fuel and fruit trees and grapevines, as well as vegetables, for food, the facility also included a bakery, barn and poultry yard, cold storage room, laundry and a windmill to pump groundwater. Each dependent referred to by Associated Charities came with a $5 monthly payment, while the city provided $20 monthly until the most recent year, when that was increased to $30.
The report noted the number of adults and children, including deserted wives, widows, lone women, women under 22, those who were born and died at the home, those children adopted or returned, those who went out for employment, those who ran away, and those married. It was also noted that there was a free dispensary that was a companion of the medical college, with a monthly allowance of $100 for treatment, drugs and supplies.
Located today where Interstate 10 crosses through the south side of downtown, the Florence Home cared for 67 girls during the year, and had 20 there when 1904 ended and its superintendent, Margaret Bisbee provided its report. The president was the Rev. Phineas F. Bresee, who established the Church of the Nazarene in 1895, while lawyer James H. Blanchard, who opened an office in the Temple Block in 1872 and was still there in 1904, was the secretary. Among the directors was Judge Curtis Wilbur, who was very involved in child and juvenile welfare causes.
Bisbee noted that “there is no class exempt” and “we have had the daughters of wealthy and also of religious homes” at the facility, along with those “brought up in abject poverty and paganism.” Moreover, she went on, “we have had surprising beauties and astonishing ugliness; and real, sweet, mild goodness, and a few girls as bad as ever crossed the threshold of the jail.” All, she averred, were treated the same and exposed to religious teachings with the goal of establishing the “New Creature.”
There was a separate children’s home near Echo Park with 49 children at the start of the year, 30 born there, 10 left as foundlings and 8 boarders, while 48 were discharged before 1904 closed, leaving the same number as who began there at the onset of the year. Bisbee reported that the home was established in 1902, with a bequest of $2,500 left to the organization to pay off the mortgage and make improvements, and added that it was harder to find homes for boys than girls, though the former “are lovely children.” The matron concluded, “we trust that the citizenship of Los Angeles will be improved in a few years, when the present inmates of the Christian Orphanage shall take their places among men.”
Income for 1904 was about $11,500 with 37% coming from the state and 23% from bequests, while a loan made up another 17%. City support, fees, and a children’s board distribution covered most of the rest of the revenue. Loans paid comprised about a quarter of expenses, as did food, while 16% went to salaries and another 12% to improvements and repairs. The remainder of expenditures included fuel and light, clothing, furniture, taxes, drugs, transportation costs, sundries and others.
Finally, there was a brief annual statement by the Salvation Army’s Truelove Home in what was then called East Los Angeles, later renamed Lincoln Heights. Matron Emma F. Bailey reported income of more than $2,500, of which 43% was donations, 14% came from the city and about the same as the latter were from Army funds and the sale of items made by the girls resident at the facility. 80% of the expenses comprised household expenses, with the salaries of five staff only involving some $250, the rest being for gas for cooking, the telephone, and electric lights.
Bailey reported that there were 14 women and 26 children in the home at the start of 1904, with 32 of the former and 16 of the latter coming to it in the course of the year, while 25 and 30, respectively, left and two infants died, so the remaining numbers were 21 women and 10 children as 1905 began.
These reports from some of the fifty organizations identified by Associated Charities as providing important work to underserved people in the Angel City are interesting to see both on their faces, but also as indicators of the scale and the purpose of charitable work at a time very different from our own. Next, we’ll turn to further statements from the city clerk, board of education, Civil Service Commission and city engineer as part of this report, so join us for that.