by Paul R. Spitzzeri
Continuing with our look at some of the early history of Children’s Hospital Los Angeles, which will soon be commemorating its 125th anniversary, having opened its modest doors with ten beds in 1902, we reach the early part of 1904 and some significant changes occurring to the fledgling institution.
The 16 January edition of the Los Angeles Express published photographs of two of the prominent directors of the hospital, Frances Wills and Louise Edgwick Brainard (often spelled Brainerd), both of whom were among the most prominent of elite women in the Angel City, as part of a brief discussion about the construction of a detention ward added next to the Bouton house.
Brainard (1862-1924) was a native of Dundee, Quebec, Canada near the border with New York State and married Edward R. Brainard, a Vermont native and Congregationalist minister, in 1884. Two years later, likely for the health reasons that drove so many to come to balmy greater Los Angeles, the couple migrated here and Edward took up the pastorate at the Park Congregational Church.
While Edward continued with his ministry, he also became a shrewd real estate investor and builder of houses and apartment buildings throughout the city. Louise, meanwhile, had her own real estate developments, but achieved her fame through her widespread social and civic connections and activities.
This included the founding of the Woman’s City Club, being a director of the powerful Friday Morning Club, her organization of the Big Sisters, serving as president of the Civil Service Commission and working as the head of the Women’s Department at the Bank of America. She was only a couple of months into the latter when she suffered a nervous breakdown, attributed to overwork, and died of pneumonia.
Madeline Frances (Fanny) Wills (1857-1940) was from Washington, Pennsylvania, southwest of Pittsburgh and her father was a successful attorney who moved the family (again, health reasons may have been the reason) to Los Angeles in 1884 and built an imposing residence on Fort Moore Hill, west of the Plaza. Among their neighbors were Harry Chandler of the Los Angeles Times and Mary H. Banning, another major figure in the establishment of the hospital.
Wills’ brother, William LeMoyne, became a prominent doctor and taught anatomy and surgical anatomy at the fledgling University of Southern California as well as establishing the crematory for Rosedale Cemetery (a grandfather, Francis Julius LeMoyne built America’s first crematory and was a noted abolitionist).
When Children’s Hospital was established Brainard and Wills were among the early leading figures, but the schism with Dr. Helen O. Anderson largely revolved around the effort by Frances and LeMoyne Wills to affiliate with the Los Angeles Medical College, which Anderson tried to stop. The resulting establishment of the hospital in the Bouton residence was under the leadership of Wills and Brainard and LeMoyne Wills was the chief surgeon for its first few years.
The Express article noted that,
Within two weeks the erection of a detention ward for the Children’s hospital will be begun. Women who are interested in this philanthropic institution are prominent in the social and club life of Los Angeles and in undertaking the enterprise they have had the full confidence of business men who assistance is need to insure its financial success.
It continued that Wills obtained the initial $1,000 for the institution fund and was vice-president, while Brainerd was president for the first three years of the organization, until the past September, and her business ability was cited as critical for the condition of the hospital association. The two were also called “inseparable” when it came to their work for the facility.
While the $3,500 for the construction of the ward was secured, the ongoing operating expenses of some $300 monthly required donations, though it was asserted that “the needs of sick and neglected little children appeal readily to popular sympathy and the hospital has been a favorite charity with society women ever since it was started.”
Doctors were also praised for giving their time and expertise, including LeMoyne (who, later in 1904, married Susan Glassell Patton, sister of Henry E. Huntington’s business partner George Smith Patton, whose son was the famous World War II general) “who has stood faithfully by the little sufferers, who have needed what the best medical skill could give.”
The Times of 22 April provided a brief summary of the Children’s Hospital Association’s annual report and it was noted that 59 children were under the care of the institution and that “many had been inmates for a long period, [being] sufferers from chronic diseases.” With just ten beds, it was noted that “the hospital is usually taxed to its limit,” but that the new ward was ready to be plastered “and will soon be in shape for use” and would add fifteen beds. Lastly, a benefit play at the recently-opened Mason Opera House, held on the 8th and 9th, netted $1,600.
The 15 July edition of the paper featured the latest matron, identified only as “Miss Pugh” and who was born in England and served in South Africa during the recent Boer War. The article continued that the new ward was about finished, though it stated that there would be room for twenty patients, so, presumably, five of those that were in the house would be moved to the detached facility. This was comprised of eight rooms, including a pair of private rooms along with “sanitary cement floors” as well as “all modern provision for combating disease in a scientific manner.”
One room was endowed by Rietta Glassell, wife of Andrew Glassell, Jr., with the couple being host of a 1903 fundraiser mention in the second part of this post. The space was dedicated to their daughter, Virginia, who died in 1900 at age 12 and, while a bed in her honor was already placed in the room, it was mentioned that a memorial window was to be added as well. The Glassell family were also closely tied to the Pattons mentioned above.
It was also reported that the hospital did not incur any debt in its expansion as it sold a lot owned the Association to the medical college with which LeMoyne Wills was affiliated and which was acquired thanks to the one of the fundraisers managed by Frances. Building material and labor was also largely donated, though, aside from the Glassell room, there was no furniture yet in the new ward.
As to the Bouton house, it was to mainly served as administrative quarters as well as a residence for nurses and caretakers, who’d been living in tents on the property. The operating room, funded by a patient of LeMoyne Wills, was also to remain in the dwelling, but it was planned to move the structure to the back of the large lot facing on Alpine Street to allow space for a projected maternity ward.
Beside the Glassell endowed room, there were several beds that were provided by others, including the Ackerson family and the Independent Church of Christ, the Terminal Island Tuesday Club and the Friday Morning Club. The piece concluded by noting that the facility was the only of its kind south of San Francisco and patients came from as far away as the Arizona Territory.
Less than two weeks later came the astounding news, as reported by the Los Angeles Express of 27 July that Elizabeth Kiehl Goodwin, widow of Leander C. Goodwin, a prominent merchant and banker and who died on the 24th, left a bequest that meant that “by the terms of the will . . . a worthy charitable institution will be placed in an excellent financial condition.” The hospital which “has been the silent witness of many a deed of goodness toward the helpless and innocent inmates,” but which “has struggled along doing charitable work in its own humble way” had been supported by Goodwin since its inception.
The paper continued that,
Under the will, which will be filed today, Mrs. Goodwin has left in trust for the benefit of the Children’s Hospital association, the building and ground now occupied by Robert A. Rowan on Broadway, between Fifth and Sixth streets, roughly estimated to be worth $100,000 . . . and the deed to the property was delivered this morning . . . by Mr. [Henry W.] O’Melveny, the attorney for the estate.
The Times of the following day elaborated on the bequest, noting that small sums from the proceeds of the sale of the property were to go to a benevolent society for women, the Protestant Orphan’s Home, and Good Samaritan Hospital, with the remainder, which the paper pegged at “probably rising [above] $80,000” was “to be used to build a fitting home to be named the ‘Elizabeth Goodwin Memorial’.” Any residual funds were to be applied to the furnishing and maintenance of the new hospital.
The Los Angeles Record of 11 August noted that, with the detention ward expected to be completed within several days, there was also a recent purchase of a lot next door that “is being improved and will ultimately be used as the site for a wing to the main building.” As to the Goodwin donation, said to be “several thousand dollars,” the paper observed that “this is of little use to the organization until it [the Broadway property] can be disposed of.”
In fact, Fanny Wills told the paper that,
People think because we have had that bequest of Broadway property that we are rolling in money and need no further help.
As a matter of fact, we need it as much as ever and more, because the number of child applicants to the hospital increases steadily and the property is of no immediate use . . .
[After discussing the new annex and the need for furniture] Los Angeles philanthropists are not as generous as they might be. They seem to be willing to furnish our rooms but they also have a tendency—some of them—to do it on the cheap order.
Doubtless there are numbers of men and women who would willingly assist us, did they know the need and the length of our application list.
The little children of Los Angeles, suffering and needy, must be cared for.
The Los Angeles Herald of 29 January 1905 reported on an opening reception for the remodeling of the Bouton house, commenting that “sorrow made way for joy, and pain was forestalled by pleasure” when the event was held. It was added that, for several months, laborers were transforming the “old structure . . . into a model hospital” and visitors were able to tour the results of their efforts.
The paper noted that the rooms were painted white and “beautifully decorated in blossoms of every hue sent in by members of the board.” A tea table was set up in the dining room with flowers sent by Ruth Wilson Patton, wife and mother of the George Pattons mentioned above and who was the daughter of San Gabriel Valley notable Benjamin D. Wilson, with these repurposed from a reception she held the prior day.
Aside from the dining room, the first floor of the converted residence were dedicated to a hall, reception room, butler’s pantry and kitchen, while “off from these is the operating room, the sterilizing room and the anthestising [anesthetizing] room,” all of which featured up-to-date apparatuses. The second floor had nurses’ quarters. The aforementioned annex was linked to the structure by a veranda leading to a courtyard in which there were to be flowers and a lawn, while “one end of the porch is enclosed in glass to form a glass room for convalescing patients.”
A visit to the annex, which also featured a roof garden “where the children can spend their time in the sunshine,” revealed “little children of all ages—many of them suffering from painful diseases,” though, while some “were tucked away in little white cots,” there were patients “playing on the floor with toys and blocks.” Each of the children had a bouquet as part of the event, provided by those women who were responsible for decorating for the reception.
A private room was dedicated to “Virgie” Glassell and the paper noted that “now there is to be a chance for many a young girl to be nursed back to life or to have her dying hours made brighter. The space was decorated in blue and white and Virginia’s name was embroidered on the linen, while the windows were enclosed by “a frame of transparencies” of photos taken by her mother, many showing the young girl and her pets. The Herald added that a young Latino boy, recovering from pneumonia and not an English speaker, was there “and but for the pictures, which keep him amused, he would be very unhappy.”
Another room next to this was the “Maria Louise [Holliday]” room, fitted out by over thirty friends, ranging from 6 to 16 years of age, of the 11-year old Los Angeles resident who died from diphtheria in April 1902. By holding a pair of fundraisers, her friends raised $600 and hoped eventually to come up with $5,000 to permanently endow the room.
Here, too, the linen was embroidered to remember her with her initials and bird’s eye-maple furniture was acquired, including a bed donated by a girl who inherited it from her grandmother but decided it was best for a needy child to have it Among the gifts received were a food carriage, linen, silver and china, a range, a laundry machine and a sewing machine.
We will return with part four tomorrow and carry the story forward, so check back with us then!