History of the East Boston Social Centers: the Intertwining of a Neighborhood with an Organization for the Community

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When All Give, All Gain

History of the East Boston Social Centers: The Intertwining of a Neighborhood with an Organization for the Community

1918 ~ 2018

Photograph of young women from East Boston Social Centers holding sign. Circa 1950s. From the archives of East Boston Social Centers, 68 Central Square, East Boston, MA

The History of the East Boston Social Centers: The Intertwining of a Neighborhood and an Organization for the Community

1918 ~ 2018

by Kyle Ingrid Johnson

Photograph of children outside the Central Square Center. Circa 1940s. From the archives of East Boston Social Centers, 68 Central Square, East Boston, MA. Photographer unknown

Introduction

East Boston is a fascinating place. I thought I knew it fairly well until I embarked on researching the neighborhood in preparation for a history study of the East Boston Social Centers. Immediately, I realized I knew nothing at all. There was so much to learn, to consider, and to absorb.

The East Boston Social Centers turn 100 years old this year, 2018, but in many ways their history goes back much further in one form or another, to the late 1700s. What I thought would be a six-month study and perhaps a manuscript of 50 pages, turned out to be a one-year project with over 200 pages of text and photographs.

It has been a very special privilege to be allowed to wander through the papers in the archives held at the Social Centers. Along the way, I have lived through the Great Depression, World War II, the placid 50s, and the turbulent 60s. I have “seen” East Boston in each of the ten decades of its 100 years, and, in turn, I have seen how the East Boston Social Centers and the predecessor agencies, Good Will House Association and Trinity House, changed and evolved to meet the needs of the people of East Boston over time.

There might not be any East Boston Social Centers if it were not for the Hyams family. I became quite interested in Isabel and Sarah Hyams - their vision, their concerns, and the focus of their benevolence. The man they recruited to carry out their dream was S. Max Nelson. If his name appears in this manuscript more often than that of other directors of the organization, it is only because the archives hold more of his thoughts and papers. He was the founding director, under the guidance of the Hyams’ sisters’ wishes, and he took his work seriously. He and his wife, Irene, were interested not only in offering programs but in empowering men and women, encouraging volunteerism, and developing leaders. He was influenced strongly by great thinkers in the settlement-house movement as well as the emerging field of social work.

When one reads through this manuscript, omissions may be found. I did not grow up in East Boston and do not have the personal, up-close window on the community that gives local residents an advantage. I have read and studied and tried to connect dots in order to make this an accessible history of how the East Boston Social Centers came to be. If I have left out an important event or an important person, it is only because I did not encounter that event or person in

the archives. This manuscript has been built largely on what the agency saved and preserved, but I did use books and online sources to supplement what I had learned.

During this 100th birthday year, the Social Centers will be interviewing staff and participants who will bring their own, personal memories to the celebration. Some of the information I found in the archives will, to some, seem simply unbelievable. But then again, that is what history is for, to reveal the hidden. In the end, I think most people will find the development of the Social Centers to be as interesting as I have. There is so much to write about, and since I cannot fit it all into this one manuscript, much of the history of the Centers will have to come alive through those who hold the memories.

One observation with which I am impressed is how the Social Centers were able to change with the times. Each decade brought a new dilemma, and the Social Centers always stepped up. Many of the problems that were faced in 1918 are still being faced in 2018. Approaches to solving these problems may be different, but in the end, we learn that life goes in cycles, repetition is a given, and one thing we can be guaranteed of is that life in communities will always have challenges. We will always need safety nets such as the East Boston Social Centers, and it behooves us to encourage people to study and take on careers in nonprofits. They, like the East Boston Social Centers, will always be needed.

Kyle Ingrid Johnson Boston, MA June 2018

East Boston History

Long before the East Boston Social Centers operated out of a 1960s-era brick building on the corner of Central Square and Liverpool Street and long before there were tunnels connecting vehicles and subway trains to downtown Boston, there was a pastoral setting featuring five unique islands: Apple, Bird, Governor’s, Hog, and Noddle’s. They were East Boston. There was not yet any maritime industry, immigrants from far corners of the globe had not yet arrived, and all was quiet in the area now known as East Boston when the first European settler, Samuel Maverick, decided to settle there in 1633.1

Samuel Maverick was a planter and perhaps a fisherman. It is not known exactly how he arrived in what is now East Boston, but it has been surmised that he arrived on a fishing boat, perhaps one coming north from the new colonies at Plymouth, MA. He found something he liked, and he stayed, creating a sustainable agricultural project on Noddle’s Island. At this time, there were only a few farmers working the land of East Boston’s islands. For 200 years, the five islands were primarily under private ownership and used for grazing livestock or growing crops. On Noddle’s and Governor’s Island, there were some British-built military fortifications dating from the Revolutionary War.2

1 Boston College. Global Boston. “East Boston.” https://globalboston.bc.edu/index.php/home/immigrant- places/east-boston (accessed February 6, 2018). 2 “Harbor Defenses of Boston.” Wikipedia. www.wikipedia.org (accessed February 6, 2018). 6

Map of the islands comprising East Boston, 1775. From: https://www.ioc.gov/maps/?fa=location%3Aboston&st=slideshow (accessed April 7, 2018).

East Boston must have been a peaceful place for the two centuries between Samuel Maverick’s arrival and when William Sumner’s enterprise, the East Boston Trade Company, started to fill in the swamps in 1833. Progress came rapidly after that with a railroad freight terminal and the building of ship wharves. What is today’s residential and commercial East Boston is the former Noddle’s Island which presently holds Jeffries Point, Central Square, Maverick Square, and Eagle Hill. The other large island, Hog (also known as Breed’s Island), holds current-day Orient Heights. They are, of course, joined, as are all five of the original islands. Landfill enabled islands to become extended land; the three smaller ones – Governor’s, Apple, and Bird – today hold the site of Logan International Airport.3

3 Howe, Jeffrey. “Boston: History of the Landfills.” Boston College. www.bc.edu/bc_org/avp/cas/fnart/fa267/bos_fill3.html (accessed February 7, 2018). 7

East Boston soon became known as an active and important shipbuilding hub. A current-day walk through the Maverick Square MBTA station shows a wall of history celebrating famous maritime achievements from the neighborhood. Donald McKay, originally from Nova Scotia, Canada, is the most well-known ship builder of East Boston; he started a shipyard in 1845 on Border Street. Although there were eventually many shipyards and shipbuilders, the McKay name drew talented employees from all over, particularly the Maritime Provinces of Canada.4

East Boston wharves in the early days. From: http://www.celebrateboston.com/biography/donald- mckay.htm (accessed February 28, 2018).

4 “Donald McKay.” www.maritimeheritage.org/vips/Donald-McKay/ (accessed February 8, 2018). 8

In 1853, McKay built the Grand Republic which, at 4556 tons, was the largest merchantman in the world at the time. Later, his Flying Cloud (built in 1852) breezed from New York to San Francisco in just 89 days, breaking the record of the Great Republic. His other famous clipper ship was Sovereign of the Seas which also broke sailing records. The last boat he constructed was the U.S. Sloop-of-War in 1874.5

Donald McKay, famous East Boston shipbuilder. From: Wikipedia.org through http://www.celebrateboston.com/biography/donald-mckay.htm (accessed February 28, 2018).

Today, a memorial to McKay can be found in Piers Park on Marginal Street. His former residence, a Greek Revival-style house located in the Eagle Hill neighborhood at 78-80 White Street is on the National Register of Historic Places.6

McKay wasn’t the only active shipbuilder in East Boston. During a twenty- seven-year period from 1831 to 1858, 229 vessels were recorded as having been

5 Ibid. 6 “Donald McKay House.” National Register of Historic Places. https://www.nps.gov/nr/ (accessed February 10, 2018). 9

built there. These were the classic sailing ships of their time, taking cargo both near and far. It is possible to peruse a list of ship names and try to picture what it would have been like to see the playful “Frolic” (1843), the flirtatious “Coquette” (1844) or the brave “Fearless” (1853) sail out of port. East Boston residents must have been amused by some of the ship names: “Santa Claus” (1854), “Wide Awake,” (1857) or “Quickstep (1855). There was a “Sappho” (1844) and an “Odd Fellow” (1846), and one wonders if there were superstitious seamen not wanting to sign on to hoist the sails of the “Hazard” (1849).7

The interior history display within Maverick MBTA station also honors Mary Patten, a fascinating and fearless maritime heroine from a well-off family in East Boston. She married a sea captain, Joshua Patten, in 1853 when she was 16 years old and he was 25. Newly married and hesitant about leaving his wife behind, Captain Patten took Mary on a voyage to San Francisco in 1854. She found it interesting enough to pay attention and learn a bit about navigation. Her lively mind and alertness to her surroundings came in handy in 1856 when, again on a voyage with her husband (and this time, pregnant), she had to navigate the ship when the Captain fell ill. It took 130 days for the ship to reach San Francisco, but when it arrived, her husband, although sick, was alive; Mary’s pregnancy had proceeded without undue complications; the ship’s cargo was safe, and 19-year- old Mary was a celebrity in newspapers across the country. What should have been the beginning of a wonderful chapter in the couple’s life turned sour, however, when the Captain died of what was thought to be tuberculosis, shortly thereafter. Mary gave birth to a son, but was dead by the age of 24, probably from the same disease. Sadly, the stories of tuberculosis and death permeate East Boston’s history as it did many other areas of the country and the world for decades.8

Famous folk from the maritime industries were not the only well-known East Bostonians. In her book Legendary Locals of East Boston, East Boston native, Dr. Regina Marchi, now of Rutgers University, highlights many interesting people who called East Boston home. Some among them: Judith Winsor Smith, well-

7 Sumner, William H. “A History of East Boston: with biographical sketches of its proprietors, and an appendix.” (Boston: J.E. Tilton and Company, 161 Washington Street, 1858), 696-699. 8 “Mary Patten.” New England Historical Society. www.newenglandhistoricalsociety.com/massachusetts/MaryPatten (accessed February 11, 2018). 10

known suffragette, abolitionist, and activist, and Armeda Gibbs, the first Civil War nurse for the Union side. John Fitzgerald Kennedy’s paternal grandparents as well as his father were born in East Boston.9 Sports fans revere the name of Tony Conigliaro, the neighborhood’s contribution to baseball. At age 20, in 1965, he led the American League in homeruns.10

East Boston is also the home of many important “firsts.” It was home to the first branch library which was built in 1870.11 The first Jewish cemetery in Massachusetts opened in 1844 on Wordsworth Street.12 Jeffries Point Yacht Club, incorporated in 1879, was the first chartered yacht club on the East Coast.13 The first major horse racing track in New England opened in 1935; that was Suffolk Downs.14 Contemporary times have brought more modern firsts such as Logan Airport’s new Terminal A which became the United States’ first LEED- certified airport building. The solar trees atop it are capable of providing 2.5% of the energy consumption at the terminal.15

The community of East Boston even had a brief stint as a vacation resort. People wanted to escape the stifling summer heat of the inner city, and in the mid-1830s, East Boston was seen as fresh-aired countryside. As a result, the 80- room Maverick House Hotel in Maverick Square opened in 1835. Although its main use was serving travelers moving between ships and trains, it was also considered a destination for vacationers.16

Frederick Law Olmsted, creator of Boston’s famous “Emerald Necklace,” used his architectural landscape talents to design the 46-acre Wood Island Park in 1895. This unique playground featuring a grandstand, open-air gyms, running tracks, and a bath house was eaten up by the expansion of Logan Airport in 1966.17

9 Marchi. Regina. “Lengendary Locals of East Boston.” (Charlestown, S.C.: Arcadia Publishing, 2015) https://books.google.cm/books?isbn=1439652406 (accessed February 17, 2018). 10 “The 50 Greatest Sports Figures from Massachusetts.” Sports Illustrated. https://www.si.com/vault/1999/12/. . ./the 50-greatest-sports-figures-from-massachusetts (accessed: February 12, 2018) 11 “East Boston.” City of Boston. https://www.boston.gov/neighborhood/east-boston (accessed February 13, 2018). 12 “East Boston.” www.mysticriverjews.jcam.org/Pages/EastBoston/index.htm (accessed February 12, 2018). 13 “East Boston.” City of Boston. Ibid. 14 “East Boston.” City of Boston, Ibid. 15 “Boston History.” www.explorebostonhistory.org/items/show/25 (accessed February 20, 2018). 16 “East Boston.” City of Boston. Ibid. 17 “East Boston.” City of Boston. Ibid. 11

The airport, an important and sometimes troubling part of East Boston history, has long offered jobs on the ground and noise in the air for the residents of East Boston. The complicated history of the airport and its relationship with area residents is lengthy and ever changing. But it was not only the airport that divided and challenged the community. East Boston, by its mere geographic location, was always somewhat cut off from Boston proper. In the early days, ferry boats traveled back and forth across the harbor to offer East Boston residents access to employment, shopping, and cultural pursuits. Around 1904, the first underwater subway tunnel in North America was opened under Boston Harbor,18 and today, well over 100 years later, the Blue Line moves thousands of people back and forth between East Boston and downtown in the original tunnel.

Submarine Tunnel connecting East Boston to Atlantic Avenue in downtown Boston, 1903. From: Historic Boston, Figure 7. historicboston.org/wp-content/uploads/Casebook-East-Boston-District.pdf

18 “MBTA Blue Line.” https://en.wikipedia.org/logan-airport/about-logan (accessed: March 2, 2018). 12

More disruption came to East Boston with the building of auto tunnels under the harbor, first the Sumner Tunnel in 1934 followed by the Callahan in 1961. The famous “Big Dig” created a third harbor tunnel to accommodate even more traffic and was opened in 1995. With each project, something or someone in East Boston was displaced. Public works projects created for the better good of Boston-area residents were not always to the better good of East Boston, although transportation to and from the area was vastly improved. 19

The ferry, “Noddle Island,” East Boston, MA. 1911. Black and white photograph. Historic New England. General marine photographic collection. GUSN-189793. www.historicnewengland.org (accessed April 14, 2018).

19 “East Boston.” City of Boston. Ibid. 13

Today, very little remains of East Boston’s maritime industry, although with an airport taking up over 1,700 acres of its neighborhood,20 East Boston is certainly a hub of transportation. In modern times, people come and go by air and not by sea. The community itself has changed too. What was once a neighborhood of single family and small multi-family homes is changing, as most areas of Boston are, into streets filled with apartments, condominiums, and as of late – fashionable architecturally designed lofts with waterfront views. But over its history, East Boston has proven to be a neighborhood with the ability to adjust, accept, and improve. The people who live within its buildings are the community, and they are resilient, adaptable, and continue to show that East Boston is a strong and lasting community, a great place to grow up, live, work, and age.

Immigration – How East Boston Grew

Primarily due to its location and not being attached to Boston proper, as well as being geographically divided into five separate islands, East Boston didn’t grow as fast as other communities in the area. As has been discovered, the first two-hundred years (mid 1600s to mid 1800s) were quiet and agriculture. The massive landfill projects of the mid- 1800s that led to better transportation (railroads and wharves) also introduced a wealth of newcomers to this easterly Boston neighborhood.

Thanks to an in-depth study of immigration patterns in East Boston done by Boston College (BC), a great deal of information is available regarding who arrived in the community and when. The BC study is quite comprehensive and also researched where immigrants worked, the type of churches they attended, as well as what parts of Boston or other towns they moved to once they decided to leave East Boston.

20 “About Logan.” Massport. www.massport.com/logan-airport/about-logan/ (accessed February 19, 2018). 14

The first large surge of immigrants arrived in the 1840s, mainly from the Maritime Provinces of Canada with Nova Scotia leading the way. Many of these individuals were headed for work in East Boston’s infant shipbuilding industry. Good talent was to be found in the Provinces and influential entrepreneurs such as Donald McKay, shipbuilder, knew where to find his help. The emigration from Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and Prince Edward Island lasted from the 1840s through the early 1930s. Many were displaced fishermen or loggers. At first, single men came to work, and later whole families arrived. A large percentage of those from the Maritime Provinces settled in Massachusetts (57% of all Nova Scotian immigrants in 1880); of those around 20% chose Boston and the Boston neighborhoods, East Boston being one of them. The Canadian immigrants were from different backgrounds (English, Irish, Scottish) and followed different religious practices. In East Boston, Nova Scotian Presbyterians, Scottish Protestants from New Brunswick, and Irish Catholics, also from New Brunswick could be found. This led to the forming of different churches.21

The largest immigrant group in East Boston from the 1830s until the start of the 20th century was the Irish. There were Irish in East Boston before the Potato Famine of the 1840s. Saratoga Street welcomed the birth of the first child of Irish-born parents in November of 1833. After the Potato Famine, the Irish population grew; the 1855 census showed 23% of East Boston’s population being Irish born.

The Irish came from all over Ireland, although a sampling done showed the largest numbers coming from Counties Galway, Mayo, and Cork. Some immigrated directly to East Boston via steerage on ships; they sailed in and stayed. Others went first to Canada (primarily Nova Scotia) and headed to Boston from there.

In the beginning, the Irish settled in and around the following streets: Everett, Marginal, Porter, and Sumner. By 1910, although there were still quite a few Irish on those streets, Lexington and Bennington Streets also hosted the immigrant community, and they were attracted to the area around the Most Holy Redeemer Catholic Church. Eagle Hill soon began to beckon to the Irish as well. Irish who were better off financially tended to group in the area around Jeffries Point and to the north of Neptune Road. Moore Street was considered highly desirable, and successful Irish attended St. Mary Star of the Sea church.

21 “Canadians.” Global Boston. Boston College. https://globalboston.bc.edu/index.php/home/ethnic- groups/Canadians (accessed: February 23 2018). 15

Most arriving Irish worked as laborers, and there was plenty of work as the city was growing. The second largest group of Irish immigrant workers served as transporters of goods, done then by horse and cart. In the early 1900s, there began a slow exodus of the Irish out of East Boston to the North Shore or to neighborhoods in the inner city: South Boston, Dorchester, and Roxbury.22

Famous local, William Sumner (the future auto tunnel was named after him) worked closely with Samuel Cunard in the 1840s to make East Boston the terminus of Cunard Line US-bound ships. Not only did the ships provide transportation between the States and Europe, but they also delivered many new Americans to our shores.23

Cunard Wharf, East Boston. www.cunardtavern.com (accessed May 7, 2018)

22 “Irish in East Boston.” Global Boston. Boston College. https://globalboston.bc.edu/index.php/home/...east- boston/irish-in-east-boston/ 23 “East Boston.” City of Boston. Ibid. 16

The largest numbers of Russian and Eastern European Jews came in the 1890s, but there was a strong Jewish presence in Boston proper earlier in that century as evidenced by Congregation Ohabei Shalom which purchased land on Wordsworth Street in East Boston in 1844 so Jews from the surrounding towns and cities could be put to rest in a cemetery of their own. The chapel at that site today, built in 1903, now has plans to create a permanent exhibit showing the history of immigration to East Boston and highlighting the Jewish experience.

The first synagogue in East Boston, 1893, was Congregation Ohel Jacob, and by 1913 there were five synagogues in the community. East Boston’s Jewish population declined after WWII. This may be attributed to the popularity of the GI Bill which allowed veterans and their families to move and buy in other neighborhoods. Roxbury and Dorchester were common choices for inner-city moves, and eventually many East Boston Jewish families chose to move to nearby cities, Brookline and Newton being the most popular.24

24 East Boston.” www.mysticriverjews.jcam.org/Pages/EastBoston/index.htm (accessed February 12, 2018).

Ohel Jacob in 1898, East Boston’s oldest and largest synagogue, located on the corner of Paris and Gove Streets. From: Jewish Heritage Center at the New England Historic Genealogical Society. Available from: www.globalboston.bc.edu (accessed March 11, 2018)

Around 1875 East Boston was considered to be a largely Irish neighborhood, but from 1895 on, Italians arrived either directly from Italy or by moving over from the extremely crowded North End of Boston. In 1920, 25% of all Italians living in Boston resided in East Boston.

The average Italian household in East Boston in the early 1900s held approximately 12 individuals. This could have been workers sharing housing or families with many children. The most likely areas in East Boston for new Italian arrivals to settle were Maverick Square or Jeffries Point with the following streets being very popular: Cottage, Decatur, Havre, and Sumner. The second largest area where Italian immigrants could be found was Orient Heights with a smaller cluster near Day Square. 18

Most Italians came to East Boston from southern Italy such as Calabria and Sicily with smaller numbers from northern locations such as Liguria and Abruzzi. Like the Irish, the arriving Italians were willing to take almost any kind of work available. Only 10% worked in jobs that did not involve any kind of manual labor.

Despite both groups being Catholic, the Irish and the Italians celebrated their religion differently. This led to separate churches, the first Catholic church for Italians being St. Lazarus at 121 Leyden Street, circa 1892. Its replacement was built on Ashley Street as the congregation grew.

By the 1980s, the Italian population of East Boston was visibly declining with many moving to nearby cities to the north: Everett, Revere, Saugus, and Winthrop. 2015 statistics show less than 15% of East Boston residents identifying as Italian-American while 3% were born in Italy. Still, one can hear Italian spoken in East Boston today, and there are ample restaurants serving good Italian cuisine.25

For many people, a key symbol of immigration in East Boston is The East Boston Immigration Center. Essentially used as a detention center, the Immigration Station was first opened in 1920 and was used until 1954. Held there were immigrants without proper paperwork or those whose health was thought to be questionable. In most cases, the detained individuals eventually were allowed legal entrance to the U.S.

25 “Italians in East Boston.” Global Boston. Boston College. https://globalboston.bc.edu/index.php/.../immigrant.../east-boston/italians-in-east-boston (accessed February 24, 2018). 19

The East Boston Immigration Center and Station, in use 1920-1954. Black and white photograph. Available from: www.bostonlookingbackward.wordpress.com (accessed May 10, 2018).

The building at 287 Marginal Street was beside the harbor so immigrants failing on-board inspections were sent to the close-by Immigration Station. It is thought that 10% of the approximately 231,000 immigrants arriving in East Boston between 1920-1954 were sent to the station.

The Immigration Station held dormitories for men and women, detention areas, and rooms for dining and recreation. The Public Health Services had offices and exam rooms on the premises and, of course, Immigration had its share of office and processing space.26

February of 2012 saw publication of a short book: The East Boston Immigration Station: A History published by MassPort. The book includes photographs and interviews of those familiar with the site as well as a more comprehensive history of why it opened and why it closed.

Immigration reshaped the East Boston neighborhood again in the 1980s with the arrival of individuals and families from Central and South America as well as

26 “The East Boston Immigration Station.” Massport. www.massport.com/massport/community/...the-east- boston-immigration-station/ (accessed February 27, 2018). 20

from Southeast Asia. Today, Spanish is heard on the streets and in the stores more often than Italian, and the neighborhood holds a mind-boggling array of Central American restaurants offering good and inexpensive cuisine.

Civil war broke out in El Salvador in the 1980s causing many Salvadorans to flee. Those arriving in East Boston were, like all immigrants before them no matter from what country, willing to work hard. Their labor and their foresight combined to give them a lift during the real-estate slump in East Boston. Many Salvadorans bought homes and businesses. Some became landlords. Property values grew. A local real-estate broker, Carlos Suarez, interviewed in the 2000s, declared: “[Salvadorans] are the major force of change in East Boston.”27

But like the many immigrant groups that preceded them, the new East Boston residents had to get their start by taking mostly entry-level jobs, competing for scarce housing, thinking of ways to be entrepreneurial and serve their fellow immigrants, and join together to keep East Boston the lively and family-friendly neighborhood it has been for a well over a century and a half. The languages may change in the community, the food on offer in the markets and restaurants may look different, but each group of immigrants brings life to the neighborhood. No one can deny that East Boston is very much alive and thriving.

Settlement House History

There would be no East Boston Social Centers today if there had never been a settlement-house movement. The organization might exist and offer some of the same programs it does now, but the fact it does so by growing with and through the settlement-house movement changes its history quite a bit.

The term “settlement house” is used rarely today. Most settlement houses changed their names over time, evolving into Community Centers, Neighborhood Houses, and, in the case of East Boston, Social Centers. This shouldn’t be surprising when we look at how often utility companies change their names; rebranding seems to be a necessity in today’s world. The National Federation of

27 “East Boston & El Salvador.” Emerson College. www.journalism.emerson.edu/jr610/spring03/cit/eastboston/elsalvador.html (accessed February 28, 2018). 21

Settlements, promoting the settlement-house movement since 1911, changed its name in 1979 to the United Neighborhood Centers of America.28 Thirty-four years later, the United Neighborhood Centers of America merged with the Alliance for Children and Families.29

But why did settlement houses change their names and, while doing so, basically dismiss the term “settlement house” from the average community member’s vocabulary? It could be because the term conjured up poverty, tenements, tuberculosis, immigrants recently arrived from the steerage of ships, poor diets, low-education levels, and confusion or naïveté at living in a new country. Yes, all of those came into play with those to whom the early settlement houses reached out. As times and living conditions improved, settlement-house participants still wanted to be part of what they had come to rely on, but no longer newly arrived, poor, uneducated or sickly, they wanted the organization they used to better reflect their new and improved circumstances.

Settlement houses also merged with one another and sometimes changed their name to something new rather than to choose one of the parent organizations over the other.

Exactly what is a settlement house? The movement started in England with the founding of Toynbee Hall in 1884, East London, The Vicar who founded Toynbee had an idea to bring university men into poor neighborhoods to help the residents live stronger, better lives while, at the same time, giving the students a real-life experience by living in the “slums.”

Toynbee Hall liked to describe itself as “an association of persons, with different opinions and different tastes; its unity is that of variety; its methods are spiritual rather than conversion; and its trust is in friends rather than in organization.” Researchers have found that “Toynbee Hall offered something new: In place of old-fashioned modes of relief to the poor, it provided mutual engagement across class lines and a broad education for working men and women . . .Toynbee Hall emphasized the importance of art and culture.”

Americans visiting Toynbee Hall were impressed. They studied the set-up and took home with them to the States ideas on how to offer something similar. In

28 “National Federation of Settlements.” Social Welfare Library. Virginia Commonwealth University. https://socialwelfare.library.vcu.edu/...national-federation-of-settlements-and-neighborhood-houses/ (accessed March 1, 2018). 29 “United Neighborhood Centers of America to Merge.” October 21, 2013. Chronicle of Social Change. https://chronicleofsocialchange.org/…united-neighborhood-centers-of-america-to-merge (accessed March 1, 2018). 22

quite a short time, by 1897, 74 settlement houses existed in the U.S. By 1910 there were over 400. Large cities were the logical place for such organizations and 40% of them were in Boston, Chicago, and New York. The first settlement house in the U.S. was the famous Hull House in Chicago, started by Jane Addams (sometimes referred to as the “mother” of the social-work movement) and her college friend, Ellen Gates Starr.30

What is interesting is that in the U.S., women were often the organizers of settlement houses or, at the very least, served on a team with male counterparts. This was probably not surprising as settlement houses emerged during a time when the fight for women’s suffrage was strong, and the relatively new field of social work was developing rapidly.

Although some were skeptical or resentful of women doing meaningful work, the well-known Jacob Riis, chronicler of poverty and exposer of the dangers of tenement-house living (also author of the famous book How the Other Half Lives: Studies Among the Tenements of New York), once said: “They have good sense in Chicago. Jane Addams is there.”31

30 Hansan, J. E. (2011) Settlement Houses; an introduction. Social Welfare History Project. http;//socialwelfare.library.vcu/settlement-houses/settlement-houses/ (accessed March 1. 2018). 31 Elshtain, Jean Bethke. Jane Addams and the Dream of American Democracy. New York: Perseus Books: 2002, 19. 23

Cover of one of the most famous books written about tenement life as well as the lives of immigrants. Photograph from: www.amazon.com (accessed March 30, 2018)

While settlement houses in England were concerned with helping the poor, settlement-house workers in the States found that in choosing to locate in inner- city neighborhoods filled with tenements, they were dealing not only with the poor but also with recent immigrants. Rather than uplifting the poor, settlement-

house workers had to spend more time figuring out ways to help integrate the fresh arrivals into their new world.

At Hull House in Chicago, Addams felt it necessary to keep tinkering with the mission statement. The necessity for this was the settlements’ response to the needs of its constituency which were forever changing as well as the logical re- evaluation of and reflection on the work being done on a daily basis.

“The statement of purpose in Hull-House’s charter read: ‘To provide a center for a higher civic and social life; to institute and maintain educational and philanthropic enterprises, and to investigate and improve the conditions in the industrial districts of Chicago;” but this fails to capture the spirit and manifold activities of Hull-House. Addams refined this statement over the years. It was a ‘place for enthusiasms;’ it helped ‘give form to social life;’ it offered ‘the warm welcome of an inn;’ it was a place for mutual interpretation of the social classes one to another; it responded to ethical demands and shared fellowship; it was a place for the life of the mind. . . .At the conclusion of her second autobiographical volume, The Second Twenty Years at Hull-House, Addams takes another stab at it: ‘It was the function of settlements to bring into the circle of knowledge and fuller life, men and women who might otherwise be left outside.’”32

Settlement-house programs and activities changed to address whatever problems and needs their constituents had at the time. Nothing was considered an unnecessary experiment if it was going to help someone. Some houses addressed issues of sanitation, others got involved with workplace safety and/or labor organizing. Kindergartens in the US were often opened by a settlement house. Well-baby programs sent workers into the homes of new mothers to show them how better to care for their newborns, thus decreasing the rate of infant mortality. English classes were necessary in many areas, and programs teaching trades to the men (such as woodworking) or at-home work for the women (lace making, as an example) were popular and useful.

In addition to addressing health, education, employment, and housing, most settlement houses felt that leisure-time activities were necessary for the overall well-being of their participants. Art and music classes, theatre groups, and other recreational activities were encouraged. Settlement-house activity in Chicago, mirrored much of what was popular in houses across the nation. “In the spring of

32 Knight. Louise W. Citizen: Jane Addams and the Struggle for Democracy. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 2005, 92. 25

1895 the social clubs for children and adults remained the Hull House’s most popular offerings. Many of the two-thousand people who flocked to the house each week in 1894-1895 were coming to a club meeting.”33

Although the current-day equivalents of settlement houses do not follow the residency idea, in most early settlement houses the workers lived at the house. Paid staff and volunteers (often local college students) lived in the upper rooms at the residence, using the lower floors for settlement-house offices and program space. If room was not available in the settlement house itself, workers would often rent space nearby and live communally; in this way they could reside in the same neighborhood as their program participants.

Her work at Hull House opened Jane Addams’ eyes to the need for more official women’s power as well as for more empowered immigrants. The answer to both was gaining the vote for these groups. In 1897, Addams made an appearance at a reception in Boston, a city where settlement houses were active and the women’s suffrage movement strong.34

Photograph of Jane Addams, considered the “mother of social work” and founder of the famous Hull House in Chicago. From the Jane Addams Papers Project via Google images. www.google.com (accessed 25 March 2018)

33 Knight. Ibid, 347. 34 Knight, Ibid, 379-381. 26

“Addams appearance at the Boston reception marked the beginning of her long involvement in the women’s suffrage campaign. She would bring her cross-class perspective to a suffrage movement split over the question of whether poor, illiterate immigrants of either sex ought to have the vote. Many ardent supporters of suffrage, among them the chair of the National American Women’s Suffrage Association’s field work office, Carrie Chapman Catt, felt that women need[ed] the vote to balance the ‘slum’ influence. And some, including Elizabeth Cady Stanton, former president of NAWSA, were willing to endorse a literacy test for voters. Addams disassociated herself from the stance against immigrants and unskilled workers; she built her pro-suffrage argument on the need for all women to engage in reforming the nation. In 1904 she wrote, ‘[A]ll kinds of people [have] . . .reservoirs of moral power and civic ability . . .in themselves.’ She would not exclude any from the right to vote.”35

Some settlement houses were criticized for forcing white, middle-or-upper- class values on the poor with whom they worked. Workers could be defined as patronizing and perhaps not sensitive or understanding enough of their participants.36 Yet, in other settlement houses, the backgrounds, holidays, food, and customs of the participants’ home countries were celebrated and shared with their new neighbors.

Considering the time settlement houses were founded, it may not seem strange that they, like many institutions in the U.S., were often segregated. Boston’s original Harriet Tubman House was founded to serve working black women. Amazing as it may seem, even the ever thinking, ever evolving Jane Addams at Hull House in Chicago had trouble understanding the mindset of certain people of color. One of the residents at Hull House was Dr. Harriet Rice, a black physician, who shared absolutely no interest in one of Addams’ passions of getting healthcare to the poor. Rice ‘must have been eager to show what her race could do, both as a confirmation of her self-respect and as a way to dispel prejudicial treatment.’ Proud of her accomplishments, she may have felt distinctly uncomfortable when forced to associate with poor people. To Rice, working among the poor meant returning to that from which her family had only recently escaped. And, in fact, economically, she had not moved up. She lived at Hull

35 Knight, Ibid. 36 Hansan, Ibid. 27

House, which was in a poor neighborhood, because she could not afford to live elsewhere.”37

Addams couldn’t understand Rice’s attitude. “She apparently expected that, because Rice possessed a B.A. from a prestigious eastern women’s college and an M.D. . . .she would want to work among the economically disadvantaged in the same helpful spirit as a white, economically secure settlement resident would. . . She could not see that an ambitious person from a working-class background might seek escape at all costs from lower-class associations. In addition, she could not see that when that person was an African American, the stakes were even higher. In sum, Addams did not recognize that her own upper-middle-class upbringing and whiteness gave her an unquestionable social security that no association she might enter could trump.”38

37 Knight, Ibid, 388 38 Ibid. 28

Cover of the book Jane Addams considered her best and her favorite, written in 1909. She also wrote Twenty Years at Hull House, Democracy and Social Ethics, and several other books. Photograph from: www.amazon.com (accessed May 14, 2018)

Eventually, with the advent of the Civil Rights movement, settlement houses (mostly by then called Community Centers or Neighborhood Houses) became more integrated. Still, the fact that for a long time, most settlement-house workers were white and of the middle class promoted a distinct class feeling that rode a wave under the surface of the otherwise very good work the houses were

doing. Harkening back to the original Toynbee Hall’s idea that working in the settlements might be transformational for those who chose to labor there, it does make sense that the workers and the neighborhood participants were meant to learn from each other. After all, what is true learning if it does not affect both teacher and student? In a settlement-house environment, it would be almost impossible for individuals not to absorb insights from each other’s lives.

What do settlement houses do today? How many are left? What kind of programs do they operate? How does their philosophy and approach to community life fit in with today’s modern times?

Sadly, the famous Hull House in Chicago closed its doors in 2012 after 123 years of operation. Known as the Jane Addams Hull House Association at the time of its abrupt closing, it was offering programs in job training, services related to domestic violence, child welfare, and housing assistance. Its largest program was Early Childhood Education which made up approximately 20% of the budget. The reason for the closing, which happened almost overnight and resulted in the layoffs of 300 people, was blamed largely on the 2008 recession and subsequent cuts in government contracts. At the end, the organization’s private funding comprised just 10% of the incoming revenue. One can only imagine how Jane Addams would have felt about such an ignoble end to what was her life’s passion, a life changing place for so many people, an organization with a long and involved history that positively affected the lives of thousands of people.39

Yet, other settlement houses thrive in 2018. In New York, the well-known Henry Street Settlement offers a wide and diverse array of programs. There are performing and visual arts including live performances, galleries, exhibitions, classes, and artist residencies. Their education program offers early childhood, after school, summer day camps, as well as ESL classes. An employment division does essential job training and has a Workforce Development Center. Addressing health and wellness in the community, Henry Street has a family medical center and a mental-health service. Their housing programs serve homeless families, women, the chronically homeless as well as victims of domestic violence. A Senior Center is available for the elders as well as Meals-on-Wheels and a special senior companion program. A computer lab offers technology education. Henry Street has a Parent Center, and youth can participate in urban art camp, urban summer camp, take advantage of a gym and attend basketball clinics.40

39 “Closing of Hull House.” https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2012/02/hull-f08.html (accessed March 3, 2018) 40 https://www.henrystreet.org (accessed March 3, 2018). 30

It is quite obvious that Henry Street represents a large, serious, well-funded settlement house with ambitious and broad programming. Most modern-day settlement houses are smaller, work with tighter budgets, and offer fewer services.

In Queens, NY, for instance, the Jacob A. Riis Neighborhood Settlement offers programming in just three areas: Youth Programs, Senior Services, and Immigrant Services.41 Chicago-based Northwestern University Settlement House has what appears to be a traditional menu of offerings for a neighborhood center in 2018: preschool, summer camp, afterschool, youth mentorships, a food pantry, and family counseling. True to original settlement-house views, though, they are still incorporating art and culture. Northwestern University Settlement has theatre performances as well as drama and literary residencies.42

West Coast settlement houses offer a different approach in today’s social and economic world. The Potrero Hill Neighborhood House in San Francisco, known locally as N.A.B.E., has an adult day program for those with developmental delays; anger-management classes for youth ages 6 to 18; an Experiment in Diversity Program for youth featuring speakers, community-service projects, and field trips; dinner for children ages 5 to 18 served four nights per week; peer counseling in arrangement with the San Francisco Juvenile Hall; case management for transitional youth, ages 16 to 24, and an intensive Juvenile Offenders Program. Many of these programs are somewhat novel to San Francisco, and most of them are not replicated at other community centers or neighborhood houses across the US although they may indicate and inspire services for the future.43

The Potrero Hill Neighborhood House also puts a great deal of emphasis on space rental and it is apparent that renting out rooms for meetings, gatherings, and wedding receptions is an important part of their revenue stream. This is not an unusual approach for many former settlement houses across the country seeking to bring in new funding.

What are former settlement houses doing locally in the Boston area? Just to look at a few: Federated Dorchester Neighborhood Houses changed their name in 2010 to College Bound Dorchester. Now, their programs are totally focused on

41 www.riissettlement.org/about-us/our-history-a-timeline/about-settlement-houses (accessed March 3, 2018). 42 https://northwesternsettlement.org (accessed March 3, 2018). 43 https://www.phnhsf.org (accessed March 3, 2018) 31

education of children and adults with a mission of getting them into college.44 United South End Settlements in Boston’s South End dropped their Senior Services department in 2017 leaving the organization with only a preschool, afterschool program, family coaching program, summer camp, a GED- preparation program, computer labs/technology education, and its historic Children’s Art Centre.45 The smaller South Boston Neighborhood House in South Boston runs a preschool, an afterschool, and has managed to retain its senior program.46

The Development of East Boston Social Centers

East Boston Social Centers had its official start in 1918, the year it incorporated under the name of its predecessor agency, Good Will House Association. Although known locally for much of its time as Good Will House (often rendered as Goodwill House), it was recorded as House of Good Will before it became Good Will House Association and was located in a beautiful row house setting at 177-179 Webster Street in East Boston.

44 www.collegebounddorechester.org (accessed March 3, 2018). 45 www.uses.org (accessed March 3, 2018). 46 https://sbnh.org (accessed March 3, 2018) 32

Copy of the original incorporation papers of Good Will House Association, 1918. From the Corporations Division, Secretary of the Commonwealth. http://corp.sec.state.ma.us/corpweb/CorpSearch/CorpSearch.aspx (accessed April 4, 2018)

No one today would think of the Congregational Church when considering East Boston Social Centers. Even the community of East Boston does not conjure up visions of this Protestant religious group. When thinking generally of New England, the phrase “Congregational Church” brings to mind tidy white churches with tall steeples peeping through the green leaves of treetops in countless rural New England villages. It is difficult to travel to any New England state and tour the countryside without coming across quaint old towns featuring a First Congregational Church or even a Second Congregational Church. The churches seem to be an almost required piece of the New England landscape. But hardly anyone would transpose that vision to East Boston, a dense, urban area where more residents today probably practice Catholicism than any other religion.

But, indeed, the East Boston Social Centers’ roots grew from a movement within a group that later became the Congregational Church, now known as the United Church of Christ. This means that the Social Centers’ history goes back, in some small way, to May of 1799 when the Massachusetts Missionary Society was started in Boston.

The charter members of the Massachusetts Missionary Society, of whom there were 38, were believers in the theology of Samuel Hopkins which was preoccupied with the idea of sin and how it related to the Calvinist theory of

predestination. Aside from pondering such considerations, spreading the gospel and promoting Christianity were the major objectives of the group.47

There were other organizations doing similar work in the area. Subsequently the Massachusetts Missionary Society and the Domestic Missionary Society of Massachusetts Proper (founded in 1818) came together in 1827 to be known only as the Massachusetts Missionary Society. The year 1844 saw their name change again as they became the Massachusetts Home Missionary Society. This was to differentiate between local Massachusetts work and work abroad.

There was a merger in 1927 between the Massachusetts Home Missionary Society and the Massachusetts Congregational Conference. Notably, it was the original charter of the Massachusetts Home Missionary Society that formed the basis for the joining of the two organizations. By 1953 there was another name change: the Massachusetts Congregational Christian Conference. Finally, in 1966, the name was again changed, and to the current day (2018), is still called the Massachusetts Conference of the United Church of Christ.48

Work done by the Massachusetts Home Missionary Society inspired both a popular Protestant religion: Congregationalism and a piece of the settlement- house movement: House of Good Will (later Good Will House, and finally East Boston Social Centers.)

A peek at the House of Good Will in 1911, then occupying 177 Webster Street, identifies it as a settlement house. This was seven years before its incorporation. The Massachusetts State Board of Health, Lunacy, and Charity published an annual report wherein East Boston’s House of Good Will was described as “A settlement house for helping and Americanizing foreigners (Italians, Irish, Jews, Scandinavians).” No further notations were included to describe what “helping” and “Americanizing” meant, but it can be assumed that the settlements were probably assisting newcomers in learning English, how to find employment and housing, and how to become citizens.49

The budget for the year 1911 was $4,757.52. It appears that the settlement house was funded largely by donations through the Massachusetts Home Missionary Society, but there were also fees paid by some participants. Of the 600

47 “Congregational Library.” www.congregationallibrary.org/finding/aids/MAConf4383 (accessed March 5, 2018). 48 “Congregational Library.” www.congregationallibrary.org/finding/aids/MAConf4383 (accessed March 2018). 49 “Annual Report of the State Board of Health, Lunacy and Charity of Massachusetts,” by the Massachusetts State Board of Health, Lunacy and Charity, Volume 32. Boston: Wright & Potter, 1911. www.books.google.com (accessed March 8, 2018). 35

individuals served that year, 300 were designated as “partly paying” and 300 were identified as “free.”50

The largest part of the budget went to salaries: $3,014.17. Rent was $700 per year, and provisions and supplies added up to $600.96. Repairs, improvements, heating and lighting, printing and postage, and miscellaneous rounded out the rest of the budget.

It was noted that there were 12 paid “officers or employees,” and interestingly, it was noted that 3 were men and 9 were women. The President was Samuel B. Carter of whom little is known.51 There was a real-estate entrepreneur by the same name, and it is possible that Mr. Carter served as President as he was well connected and could bring contributions into the House of Good Will. Living at the house itself was the head resident, identified as “Mrs. Blanche S. Mowry.” In the census for the previous year, 1910, it is recorded that Blanche Mowry was a 40-year-old widow, born in Maine of parents both born in Maine. Her occupation was listed as “social worker” and she worked at “Italian settlements.” The choice of describing the place of her employment may have been left up to her or it could have been an observation of the census taker. The House of Good Will had identified serving at least four distinct immigrant groups, but perhaps the Italians were the dominant ones using the services. Blanche Mowry resided at the house, in traditional settlement-house protocol, and three other women lived there including two younger social workers. An unemployed older woman from Maine was also a resident.52

On Ancestry.com, an inaccurate, careless, or possibly just uniformed transcriber looked at the phrase “Italian settlements” written in as Blanche Mowry’s place of employment and transcribed that in typing so that it says she was a “social worker” employed at an “Italian Sillimanite Mine.”53

Oddly, the same year, 1911, the settlement house on Webster Street with Mrs. Mowry as head resident was referred to as The Italian Mission (Congregational) in a Handbook of Settlements written by Robert A. Woods and Albert J. Kennedy, both settlement-house experts from Boston’s South End.54

50 Ibid. 51 Ibid. 52 1910 U.S. Census, Suffolk County, Massachusetts, population schedule, Boston City, Ward 2, enumeration district 1280, p. 6-B, dwelling 177, family 114, Blanche Mowry; digital image, Ancestry.com (ancestry.com: accessed March 9, 2018): citing NARA microfilm publication T624, roll 1178. 53 Ibid. 54Woods, Robert Archey and Kennedy, Albert Josepth, editors. “Handbook of Settlements.” New York: Charities Publication Committee, 1911. 134. www.googlebooks.com (accessed April 17, 2018). 36

It is possible, - and likely – that the house, funded through the Home Missionary Society, was referred to as The Italian Mission until it evolved into The House of Good Will and later, to the Good Will House Association. Both appear to be funded through the Congregational Church, although the Italian Mission is listed at 180 Webster Street as late as 191555 while The House of Good Will in 1911 was located at 177 Webster Street as was The Italian Mission! Perhaps different activities occurred at the different addresses or in different parts of the same house. A definite connection can be determined as Blanche Mowry was listed as the Head Worker for both.

In the year of its incorporation, Good Will House Association was listed as occupying 177-179 Webster Street which may indicate an expansion in space and, as seen from reports, an expansion in numbers served as well. Again, from the Annual Report of the State Board of Lunacy and Charity (they appear to have dropped Health from their title over the interim years), we learn that the mission of the organization has changed. Americanizing foreigners was not the focus in 1918; instead, the mission statement read: “To carry the spirit of good will to the people of East Boston through social and educational activities.”56

Perhaps a change in staffing brought about the change in mission. The President of Good Will House Association that year was the Rev. Willis H. Butler, an associate pastor of Old South Church in Copley Square. He was an interesting man who seemed to think and obsess about many ideas, some of which will be examined. Blanche Mowry was no longer the Head Resident, that title falling to a Miss Gladys Abbott who was actually elevated in title to Superintendent and Matron.57

The number of paid officers and employees dropped to 8 from the 12 of just seven years before. The number of participants served grew a tremendous percentage from 600 in 1911 to 16,000 in 1918. This might be attributed to the change in the mission statement or it could have to do with different ways of counting participants. The report points out that of this number “all free.” The budget grew to $5,588.63. The Massachusetts Home Missionary Society contributed $4,000 and $1,568.09 was raised from “subscriptions and donations.”

55 “1915 Boston Exposition Official Catalogue and the Boston 1915 Year Book.” Boston: “1915” Boston Exposition Company, 9. www.googlebooks.com (accessed April 17, 2018). 56 “Annual Report of the State Board of Lunacy and Charity of Massachusetts. Massachusetts Board of Lunacy and Charity. Boston: Wright & Potter, 1919. 65-66. www.books.google.com (accessed April 15, 2018). 57 Ibid. 37

As usual, salaries at $3,652.00 were the largest expense followed by rent at $972.00. Heat and light rose considerably to $411.13.58

Not much is known about Miss Abbott, but prior to becoming Superintendent at Good Will House Association, she was the Director of a settlement house in Dorchester; the name of the settlement house is unknown. In 1910, she was residing on Gordon Place in Dorchester, was single, 28 years of age, and living alone in a rented house. At the time the Good Will House Association was incorporated, and Miss Abbott employed there, she would have been 36 years of age.59

More is known and has been written about the Rev. Willis H. Butler, who held the title of President of Good Will House Association which meant serving in the capacity of Board Chair. Butler was a graduate of Princeton University and Union Theological Society. Prior to being appointed as Associate Pastor of Old South Church in April of 1911, he had held pastorates in both Williamstown and Northampton, MA.60 When he was installed as Associate Pastor, his residence was on Lanark Road in Brookline.61

58 Ibid. 59 1910 US Census, Suffolk County, Massachusetts, population schedule, Boston Ward 24, enumeration district 1625, dwelling 7, family 88, Gladys Abbott; digital image, Ancestry.com (http:///www.ancestry.com: accessed April 3, 2018); citing NARA microfilm publication 1374637, roll T624. 60 “Auburn Seminary Record,” Volume 10. 507. https://books.google.com/books?id=CmMsAAAAYAAJ&pg=RA1- PA39&dq=%22Rev=Willis+H+Butler%22=Auburn=Seminary&hl=en&sa=x& (accessed February 13, 2018). 61 “The Congregational Year Book,” 504. https:books.google.com/books?id=uZk_AQAAMAAT (accessed February 14, 2018). 38

An 1882 engraving of Old South Church (Congregational), Copley Square, Boston. The Rev. Willis H. Butler was Associate Pastor there while he was President of the Good Will House Association in East Boston. Image from: www.wikipedia.org (accessed April 9, 2018).

Rev. Butler thought and wrote a great deal about the role of the church in society. At one point he had the honor of being the minister-in-residence for three days at Auburn Seminary in New York state. In one sermon there, he said “. . .that the church must first change the external conditions under which people live. This is to be done by various reformations, looking after the sick, caring for the needy, building model playgrounds, etc. Those who indicate this method of work say that social improvement is the one great thing that is needed.”62

Butler also said: “But the real duty of the church is that it should devote its energy to men’s souls rather than to their bodies or their minds, for when the spirit is touched the impulse will be given which will result in changing social conditions.”63 One can’t help but wonder how Miss Abbott, at Goodwill House, trying to assist community residents with health and education in real time, thought about her ill or uneducated charges and whether she too believed that she should be ministering to their souls first. Miss Abbott, like Mrs. Mowry before her, lived at the settlement house and saw humanity in all its reality every

62 “Auburn Seminary Record,” Ibid. 63 “Auburn Seminary Record,” 512. 39

day. Rev. Butler may have been raising money for Good Will House and guiding its principles of service, but he was living in Brookline and may have been too far removed from the reality of East Boston during the 1920s.

Rev. Butler appeared to have some difficulty in reconciling spirituality and missionary work. “But here I would not be misunderstood. I do not mean to discourage the work of social reform. If there is no other institution in the community which can care for this work, then the church should see to it. But there is no need of duplicating the work that such institutions are doing. Where this work is being done the church should support and cooperate with the forces that are so caring for the needs of the people. No church is worthy of the name Christian which will sit by and let people starve.”64 He got it right, but there was obviously some conflict in his mind.

The Rev. Butler was a curious man, and he studied many aspects of humanity. In giving an informal talk to students at Auburn Seminary, he gave them a glimpse into his obsession of the moment which was: What interests men? Butler did not mean mankind. He meant males, specifically. He wanted to know what interested males. It appears that he may have been finding it difficult to recruit them into the church or perhaps he was thinking about ways to interest them in programs at the settlement house.

“In his attempt to discover what things men really are interested in, he began to notice what men read. On trains and in public places they usually read the newspapers. Occasionally a book was seen but that was usually being perused by a professional man or a student. A record of the books drawn by men from public libraries showed that they were not interested in poetry or fiction, but rather in scientific treatises, history, and books of travel. From these observations Mr. Butler drew the inference that men are interested in facts.65

“Again, he began to notice what attracted the attention of men. He observed that if a dog fight took place on the street, men always stopped to watch the dogs settle their differences, no matter how busy they were. Men are always in attendance at athletic contests. The closer the contest, the more intense the interest and excitement. The greater the risk the more certain the crowd was to be there. . .A third line of investigation was directed to places where men congregate. Men are usually found in numbers at their clubs. Almost any time when men are free a large number may be found in the saloon. They may not all be drinking, for some may be at a game or talking and smoking with other men.

64 “Auburn Seminary Record,” Ibid. 65 “Auburn Seminary Record,” 513 40

Men like to mix around and talk. These observations led to the conclusion that men like fellowship with other men.

With these three things in mind – facts, fights, and fellowship – Mr. Butler said he began to shape his work . . .”66

It is not known whether the Reverend’s study into the habits and preferences of men helped him in guiding the activities at Good Will House or whether he used his new knowledge solely for church recruitment. It is also not known whether the observations he made of the male population were made in East Boston, but it was surely a community he held some responsibility for, and it would make sense that he might – in his own academic way – try to learn more about the working-class men with whom he rarely interacted in his own, everyday life.

While serving as President of Good Will House in 1920, Rev. Butler made a speech at the Congregational Warburton Chapel in Hartford, CT at an event honoring Italy. He told the children of Italian immigrants in attendance that day: “You boys and girls have in you fine blood and behind you a great history. That history goes back to the early days of Rome . . . you bring here love of beauty and of art and music.”67 This is an odd little speech, almost as if Rev. Butler had to think of something to say at the last moment, and, drawing from his knowledge of the history of Italy, came up with what he most admired about the country and used that to try to inspire the children. It should be noted that this speech was given to immigrant children in a Congregational church in Connecticut, yet during the same time period that he served as President of Good Will House. It is not known whether he interacted with or sought to inspire Italian children in East Boston. Being a Congregational pastor, it is unlikely he would have had the opportunity to do so through the church as most Italian immigrants in the neighborhood were Catholic.

Trinity House was another predecessor agency of East Boston Social Centers. A stately, brick Greek Revival home at 406 Meridian Street, it was built for Noah Sturtevant in 1847. Its life as his private home changed drastically when Mr. Sturtevant, a respected and enterprising local businessman, met an unexpected and unfortunate end.

66 “Auburn Seminary Record,” Ibid. 67 https://books.google.com/books?isbn=1438462174 (accessed Feburary 14, 2018). 41

December 5, 1861 at 5:00 pm would have been a difficult hour for visibility, particularly in the time period before good street lighting. Noah Sturtevant was traveling from his farm in North Chelsea en route to Saugus when his carriage was involved in a collision with a train at the Eastern Rail Road crossing. At his death, he was just 56 years old and left a widow and several children. Sturtevant was an early settler of East Boston, and the community felt he had done more than almost anyone else to promote and improve the area. He was credited with the Sturtevant House (built 1857) and the Winthrop Block, both on Maverick Square. He was the head of Noah Sturtevant & Co. which had offices in Boston, New York, and Philadelphia.68

From 1888, Mr. Sturtevant’s lovely former home was under the guidance and financial help of Trinity Church, the Episcopal church in Boston’s Copley Square; they offered social services and day care at the Meridian Street site.69 The rector of Trinity Church at that time was the famous Phillips Brooks whose years there spanned the period 1869-1891. Phillips Brooks House at Harvard University, named after him, has a special focus on community service, a part of his legacy. Brooks died in 1893, and the building at Harvard named after him was dedicated in 1900 to serve “the ideal of piety, charity, and hospitality.”70

68 “Marriages and Deaths,” The New England Historical and Genealogical Register, Volumes 16-17. 185. 69 Conte, Frank. “Boston Landmark Trinity House.” August 19, 2012. www.eastboston.com (accessed February 15, 2018). 70 Phillips Brooks House Association. www.pgha.org/history (accessed February 16, 2018). 42

Old postcard of Trinity Church (Episcopal) in Copley Square, Boston. Trinity Church opened the first day nursery in East Boston and was how Trinity House got its name. Available from: Google Images, www.google.com (accessed March 1, 2018)

The former Sturtevant home in East Boston was named Trinity House in 1917 and became part of East Boston Social Centers in 1966.71 It is currently (2018) owned by Neighborhood of Affordable Housing (N.O.A.H.) and is used as a 16- unit SRO for individuals who have been homeless.72 Mr. Sturtevant would be pleased to know that his former home is also a Boston Landmark, so designated by the Boston Landmarks Commission in 1981 and also has been listed on the National Register of Historic Places, 1992.73

71 Conte, Frank. Ibid. 72 Fox, Jeremy C. “United Way Volunteers Clean Up Trinity Neighborhood House.” August 17, 2011. www.boston.com (accessed February 20, 12018). 73 National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. April 15, 2008. National Register Information System. https://www.gsa.gov/real-estate/historic.../historic.../national-register-of-historic-places (accessed February 22, 2018). 43

The Early Influences – East Boston Social Centers

What else was going on in East Boston during this time period? Helen Newell established the East Boston Social Settlement in 1908. It was located at 18 Chelsea Street and offered a dispensary, classes in housekeeping and sewing, as well as clubs for girls and children. It was closed in June 1910, but no reason is known.74 Quite probably it was due to a lack of funding. Settlement houses not backed by churches, colleges, or wealthy individuals did not fare well. No documentation has been found to show that there was any attempt to merge with another settlement.

A bit later, in 1911, Mary Parker Follett started the first social center in East Boston. It was called the East Boston High School Social Center and was operated through the Extended Use of School Building Program of the Women’s Municipal League.75 It was not affiliated with Good Will House or the future East Boston Social Centers, but it undoubtedly inspired those working in the organizations.

In looking over the papers of S. Max Nelson, the first recognized leader of East Boston Social Centers, the words “democracy” and “leadership” appear again and again. Nelson was an academic thinker and took his settlement-house work seriously. Although his time in East Boston did not coincide with Ms. Follett’s (she died in 1933, approximately three years after Nelson was recruited by the Hyams sisters to move to East Boston and take over the reins at the settlement), it is obvious that he knew of her and had probably read one or more of her writings.

74 “Woods, Robert Archey and Kennedy, Albert Joseph. Handbook of Settlements.” 314. https:books.google.com/books?id=UNUJAAAAIAJ (accessed February 21, 2018). 75 “Mary Parker Follett.” www.yogke.wordpress.com (accessed February 21, 2018). 44

Today, Mary Parker Follett is barely known. Even in Boston, an area where she lived and worked, Follett’s amazing, ahead-of-her-time thinking is not often mentioned or reviewed. Possibly because she was a woman working at the turn of the 20th century and possibly because her ideas were so advanced, she was sometimes ignored. She was respected, but primarily for doing activities expected of a woman during that time period: settlement house work (she was a staff member at the Roxbury Neighborhood House from 1900 to 1908) and Women’s Municipal League work (from which she launched the East Boston High School Social Center in 1911). Her thoughts and writings on community, education, democracy, empowerment, and diversity were undoubtedly feared by some who read them for they disrupted the status quo and challenged others to think differently and look to new solutions for old problems.76

Photograph of Mary Parker Follett, a Bostonian who was ahead of her time and who influenced the work and thought of many settlement-house workers through her thoughtful and forward-thinking writings. Black-and- white photograph available from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary-Parker-Follett (accessed April 19, 2018).

She was the Vice President of the National Community Center Association in 1917 and a member of the Massachusetts Minimum Wage Board. In 1918 she

76 “Mary Parker Follett. 363. www.infed.org/mobi/mary-parker-follett-community+creative-experience-and- education (accessed February 24, 2018).

wrote in her book The New State: “The study of democracy has been based largely on the study of institutions; it should be based on how men behave together.” Although the book was written to examine community and Social Centers, her ideas were broader than those confines. “To be a democrat is not to decide on a certain form of human association, it is to learn how to live with other men . . .The group process contains the secret of collective life, it is the key to democracy, it is the master lesson for every individual to learn, it is our chief hope [f]or the political, the social, the international life of the future.”77

Follett’s ideas about democracy, what it was and what it should be, reflected her views on how everything from settlement houses to schools should be run. “The training for the new democracy must be from the cradle – through nursery, school and play, and on and on through every activity of our life. Citizenship is not to be learned in good government classes or current events courses or lessons in civics. It is to be acquired only through those modes of living and acting which shall teach us how to grow the social consciousness. This should be the object of all day school education, of all night school education, of all our supervised recreation, of all our family life, of our club life, of our civic life.”78

She believed in community centers and felt it important that individuals from different backgrounds – both social and economic – come together and meet. To Follett, true community and true democracy could only be attained through diversity. She also advocated bettering democracy by encouraging individuals to create and maintain neighborhood groups. Her idea of the role of community centers was to provide a place where all diverse neighbors could come together, not only to socialize but to engage in discourse that would promote the kind of social experience necessary to build democracy.79

Later, Follett’s interests turned to management and leadership and she wrote extensively on how both played out within corporate settings and well as in the nonprofit world. Her words, written a century ago, sound fresh and contemporary. Her theories have aged well.

As has been previously surmised, it is unlikely that S. Max Nelson and Mary Parker Follett ever met, but he was definitely aware of her work and her writings. Scribbled notes by Nelson, now in the East Boston Social Center archives, as well as writings by various staff members who worked under Nelson, exhibit a preoccupation with many of the themes of Follett’s work, and most particularly,

77 “Mary Parker Follett.” Ibid. 78 “Mary Parker Follett.” Ibid. 79 “Mary Parker Follett.” www.yogke.wordpress.com , Ibid. 46

addressing democracy and how it worked within the settlement-house philosophy.

One could say that, in the history of the East Boston Social Centers, the arrival of S. Max Nelson marked the change from an older, more religious settlement- house thought and atmosphere to a newer, more experimental take on the old settlement-house philosophy. Democracy was talked about more than religion and participants were empowered to help themselves collectively as opposed to receiving services from others within a more traditional and hierarchal system.

S. Max Nelson was chosen by the Hyams sisters to carry the settlement house philosophy into the future. Isabel and Sarah Hyams were the sisters of Godfrey Hyams (1859-1927), a Harvard graduate who made a fortune through mining and railroads. He was a modest man who shared his wealth anonymously while living a quiet life with his sisters in Dorchester, MA. Both sisters were interested and involved with charitable activities and organizations.80

Isabel F. Hyams, an 1888 graduate of M.I.T. and an enthusiast of the new science of public health81, founded the “Louisa Alcott Club and Center” in a part of the South End of Boston known as “the New York Streets neighborhood.” Louisa Alcott, author of Little Women and other books, had lived for a time in the South End.82 Ms. Hyams must have been a fan and undoubtedly thought Alcott an excellent role model for young women. In November of 1895, the center was located at 15 Oswego Street. Its stated goal was “to teach homemaking” primarily to children in a community described as “the lower South End, a mixed factory and tenement quarter, largely populated by Jews and Italians.”83 It is not known how long the Louisa Alcott Center was in existence, but it was certainly not one of the better known or longer lived settlement houses in Boston.

At his death, Godfrey Hyams’ money went primarily into a trust he had established. He also named a smaller trust in honor of his parents and one after his sisters.84 It was the Isabel F. Hyams Fund that gave money to East Boston Social Centers and supported their work for over sixty years. After Godfrey’s death, the sisters moved from Dorchester into a rented apartment on the

80Hyams Foundation. “Who We Are.” www.hyamsfoundation.org/WhoWe/Are/History.aspx (accessed February 28, 2018). 81 Lukas, J. Anthony. Common Ground. New York: Knopf Doubleday. 340 82 Saxton, Martha. Louisa May. New York, Avon Books, 1977. 192. 83 Woods and Kennedy, Ibid. 84 Hyams Foundation, Ibid. 47

Jamaicaway,85 preferring, perhaps, to be more central to the city and not have the responsibility of being homeowners. Both sisters devoted a great deal of time to their project of improving city life for poor, vulnerable populations. They lived modest lifestyles and concentrated on how best to spend their fortune helping others.

Photograph of Isabel F. Hyams (left) and Sarah A. Hyams (right), the women behind the vision of the East Boston Social Centers Council as well as the Westford Camps. Photograph from the archives of the East Boston Social Centers, 68 Central Square, East Boston, MA

85 1930 U.S. census, Suffolk County, Massachusetts, population schedule, Boston City, Ward 19, enumeration district 13-497, p.15-B, dwelling 213, family 315, Isabel F. Hyams; digital image (www.ancestry.com: accessed March 7, 2018): citing NARA microfilm publication T626, roll 2667. 48

S. Max Nelson graduated from Rutgers University in the Class of 1911. He worked in various social-service jobs and gained an excellent reputation. In June 1921, ten years after graduating from college, he was hired at The Union Settlement House in New York as an Assistant Head Worker. His salary was $2500 per year and came with housing.86 In 2018 dollars, he was making the equivalent of $31,768.5687 which is more than an entry-level, minimum-wage worker in a settlement house would start at today. But consider how little spending power that has in current times and how much money that was in 1921. And housing was included! This was a hefty salary in a position that did not normally pay much. In the same time period, Good Will House Association paid out a yearly total of $3,652.00 in salaries for eight employees including the head worker.88 It is not known why Nelson was paid such an exorbitant salary except that Union Settlement House certainly thought he was worth the expense. One can’t help but speculate whether a wealthy board member footed his salary in the form of a donation. Many settlement houses in that time period, unless backed by religious institutions, were funded almost entirely by private donations.

The Hyams sisters targeted East Boston as the place they wanted to put their money and effort after they hired S. Max Nelson to perform a study of Boston neighborhoods between 1930-1931.89 He found proof that East Boston had the greatest need. Isabel Hyams, having worked in the South End, could easily have directed S. Max Nelson and her dollars to that neighborhood instead, but the South End had several very well-known and active settlement houses. The Hyams sisters wanted to be sure they were funding the community in greatest need. They knew after the completion of Nelson’s study (no copy of it has been found in the Social Centers archives) that he was the right director for what they envisioned. It appears that they spared no expense to woo Nelson away from New York. They wanted someone who was a proven leader, one with a deep understanding of settlement-house philosophy, knowledge of camping, and most importantly, one who would be willing to live in the community.

Isabel and Sarah Hyams approached the East Boston Social Center Council which was more of a concept than anything else at the time and explained what

86 From uncatalogued papers in the archives of East Boston Social Centers, 68 Central Square, East Boston, MA (accessed August 23, 2018) 87 https://wwwsaving.org/inflation/inflation.php?amount=100&year=1920 88 Annual Report of the State Board of Lunacy and Charity of Massachusetts. Ibid. 89 From uncatalogued papers in the archives of East Boston Social Centers, 68 Central Square, East Boston, MA (accessed August 23, 2018)

they wanted to do. In 1931, the sisters’ money purchased an old church that became the original Central Square Center. They were already paying S. Max Nelson and his wife, and the Nelsons knew what had to be done.90

Both S. Max Nelson and his wife, the former Irene Hickok91, studied, read, and wrote seemingly nonstop. One wonders how they accomplished all their settlement-house work with such a schedule devoted to studying. Both were thoughtful and academic. They felt that it was imperative to analyze different methods of working with groups in order to accomplish what was best for East Boston Social Centers.

In the East Boston Social Centers archives, there is a four-page essay written by Mrs. Nelson. Her intent is not clear. Was she writing down thoughts in preparation for possibly publishing something or was she writing a letter to a friend or another settlement-house worker? The four pages, in her tiny, neat handwriting were put down on stationery, so appear as a letter. The tone of the words is more formal, however, and each page reads as a developing essay. There is no salutation, so the letter to a friend theory is probably unlikely unless there are pages missing. As the pages are not numbered, it is difficult to tell. The document is undated, but since Mrs. Nelson refers to having been in East Boston for 20 years, it can be assumed that she was writing this piece around 1950.

Irene Nelson’s words are very helpful in understanding how the Nelsons thought of their time in East Boston and what was on their minds after two decades on the job.

“20 years ago last spring we were asked by a certain Fund in Boston to accept the assignment to come from N.Y. to ‘make East Boston a better place to live in.’ Here was a community of some 60,000, two-thirds of Italian background, probably nine-tenths of Roman Catholic faith. Living conditions were crowded and haphazard. A great depression was commencing during which thousands of families would be on sort of ‘relief.’ The record with regard to health, housing, juvenile delinquency, was poor.

90 From undated newspaper clipping of unknown newspaper found in the archives of the East Boston Social Center, 68 Central Square, East Boston, MA. 91 1919 Social Register, Brooklyn Blue Book, 161. https://books.google.com/books?id=wEsVAAAAYAAJ (accessed March 7, 2018). 50

“We were able to settle in East Boston, to study its needs, and to make recommendations as well as to establish helpful relationships along the way.

“Our assets when starting out were: our belief in the possibilities of people, my husband’s gift for inspiring others with idealism and self-confidence and the desire to co-operate, and the generous support of our backers. (Of course we had in [____] the development of Social Centers.)

“After 15 years in social settlement work we had reached a point where we were eager to try out two theories which seemed to us basic in the constructive organization of a good far-reaching community program

“1/ To enlarge the scope of what a trained staff could accomplish by using local and other volunteer leadership. A highly qualified staff would be necessary to choose, to train, to supervise, to supplement.

“ 2/ To provide creative social attitudes (and incidentally, desirable individual growth) by a kind of about-face, stressing that all those joining a center, whether to lead or simply as participating members, should come not to get, but to give of their talents, their time, their good-will. We have used just one little slogan: ‘When all give, all gain.’

“It would be impossible for me to describe all the happenings of 20 years. Our physical plant soon developed into two centers, a boys’ club, a cooperative workers’ residence, a summer camp. Recently two of the centers merged with another older settlement in a larger building and better location.”92

S. Max and Irene Nelson lived at 110 White Street in East Boston. Some of the East Boston Social Center workers lived there as well, participating in the communal aspects of early settlement houses. Nelson was the next-to-last Social Centers’ director to reside in East Boston. At various times of the year – especially around the holidays – Irene Nelson opened the house to members of certain Social Centers’ programs. The house was decorated for the season, and refreshments were served. Now managed by the Neighborhood of Affordable Housing (NOAH), 110 White Street serves as apartments for low-income East Boston residents.93

92 Irene Nelson. From an uncatalogued, undated document written by Mrs. Nelson and found in the archives of the East Boston Social Centers, 68 Central Square, East Boston, MA. 93 “Property and Asset Management.” Neighborhood of Affordable Housing. www.noahcdc.org (accessed March 12. 2018). 51

Like his wife – and perhaps even more so - S. Max Nelson was always musing on paper. And, most likely, verbally, when he met with staff and friends and pondered all that was on his mind. He was a busy man, not only at the settlement house but out in the community, serving on different boards and committees and working with various organizations. In 1944, he was part of a Committee for Professional Education where the questions of the day were: “Are the prerequisites for group workers the same as those for social workers?” and “ . . .must a group worker be one who likes people in groups, and is thoroughly interested in what persons may ultimately become?” In the minutes of the committee meeting, it was noted that “in the final moments of discussion, Mr. Nelson submitted that group work demands a higher type of human being as worker than any other form of social work.”94

Typed notes on group work found in the private papers of S. Max Nelson, Director of the Social Centers. Circa 1940s. From the archives of East Boston Social Centers, 68 Central Square, East Boston, MA

94 S. Max Nelson. From the uncatalogued papers of, found in the archives of the East Boston Social Centers, 68 Central Square, East Boston, MA 52

Mrs. Nelson wrote: “I thought it might be of interest to explain a little better our two theories . . . In regard to leadership of groups by volunteers. We very well know the need, somewhere at the heart of any type of social organization of one or more persons of strong moral principles, trained mind, broad life experience, high standards of performance. We also believe that the mutual assistance of average persons of good-will is the best natural resource of any community. The former must choose, train, supervise, supplement the latter.”95

Addressing the Social Centers’ motto, Mrs. Nelson was enthusiastic: “The motto “When all give, all gain” - has set the prevailing climate. It is literally in the air. At first it was stressed, and still is by my husband in his own special way, but it has caught on. We believe this is no miracle, but it is simply what can happen, and does happen, whenever the idealism of youth (or the idealistic impulses of human beings at any age) rushes out to meet values expressed by persons who consider them important enough to constitute a pattern for their way of life.”96

95 Irene Nelson. From uncatalogued writings by, found in the archives of the East Boston Social Centers, 68 Central Square, East Boston, MA 96 Ibid. 53

Photograph of a woodblock print done by the Woodblock Club at the East Boston Social Centers, featuring the organization’s motto. Circa 1930s-1940s. Found in the archives of the East Boston Social Centers, 68 Central Square, East Boston, MA

Very aware of the community in which she and her husband lived, and of the people living within that neighborhood, Mrs. Nelson wrote: “There have been lesser, but important points in our policy. One is to maintain people’s pride in their own heritage, both to build up their sense of worth as individuals, and for the great enrichment of others.”97

From the very beginning of S. Max Nelson’s leadership at East Boston Social Centers, evidence is found of his commitment to leadership training as well as his curiosity about and interest in promoting the ethnic heritages of the neighborhood residents. Mr. Nelson - as well as his wife, Irene, who should not be overlooked as she was just as devoted to the East Boston Social Centers as he was – kept documents, brochures, programs, newspaper clippings, old tickets, and other memorabilia that today comprise the largest part of the Social Centers’ archives. This does not mean that Clarence Jeffrey, John Forbes, and John Kelly did not care about archiving the history of the organization, only that the Nelsons were more committed to it. This could be for many reasons: they were interested in academics and writing, they were chosen by the Hyams sisters to implement a vision, and they were the beginning - the real founders, basically - of the new East Boston Social Centers. Directors following Nelson inherited an agency that had already been around for a few decades, had established programs and services, and it was their job to ensure that it survived and thrived, changing with the times as needed. If S. Max Nelson invented the wheel, then following directors rolled with it.

The first Leadership Training School offered by the Social Centers was given in 1931 which is learned from a faded brochure entitled “Second Annual Leadership Training School – Wednesday Evenings – October 19, 1932 – January 11, 1933.” By offering this series of lectures and presentations, S. Max Nelson was able to promote his vision of leadership in settlement-house settings, encourage widespread recreational activity through the arts, and, at the same time, engage and connect with other settlement houses in the greater Boston area.98

97 Irene Nelson. From uncatalogued writings by, found in the archives of the East Boston Social Centers, 68 Central Square, East Boston, MA 98 “Second Annual Leadership Training School.” Brochure. 1932. Found in the archives of the East Boston Social Centers, 68 Central Square, East Boston, MA 55

The trainings were held at Central Square Center, housed at that time in an exquisite old church on the site of today’s Social Centers’ headquarters. The purpose was to train Social Centers’ staff members as well as employees of other organizations. There was a $2.00 participation fee for those outside of the Social Centers, and the public was invited, for the same price, to audit the 8:30 pm lectures. What is rather amazing about the participation fee is that the country was suffering through the Great Depression, and S. Max Nelson was able to charge (and get) $2.00 per outside participant plus have all his staff trained at the same time. What was $2.00 worth in 1931? $32.76 in 2018 dollars99. That was a huge sum to put forth for leadership training, yet somehow settlement houses and the general public saw value and were able to come up with the fees.

Some of the workshops from 1932 included: Fundamentals of Club Leadership, Recreational Activities, Arts and Crafts, Dramatics, and Stagecraft, all of which would be useful to settlement-house workers at that time. The lectures were varied. The Director of the Norfolk House Centre in Roxbury offered “The Spirit of the Settlement.” “The Opportunity in Boston” was given by the Director of the Elizabeth Peabody House while “Some Volunteers Leaders I Have Known” was done by a member of the Lincoln Neighborhood House in the South End. A lecture entitled, simply, “Leadership” was given by the doctor in charge of the Department of Psychology at Massachusetts College of Art. Those are just a sampling. It should be noted that women made up a large number of workshop presenters and approximately 30% of the formal lecturers.100

S. Max Nelson clung to the importance of leadership and of staff training in general. By 1941, the East Boston Social Center’s Council Leadership Training Program was attended by individuals from all across the United States, and the Social Centers documented that revenue from the training series was in the plus column. This was certainly a feather in the Nelson hat.

99 www.usinflationcalculator.com (accessed March 14, 2018). 100 “Second Annual Leadership Training School.” Ibid. 56

The picture of the Leaders Conference participants was blurry, but the handwriting on the back was clear: the Conference was well attended and very profitable. From the archives of the East Boston Social Centers, 68 Central Square, East Boston, MA.

The Great Depression, East Boston, and the Social Centers

Imagine a neighborhood which, even in the booming 1920s, needed settlement houses to help serve the large population of individuals arriving ready to work, but without resources or even much knowledge of their new land. For many years prior to the 1920s, Good Will House Association saw as its duty to “Americanize” foreigners. By the time the 20s rolled around, the settlement house was able to focus more on creating social and educational activities for its participants. Then the Great Depression came along and changed everything.

Suddenly settlement houses were looked to for help with employment as folks lost jobs, housing as evictions increased, food as families’ money supplies dwindled, and health assistance as scourges such as the flu and tuberculosis ran through the neighborhood.

Examining the archives of the East Boston Social Centers, a concerted effort to protect and nourish the children, especially, is seen. It was during this time period that the idea of countryside camps came about. For children to stay in the densely populated East Boston neighborhood in the summer, in stifling hot apartments, with fathers perhaps out of work, and relatives or neighbors suffering

from a menu of ills: hunger pains, tuberculosis, fear and anxiety, and more was inconceivable. Something had to be done with and for the children.

Photograph of children outside the Central Square Center of East Boston Social Centers, Circa 1940s. From the archives of the East Boston Social Centers, 68 Central Square, East Boston, MA. Photographer unknown.

Photograph of the church used for many years as Central Square Center, pictured here in 1935. Photographer unknown. From the archives of the East Boston Social Centers, 68 Central Square, East Boston, MA

Old color postcard of the Maverick Congregational Church, circa 1880s. Figure 2 from the Historic Boston commercial casebook: East Boston. Available from: historicboston.org/wp- content/uploads/Casebook-East-Boston-District.pdf (accessed May 17, 2018)

The Hyams sisters who recruited S. Max Nelson to relocate to East Boston to run East Boston Social Centers seemed to have had a long list of programs and services that they would like to see in East Boston. But nothing seemed more important to them than getting the children out of the city during the summer months. Under Nelson’s leadership and with the Hyams’ money, the famous Westwood camps were born during the time period of the Great Depression. But before land was found in Westwood, Massachusetts, the East Boston Social Centers Council had already started camping enterprises designed to alleviate summer suffering and to ensure health and safe seasonal environments for East

Boston’s children.101 The story of the Social Centers’ camps is a long one, spanning seven decades. The camps were so transformational, so helpful, and so memorable that stories about them deserve their own chapter.

“Central Square, East Boston, looking south.” Circa 1933. This is the way the community and the church that was used for Central Square Center would have looked a year or two after S. Max Nelson started his directorship. Available from: Historic New England, General Photographic Collection, GUSN-273338. www.historicnewengland.org (accessed April 30, 2018).

For now, it is important to look at how East Boston appeared and what was going on there in the 1930s.

By 1932, there were sailing ships rotting at East Boston wharves. Ships that might once have signed on local men as crew members now sat idly, their owners unknown or perhaps broke. No dockage fees had been paid and the ships were literally abandoned. Rats roamed at night, no food to be found on the schooners

101 From numerous documents and scrapbooks found in the archives of East Boston Social Centers, 68 Central Square, East Boston, MA. 61

that appeared almost haunted in their deserted plight. It is reported that over 100 old sailing ships were removed and broken up as “firewood for the poor.”102

Of bigger help and longer lasting impact were the projects of the Works Progress Administration (WPA). Many of those were in East Boston or hired East Boston residents. Some of the more interesting WPA projects that affected East Boston by improving infrastructure and providing employment were: Improvements at the Lockwood Basin (no longer in existence); a large-scale work endeavor to improve East Boston Airport (now Logan International); repairs and improvements at the facilities of the Boston/East Boston ferries (also no longer in existence); the Bennington Street reconstruction, and the Cottage Street sewer from Porter to Maverick.103

Other local projects funded through either the WPA or other New Deal programs were: the building of the East Boston Station Post Office, constructed with federal Treasury Department funds toward the end of the Depression in 1939. Inside the Post Office, murals entitled “Communication” were done by artist Ralf Edgar Nickelsen (not an East Boston resident, it should be noted) and paid for by a New Deal agency, the Treasury Section of Fine Arts.104

Another interesting project that employed more than a few men, quite probably some from East Boston since the neighborhood had such a link with the harbor and the sea, was the disposal of ships and the creation of an artificial reef. Starting in the Depression and lasting for 12 years was a project that scuttled ships to the east of Boston Light in what came to be known as the Lightship Dumping Grounds. The mere idea of creating an artificial reef was quite avant- garde for the 1930s, but because there were abandoned ships all around, not only in East Boston, but in all parts of the city that bordered on the harbor, it was a project that was developed by the WPA. Unlike the breaking up of small wooden boats in East Boston to give firewood to the needy, the Lightship Dumping Ground received all kinds of ships. Creating the artificial reef while creating employment were: wooden schooners, barges, freighters, cargo vessels, and Navy ships.105

102 Luys, Errol. “Boston from the Great Depression to WWII.” Luys, Errol. erroluys.com/Boston/WorkingNotesConvoy.htm (accessed March 18, 2018). 103 “Projects in Boston.” The Living New Deal. https://livingnewdeal.org/us/ma/page1/ (accessed March 18, 2018). 104 Ibid. 105 Ibid. 62

The WPA also directly assisted the Social Centers when the Westford Camps were being built. Men in WPA programs were hired to clear land, mill wood, and build cabins on the land the Hyams sisters assembled in Westford, MA.106

Works Progress Administration workers were also employed in writing travel guides to Massachusetts. In one, entitled “Motor Tour 3 (East Boston)” the East Boston Social Centers Council was highlighted as a point of interest. The entry read:

“The East Boston Social Centers Council (open) occupies an old red brick building, formerly a church, in Central Square. Endowed by Jewish philanthropists, it offers to all creeds and races recreation, instruction in the arts and crafts, music, drama, and health education.”107

It is interesting that the writer thought it important to point out that the Hyams sisters were Jewish. It is unclear why he or she did so, but it could just have been pure astonishment on the writer’s part that a community full of mostly Italians and Italian-Americans were being served through a center set up with money from Jewish benefactors. Or, it could have simply been admiration that those who gave, gave freely and with no restriction on creed and race.

106 Clipping from an undated, unknown newspaper found in the archives of the East Boston Social Centers, 63 Central Square, East Boston, MA. 107 The WPA Guide to Massachusetts: The Bay State Federal Writers’ Project, Trinity University Press, October 31, 2013, “Motor Tour 3 (East Boston)” Entry #125. 63

Excerpt from a typed report, circa late 1930s, addressing East Boston concerns during The Great Depression. Found in the archives of the East Boston Social Centers, 68 Central Square, East Boston, MA

Newspaper clipping from the Christian Science Monitor, April 20, 1933. Found in the archives of the East Boston Social Centers, 68 Central Square, East Boston, MA 65

White paper and black ink now faded to yellow pages and sepia handwriting sits in the Social Centers’ archives. Dated January 1937, it is in Irene Nelson’s neat penmanship and gives us a unique insight into what was going on at the cooperative living residence at 110 White Street. The duplex house – 108 & 110 White Street housed Mr. and Mrs. Nelson and their three daughters. Others who worked at the East Boston Social Centers Council lived there as well. This followed true settlement-house tradition, although in many settlement houses, the workers lived at the settlement in the same building where programs were run. White Street was somewhat removed geographically from the main sites of East Boston Social Centers, but having many of the staff live at White Street facilitated Max Nelson’s goal of having communal living and communal work for a dedicated group.

“The house at 110 White Street continues to usefulness with a very harmonious group in residence. Those who live there appreciate not only the comforts of the house and the convenience and economy of co-operative living, but also the sociability of a common table and – especially – the opportunity to offer hospitality to neighborhood friends.

“Nearly every Sunday evening sees a group of from fifteen to forty gathered in the living -room. These are often boys brought from the Marginal Street district by Mr. Welch. Perhaps they call themselves the Mountaineers though they may never have seen a mountain. They are none the less interested in wood-lore, and Mr. Nelson’s talk on fire-building and a story of some men who got badly lost in a volcanic cave will hold them speechless.

“The Sunday evenings preceding the Christmas presentation of “Joy to the World” were given over to earnest practice of Christmas music with Miss Lucy Wright accompanying at her own beautiful piano which she has loaned to the house for the length of her stay as a resident.

“One Saturday evening in December a group of older girls came to hear about Christmas customs in Germany, as told by the mother of one of the staff, herself of German parentage.

“The following Saturday a similar group of twenty young women was told about Christmas in Bethlehem by one who had experienced it not many years ago. Charming pictures were shown. And for this occasion, a Syrian friend – the mother of another staff member, had made cakes which might be served in the Holy Land.

“Children’s clubs sometimes come of an afternoon for cocoa and stories around the fire. Miss Wright had such a party for her Junior chorus of twelve little Italian children. Perhaps the high spot of the Christmas season was when a truck drew up at our curb just after dark on Christmas Eve. The residents were home – it was nearly time for dinner – and were delighted when children’s voices were heard in the first carols of the evening. It was Miss Anderson and Mr. Welch with a truckload of little people from Marginal Street wearing gay little red flannel capes and caps. They were ushered into our living-room where more carols [were] sung and the Nelson children enjoyed passing fruit and nuts.

“Later that same evening a large number of caroling leaders came back to 110 White Street after the annual tour of East Boston on which it was particularly festive to meet Mr. Rutherford with The Trinity House carolers.

“Many dinner guests come who simply enjoy the experience of visiting a settlement. Others contribute a great deal during even a short stay. One example of this, still beautifully vivid, is the over-night visit in the early part of this week of Martha Cruikshank Ramsay who may be said to have originated the conception of social music in the settlements of America. In one brief evening she gave a rare musical feast to 150 young people packed into the social room at the Center in which they themselves participated with deepest appreciation and perfect decorum (although this was not a homogeneous group and at least half of them were inexperienced in music.) The lovely music ranged from Czech folk songs and Russian and German to unusual and very beautiful music from our Southern mountains. Later, the staff gathered around the fire at White Street to listen to an impromptu panel discussion by Mrs. Ramsay, Mrs. Powers, and Mr. Nelson – after which none of us will ever be the same!

“Adult work now being reorganized on class basis – for the sake of reaching a much larger group of parents. There are to be classes every afternoon for women, as well as evening lectures for both mothers and fathers.

“The Center will have its own programs as suggested above. In addition, plans are under way for close cooperation in working up audiences for W.P.A. activities.”108

Social workers had to be trained, and S. Max Nelson found a way to do that while benefiting the Social Centers as well as the aspiring social worker. He offered housing and training to those interested in the field of social work for which they paid a small fee (fee unknown), and, in exchange, gained experience and references. This sounds similar to today’s internship and supervision program. It is presumed that Nelson charged a fee mostly to cover room and board, although he may have been ahead of his time in charging for individual supervision of social workers in training. An undated copy of the Journal of Social Work included this ad placed by Mr. Nelson:

“Workers Wanted

Social Settlement Training opportunities on volunteer basis, part or full-time, For women in the techniques of social settlement work. City community. Foreign background people. A few residence opportunities in settlement residence. Social work atmosphere. Reasonable rates. Write stating education, etc. S. Max Nelson, General Director, East Boston Social Centers Council, Box No 1, East Boston, Mass”109

108 Irene Nelson, January 1937. From the uncatalogued archives of the East Boston Social Centers, 68 Central Square, East Boston, MA. 109 Journal of Social Work, “Classified Advertisements,” 366. Ebooksread.samaragbi.ru/…page-99-survey- midmontly-journal-of-social-work-vol (accessed: March 23, 2018). 68

Summer Play School, 1935. Photograph from the archives of the East Boston Social Centers, 68 Central Square, East Boston, MA

On the 4th of February 1938, S. Max Nelson received a letter from Mr. B.G. Tobey of the Association for Improving the Conditions of the Poor telling him what a good job he had done in New York and congratulating him on his “new” East Boston job, although, by this time, Nelson had been in Massachusetts for nearly eight years. Mr. Tobey may have lost track of time, but he had not lost track of S. Max Nelson. Perhaps the Depression and the atmosphere around it made Tobey think of Nelson; he was obviously pleased that Max had continued on in the same line of work, especially so because of the hard economic times and the increased importance of settlement-house work during this time period.110

110 B.G. Tobey to S. Max Nelson, February 4, 1938. Found in the uncatalogued archives of the East Boston Social Centers, 68 Central Square, East Boston, MA. 69

Nelson had little time to think about his old New York friends and colleagues other than perhaps the occasional communication to share ideas or information that might help with each other’s work. In Boston, the Hyams sisters were anxious for their vision to unfold and for S. Max Nelson to unfold it. Nelson was busy overseeing programs and services at the Central Square Center, the Marginal Street Center, the Jeffries Point Boys’ Club, as well as out-of-town sites such as Camp Cielo Celeste, Camp Camelot, Camp Wakitatina, and Camp Nashoba, all predecessors of the Westford Camps.

Mr. Nelson undoubtedly had little time to review everything that was written about the East Boston Social Centers Council or about him during the formative years of the organization under Hyams sponsorship. But a scrapbook in the archives shows that Charles D. Dilday was keeping track. Mr. Dilday was most likely a board member of the Social Centers Council. Boston City Directories for multiple years identified his profession as a publicist. He was volunteering his talents to the organization. In 1932, he gifted S. Max Nelson with a thick binder full of newspaper clippings for that year, and all of them were about the Social Centers! East Boston had multiple newspapers at the time, but it was not just local media that was paying attention. It was good news which the community liked to read about. The Great Depression was there in the background but inspiring work and assisting others helped to balance out the great economic concerns.111

111 Charles Dilday to S. Max Nelson, 1932. From a binder full of news clippings found in the archives of the East Boston Social Centers, 68 Central Square, East Boston, MA. 70

Typed letter from Charles D. Dilday to S. Max Nelson addressing the excellent press coverage the Social Centers Council received in their first year of active programming. Found in the archives of the East Boston Social Centers, 68 Central Square, East Boston, MA 72

A newspaper report states that the first Summer Play School was held in July of 1932. The East Boston Free Press had a column called the “Center of Things.” All talk and reportage centered around what was going on at the East Boston Social Centers Council. Because S. Max Nelson was new, and the Hyams sisters were dedicated to their commitment of helping East Boston, there were a number of programs and services getting off the ground.

Typed excerpt from a report on the Summer Play School Program, 1934, emphasizing their theme of democracy. From the archives of the East Boston Social Centers, 68 Central Square, East Boston, MA

For parents who could not afford to send their children to the countryside camps or who did not want to let the children out of their sight for consecutive overnights, the Social Centers’ summer day programming was very popular. A handmade book, dated 1934 details the activities of the Summer Play School. It is interesting to note that the book mentions that “[the] extremes of our neighborhood covers Cottage St, Marion St, Brook St, and Border St.”112

An old scrapbook for the Summer Play School 1936 holds a great deal of information from the Dietician who listed 19 children under a report entitled “Malnourished Children Who Received Eggnogs in the Morning.” The dietician also recommended that this be practiced the following summer. Health played as big a part in the Summer Play School as it did at the countryside camps. Emphasis was on helping children gain weight and, after discovering that a large

112 Author unknown. Handmade scrapbook dated 1934. Found in the archives of the East Boston Social Center, 68 Central Square, East Boston, MA. 73

percentage of them had poor teeth, the infamous Tooth Brush Drill was instituted.113

Photograph of children brushing their teeth, a daily routine in the Summer Play School. Circa 1936. Found in the archives of the East Boston Social Centers, 68 Central Square, East Boston, MA

In the mid-30s, the Summer Play School children were divided into groups and given nationalities or ethnicities. In 2018, our sensibilities are such that we would feel it appropriate to teach children about other cultures to help them better understand the world; however, telling an Italian-American child that he or she was Chinese or Russian (and would be for the whole summer!) might be viewed as politically incorrect or even as cultural appropriation. The groups were: Japanese, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Chinese (in this group children were even given Chinese names), and the Gypsies. The children in each group learned about those specific cultures.114 One young woman wrote a poem:

113 Staff Dietician. “Summer Play School 1936.” Handmade book found in the archives of the East Boston Social Center, 68 Central Square, East Boston, MA. 114 Handmade, uncatalogued scrapbook found in the archives of the East Boston Social Center, 68 Central Square, East Boston, MA. 74

Poem in a scrapbook of the Summer Play School, written by playschool participant, Lillian Joseph, age 7. Circa mid-1930s. Found in the archives of the East Boston Social Centers, 68 Central Square, East Boston, MA

The children were encouraged to write about the nationality they were assigned. As with any group of children, some seemed more engaged with the task than others. Their day camp counselor wrote out the children’s work in her neat hand for inclusion in the scrapbook. Little Lillian’s poem, above, was written before World War II. One can’t help but wonder what she might have been taught and what she might have written ten years later.

Typed schedule of daily activity for the Summer Play School of the East Boston Social Centers. Circa 1930s. From the archives of the East Boston Social Centers, 68 Central Square, East Boston, MA

Photograph of Summer Play School participants having a picnic at the park. Circa 1930s. Found in the archives of the East Boston Social Centers, 68 Central Square, East Boston, MA

Fridays were field-trip day at the Summer Play School and, according to counselor’s notes, the favorite places for the children to go were the Children’s Museum in Jamaica Plain, the Customs House Tower for the climb, Faneuil Hall Market just to walk around, and visiting Whiting’s Milk in Charlestown. Swimming at Wood Island Park was also popular. One counselor noted: “If the weather didn’t permit, or if some special activity was planned for the day, each child was given a shower before lunchtime.”115

The Great Depression may have been going on around them, but many East Boston residents, poor before the start of the economic downslide and working in laboring positions, saw little change in their status. Money saving meals were cooked as always, and occasionally there was even a little money for a social event.

115 Ibid. 77

An example of community spirit occurred on 25 April 1935, as the Central Square Center Italian Chorus held a “Un Giorno di Festa” to benefit Camp Cielo Celeste. Admission was 35 cents. For someone living in an era of “Buddy, Can You Spare a Dime?” 35 cents equaled $6.36 in today’s (2018) dollars.116 But the neighborhood supported the Social Centers and, especially the camps and the children.

From stationery for the Jeffries Point Boys Club on Marginal Street, a part of the East Boston Social Centers Council. 1939. Found in the archives of the East Boston Social Centers, 68 Central Square, East Boston, MA

This was the era when S. Max Nelson was settling into East Boston as well as into his role as General Director of the Social Centers. He was described by a secretary of the organization, Elizabeth La Camera of Winthrop as “a creative man who loved to write and recite poetry; he also enjoyed sing-alongs and reveled in being entertained by the campers singing camp songs.”117

116 Inflation Calculator. https://www.saving.org/inflation.php?amount=100&year=1935 (accessed March 24, 2018). 117 From a photocopied newspaper clipping, undated, from an unidentified newspaper found in the archives of the East Boston Social Centers, 68 Central Square, East Boston, MA. 78

A scribbled poem in S. Max Nelson’s handwriting, undoubtedly in first draft, found on the back of an old envelope in the archives of the East Boston Social Centers, 68 Central Square, East Boston, MA.

S. Max Nelson left mostly writings on social work, group work, democracy, neighborhood and social centers, and similar thoughts in a serious vein. He did not leave his poetry behind. This one piece (above) on the back of a yellowed envelope perhaps was not meant to be shared, but was rather a musing he had at the end of an East Boston work day, most likely during the Depression years.

“November twilight fading Red-cheeked children playing Gray plumes lasting [easting? ] over supper fires Wood-smoke perfumes Thin golden line of flaming cloud Writes finis to a perfect autumn day.”

Anyone who has lived in Boston can relate to the kind of November day Mr. Nelson was referencing in his poem, the kind of day that might be either chilly or perhaps unseasonably warm. The color in the clouds that he wrote of might hint at the weather to come. Of course, only a few alive now remember the smoke that arose around dinner time as food cooked on wood stoves. But one can easily imagine the weather and, with closed eyes, it is almost possible to see the smoke drifting from chimneys. The scene must have inspired S. Max Nelson to grab a pencil and the first piece of paper he could find (the back of an envelope) to write down the image, an image that seems – at the span of over 80 years – to be a gift to anyone reading it. One emotion is very clear: S. Max Nelson was content, settled in East Boston, loving his community and his work in it.

Ticket to an event for children at Central Square Center. 1932. Found in the archives of the East Boston Social Centers, 68 Central Square, East Boston, MA

Ticket to a theatrical event at Central Square Center. 1932. Found in the archives of the East Boston Social Centers, 68 Central Square, East Boston, MA

Ticket to a basketball game with dance hosted by the Maverick Young Men’s Club. 1932. Note that the orchestra is listed as an All-Girl Orchestra, certainly remarkable for its time. Found in the archives of the East Boston Social Centers, 68 Central Square, East Boston, MA 81

The 1940s, the War Years, and East Boston

No one can explain why there is more material in the Social Centers’ archives regarding the decade of the 1940s than there is almost any other time period. Was this the busiest time in the Social Centers’ history? Was there a concerted effort on behalf of staff and leadership to preserve and save documents? Or were the boxes containing 1940’s material saved, perhaps unknowingly, while material from other decades got thrown away by accident? No one will ever know, but there is tremendous gratitude to the forward-thinking individuals who took the time to file away papers, programs, and pamphlets that they valued and knew were – and would be in the future - important.

If lack of employment, proper housing, food availability, and health were major concerns of the Depression, the 1940s found the nation preoccupied with issues of war abroad, and, at home, one of the overriding concerns was of juvenile delinquency.

A weathered booklet published by the Massachusetts Child Council sits in the Social Centers’ archives, put there, one can imagine, by S. Max Nelson or his wife, both of whom gave a great deal of thought to the issue. “The Problem of Juvenile Delinquency: An effort to examine to the foundation the present inadequate methods of dealing with child misconduct and conditions that produce it.” The title sounds like it is about to bite into a large piece of pie. It’s aim, it says is “Not what it will do, not what it is likely to do, but what a civilized commonwealth should do, and can do, to reduce delinquency and its fruition into crime.”118

With S. Max Nelson’s management style putting emphasis on leadership and training, grooming volunteer leaders, and creating more opportunities for youth

118 Massachusetts Child Council. “The Problem of Juvenile Delinquency.” Booklet found in the archives of the East Boston Social Centers, 68 Central Square, East Boston, MA. 82

in the community, it appears that he was in the right place at the right time to carry out his social programs designed, in part, to address this issue of juvenile delinquency and prevent it from affecting the neighborhood.

Photograph: “A Monday Afternoon Staff Meeting.” Circa 1940s. Note that during the war years, many of the staff members were female. S. Max Nelson, Director, stands in the rear at left. Found in the archives of the East Boston Social Centers, 68 Central Square, East Boston, MA. Photographer unknown.

There were many programs for boys. In a typed report done by Ed Martin, Assistant Director of Boys at the Central Square Center, he describes how he obtained the position and describes quite a bit about what he did once he started work. He was offered the job, he wrote as “the post [was] left vacant with the enlistment of Louis Maglio.”119

Time and time again, references to enlistments, men leaving for training, and voids in staffing due to the war were common. Younger men were given

119 Ed Martin. “Young Men’s Department Annual Report.” 1941. Found in the archives of the East Boston Social Centers, 68 Central Square, East Boston, MA. 83

opportunities to lead when their slightly older counterparts went off to war. No one knew how long the war would last or how many young men it would affect. Ed Martin must have wondered what the future was for himself and the boys he mentored but made little mention of it in his otherwise long and detailed report. The report is undated but is clearly from the 1941-1945-year period.

Some of the activities designed to keep the boys occupied were:

*The Redskins – boys 11 to 14 – relay races and circle games. The group hoped to form a basketball league.

*Senior Matchcraft – “Outranking by far all other crafts in popularity is this interesting hobby that is reaching its height of enthusiasm in East Boston.” They made jewel boxes, crosses, replicas of bridges, etc. The crosses they made, they sold.

*Physical Fitness Class – little tots – Calisthenics. A Harvard student came in to work with “the lads.”

*Block Printing – 10 boys learned block printing and had some recognition in the Hobby Show. “Next project is making their own Christmas cards.”

*Senior and Junior Pyrography – burning imprints of pictures on wood

*Picture Frame Club – this was similar to a prerequisite class for the younger children who wanted to get into Matchcraft.

*Archery – “This year we have been able to boast of a sport that is fast reinventing itself among America’s favorite pastimes.” Boys made their own bows at the cost of 75 cents (equivalent to $10.79 in 2018 dollars), learned how to use them, mastered the art of making arrows, and archery technique. They made their target from several old cork life preservers (living in a maritime community came in handy!) and corrugated cardboard placed on a plywood backboard which was the regulation size – 48” diameter. 40 to 100- 16 pulling bows were made from hickory.

Photograph of boys participating in archery. Circa 1940s. Found in the archives of the East Boston Social Centers, 68 Central Square, East Boston, MA. Photographer unknown.

Archery was an interesting addition to the boys’ activities as, initially, no one – including staff at the Social Centers or parents - thought that the boys could afford this “expensive sport.” Luckily for them, community member, Salvie Sputaro, volunteered his time and expertise to the boys at the Center. He not only taught them how to make the equipment, but how to play the sport. Sputaro is an example of a true volunteer leader and S. Max Nelson must have been very pleased with Sputaro’s work and results.

Ed Martin also wrote about his efforts with recruiting more boys and reported that interest was growing. As part of the 1940’s recruitment drive to draw more boys off the streets and into the center, a Parents’ Gym Night was arranged. 60 participants put on a physical exhibition of talents for an audience of 200 of which 50 were parents. Skills on display were: boxing, tumbling, relay races, calisthenics, group games, and basketball.

Directing the boys in the various activities were: Ed Martin, Fritz Kempner, Angelo DeFillippo, and Witold Mankiewicz. If anything could speak to the diversity of the East Boston neighborhood during the 1940s, it would be the names on this list. The boys so enjoyed working with these mentors that they pooled their pennies and bought a much-needed clock for the gym.

Ed Martin did add a personal touch at the end of his report: his goal was to enroll at Boston University part-time, but he was uncertain if he could fit it in around his job. The war had changed everything. Louis Maglio went off to the armed services, and Ed Martin went from plans for studying to working full time with youth. But everyone adjusted, even if it meant giving up personal goals or putting them on temporary hold. One commitment was clear and that was everyone’s devotion to youth and the community.120

Photograph of camp staff, Westford, MA. 1941. Front row: Angelo Musto Jr, Karl Horak, Israel Silver, Joe Coletta, Ed Martin. Back row: Elmer Turnquist, Ed Teed, S. Max Nelson, Robert O’Neil, Paul O’Neil. Found in the archives of the East Boston Social Centers, 68 Central Square, East Boston, MA

120 Ibid. 86

Typed list from the Central Square Boys’ Department, 1941, listing the streets that the boys lived on and how many participants there were from each street. Found in the archives of the East Boston Social Centers, 68 Central Square, East Boston, MA

Photograph of the Chemistry Club for boys, led by a Harvard student volunteer leader. Circa 1940s. Found in the archives of the East Boston Social Centers, 68 Central Square, East Boston, MA

Boys weren’t the only ones receiving attention at the Centers. Over at the Marginal Street Center, one teacher with three Wheelock students to assist, supervised a nursery-school group. In the afternoon, 250 children were served. It is not known what the morning teacher-to-student ratio was. However, with 250 students in the afternoon, it is hoped that there was more help. One of the teachers/counselors wrote the following:

“Just a few visits to the homes of many of the children reveals a dearth of play things, the absence of dolls and games, and annoyed, tired mothers.”121 In contemporary times, this statement might sound quite judgmental. After all, do children really need dolls and games in order to be able to invent play? While the staff member who wrote this may have observed tired mothers, how did she know

121 Unknown Author. “Marginal Street Center, 1941.” Handmade book found in the archives of the East Boston Social Centers, 68 Central Square, East Boston, MA. 88

they were annoyed? Were they annoyed with their children or her presence? We will never know, but it is an interesting statement and today would not be seen as politically correct without corroborating evidence.

Photograph of Summer Play School participants in the park. Circa 1940s. From the archives of the East Boston Social Centers, 68 Central Square, East Boston, MA

A bound binder entitled “Summer Play School – 1943” tells us how children were chosen for participation. Apparently, those underweight or considered in weaker health were picked to be a part of the program before their healthier – and, it is assumed, weightier counterparts. The emphasis was definitely on helping children gain weight which is rather the opposite of what a children’s program might be doing in contemporary times when obesity among boys and girls is an ongoing concern.122

The binder also gives us a snapshot of what the staff looked like in the summer of 1943 (Summer Play School only). All were women. One lived in Brookline, and was in graduate school at Boston University studying music. Another lived in East Boston and was a graduate of Westfield Teachers’ College. A third teacher

122 Author Unknown. “Summer Play School, 1943.” Handmade book found in the archives of the East Boston Social Centers, 68 Central Square, East Boston, MA. 89

hailed from New Lebanon Center, NY, had graduated from Mount Holyoke, and was in the area attending Boston University for social work. A Back Bay resident had attended East Boston High School and held a degree from Salem State Teachers’ College. Another was from Franklin, MA and was in her senior year at Emmanuel College. The seventh teacher on the list lived in East Boston and had graduated from East Boston High School.

In addition to the seven teachers, there were six Assistant Teachers including 2 men and 4 women. Most were graduates of or seniors at East Boston High. The others came from Mount St. Joseph Academy and Girls’ High School. The Summer Play School also involved what they called “apprentices” which were all local 7th and 8th graders who were being taught useful group work and leadership skills. The program employed a Simmons graduate as a Dietician; she lived in Winthrop. The cook came from Northeastern, and there were assistant kitchen workers, all from East Boston.123

The staff kept detailed records regarding summer weight gain. It was reported that the average gain per child was 1 lb. The highest weight gain recorded for a single child was 4 lbs. The collective weight gained over the summer was 65 lbs, and collective pounds lost - 23. It was not noted what the weight goals were and whether they were met.124

123 Ibid. 124 Ibid. 90

Photograph marked Marginal Street Center. Circa 1940s. Found in the archives of the East Boston Social Centers, 68 Central Square, East Boston, MA

The Marginal Street Center of the East Boston Social Centers Council was the former Immigrants Home, a Protestant-run shelter for women and children. Photo circa 1912. The Social Centers began use of the building in the 1930s. Photo from the archives of the East Boston Social Centers, 68 Central Square, East Boston, MA

While the boys were learning archery and matchcraft, the girls were doing what was expected of females in that time period; they were taking cooking classes. “Girls may come in the evenings after age 13.” It was noted that there were 150 girls ages 13 to 18.

“Leaders” (group leaders from the neighborhood plus college students) meet “each day from five to five thirty. At this time any leader may bring her special difficulties to the group for consideration and discussion. It is the only time when all the leaders that work with a particular age group may receive help while the experiences are fresh in their minds.”125 That the girls were learning leadership, despite being relegated to cooking and sewing classes, was refreshing, and certainly played to S. Max Nelson’s greater vision. It is nice to know that he saw leadership as being important to women.

That said, it was obviously very useful that someone knew how to sew as, found in the archives was a black binder with a title in German highlighting “Report of the Mothers’ Club of the Marginal Street Center 1949-1950.” By reading, it is learned that “in the spring of 1949 the mothers had heartily pitched into the job of patching and mending 400 camp blankets.”126

125 Ibid. 126 Author Unknown. “Report of the Mother’s Club of the Marginal Street Center, 1949-1950.” From a handmade notebook found in the archives of the East Boston Social Centers, 68 Central Square, East Boston, MA. 93

Photograph of the Leaders Group organized by S. Max Nelson. Circa 1940s, at the Marginal Street Center. From the archives of the East Boston Social Centers, 68 Central Square, East Boston, MA

The City of Boston closed the old Plummer School at 11 Lamson Street in 1942. By 1945, the property was deeded by the City to the Good Will House Association, Inc. Laurence P. Howe was the Headworker at Good Will House and made the transition from Webster Street to Lamson.127

127 From an undated clipping from an unknown newspaper. Found in the archives of the East Boston Social Centers, 68 Central Square, East Boston, MA. 94

From stationery of the Goodwill House Association (alternately spelled Good Will House Association), Circa 1940s. Found in the archives of the East Boston Social Centers, 68 Central Square, East Boston, MA

Laurence P. Howe, in shirt sleeves and glasses on right, was the Head Worker at Good Will House from 1942 to 1949. Here he is pictured with some of the boys involved in activities there. From the archives of East Boston Social Centers, 68 Central Square, East Boston, MA. Photographer unknown.

Photograph of the old Plummer School at 11 Lamson Street which the City of Boston deeded to the Good Will House Association in 1945. Good Will House then moved from its Webster Street location. The building was later torn down and is now the site of a playground. Photo found in the archives of the East Boston Social Centers, 68 Central Square, East Boston, MA

A report from 1947 says in reference to the building at Lamson Street: “Now . . .has small theatre ‘in the making,’ game-room with ping-pong tables, medium- sized bowling alley. A gymnasium is in the making [for] volleyball, basketball, wrestling. For the girls: cooking, baking, skylight on top floor ideal studio for amateur sculptors. Also on top floor, art gallery. Woodworking shop, sewing classes: boys & girls. Metal and tinfoil classes – volunteer teachers. Rear of building: playground, softball & basketball.” 128

It is interesting to note that boys were included in sewing class. This may have been thought of as more vocational training than domestic arts. Good seamstresses and tailors were still in demand in the 1940s.

Over at the Jeffries Point Boys’ Club, a “Director’s Report” from 1940-1941, written by Israel Silver shows a thoughtful and devoted director giving insight into activities and programs for the boys. Israel Silver’s name appears often in written reports from the Social Centers. He worked for the organization for quite some time and appeared to be a popular and well-respected leader.129

The Jeffries Point Boys’ Club had new showers constructed in the summer of 1945, courtesy of the Hyams Foundation.130

But how was East Boston looking as a neighborhood in the 1940s? In a thesis by Francis D. DeBilio entitled “Protestant Mission Work Among Italians in Boston” written in 1949 at Boston University, DeBilio had this to say:

“In 1945 the Commonwealth of Massachusetts census for East Boston recorded a population of 53,901, representing about 7 percent of the population of the City proper. The population decreases of East Boston since 1920 have been at a rate twice as fast as the population of the City of Boston.” To put this in perspective, the population of East Boston in 1925 was about 64,000. In the current year of 2018, 40,800 is the count, making East Boston the fifth most populated neighborhood in Boston. 131

128 Author unknown. From a report dated 1947 found in the archives of the East Boston Social Centers, 68 Central Square, East Boston, MA. 129 Israel Silver. “Director’s Report.” 1940-1941. From the archives of the East Boston Social Centers, 68 Central Square, East Boston, MA. 130 Hyams Foundation. Letter to East Boston Social Centers. August 20, 1945. Found in the archives of the East Boston Social Centers, 68 Central Square, East Boston, MA. 131 Francis D. DeBilio. “Protestant Mission Work Among Italians in Boston. 1949. Boston University, Theses & Dissertations (pre-1964), http://open.bu.edu (accessed March 27, 2018). 98

But DeBilio was not as concerned about population of people in the 1940s as he was about the population of churches. “East Boston’s Protestant constituency is over-churched. Its estimated constituency of 3087 is served by thirteen churches. The Roman Catholic churches, eight in number, serve an estimated Catholic population of 47, 978. Of course, the estimated Catholic population includes practically all of the Italian population. Not all are practicing Roman Catholics; many have in reality no religious connection.” Even though the Protestants started churches, programs, and settlement houses in East Boston, their declining population of prospective converts was dwindling, along with any influence they may have had.132

Undated photo marked “The Chorale Group.” S. Max Nelson is on far right. Found in the archives of the East Boston Social Centers, 68 Central Square, East Boston, MA

132 Ibid. 99

Other activities in the 1940s were S. Max Nelson’s continuing annual leadership series.

Honors seemed to come to Mr. Nelson regularly. In April of 1947, S. Max Nelson was given a civic award for supervising and running summer camps. Two years later in 1949 he was presented with an award for his work as President of the Board of Trade. He seemed to be everywhere in the community working with various groups and being honored by all of them. In February of 1947 he represented East Boston at the 23rd Annual Interracial Goodwill Dinner held at Joy Street on Beacon Hill. Mr. Nelson also served as Chairman of the event.133

133 Various dated newspaper clippings from unknown newspapers. Found in the archives of the East Boston Social Centers, 68 Central Square, East Boston, MA. 100

S. Max Nelson receiving an award from the Board of Trade. Newspaper clipping, 1949, from unknown newspaper. From the archives of the East Boston Social Centers, 68 Central Square, East Boston, MA

Toward the end of the 1940s, in the Spring of 1949, an All-Day Folk Festival was held at the Central Square Center. Music and dance representing many

101

different countries was offered including: England, Scotland, Russia, Lithuania, Czechoslovakia, Switzerland, Spain, Yugoslavia, Denmark, Sweden, Italy, and Mexico. The list of national offerings spoke to the diversity of East Boston and the greater Boston area at the time. 134

134 “All-Day Folk Festival” program. 1949. Found in the archives of the East Boston Social Centers, 68 Central Square, East Boston, MA. 102

Cover for program of the All Day Folk Festival held at Central Square Center, 1949. Found in the archives of the East Boston Social Centers, 68 Central Square, East Boston, MA

103

Cut paper art depicting folk costumes. From the archives of the East Boston Social Centers, 68 Central Square, East Boston, MA

The Camps

There was something magical about sleeping in a place where crickets could be heard chirping, frogs could be heard chur-rumping, and the occasional owl might hoot. It was very dark at night, good for sleeping, but strange for children used to streetlights and street noise. In the mornings, the sun would show the children a world full of trees, greenery, and a wide expanse of land where one could walk for what seemed like forever and still find more space in which to run. When East Boston residents who attended the camps speak of them, it is with a sense of awe, and the memories are some of the best of childhood. There are people who did not attend the camps, but their parents or grandparents did, and 104

they remember the stories that were told about summer days and nights in the countryside. In some families, those stories were so much a part of the family history, that each child took a piece of the camps with him or her into the future without ever having stepped a foot in a cabin or crossed a meadow.

Watercolor entitled “Finding Treasures” from a scrapbook made at summer camp. Unsigned. Artist may have been one of the camp counselors. Found in the archives of the East Boston Social Centers, 68 Central Square, East Boston, MA

The idea of getting children out into the fresh air had been around for a while. As early as 1894, the Floating Hospital for Children, now part of Tufts Medical Center, operated on a boat in Boston Harbor, the sea air thought beneficial to the child and their mothers too.135 Settlement houses often had summer camps

135 Floating Hospital for Children. “The History Behind the Name” from Who We Are at www.floatinghospital.org (accessed March 29, 2018). 105

attached to them. United South End Settlements in the South End of Boston had predecessor organizations that managed Camp Hale on Squam Lake in New Hampshire.136 Another South End settlement house, Ellis Memorial, received a donation in 1918 of 243 acres of land in Sharon, MA which was used to “expand summer camp programs which Ellis [had] been running since 1903 in New Hampshire.”137 And so it went, not only in New England, but in various settlement houses across the country, a commitment to the health and happiness of the children shown through the conception and management of summer camps outside of the cities.

The situation in East Boston was no different. There was a problem with summertime in the city: it was hot, the children were out of school, diets were not always healthy, and children were not always occupied. Combined with national events like the Great Depression, young children – particularly poor ones – were unlikely to thrive if not given alternatives.

Excerpt from a typed report regarding the number of children who had to be turned away from summer camp. Circa 1930s. Found in the archives of the East Boston Social Centers, 68 Central Square, East Boston, MA.

136 www.uses.org (accessed March 29, 2018). 137 www.ellismemorial.org

106

Even before the Hyams sisters decided to take some of their money and purchase land in Westford, MA for what would become known as the Westford Camps, what was first known as the East Boston Social Centers Council was doing work in the summer camp arena. There were summer day camps (discussed in separate chapters by decade), but there were also countryside camps. Evidence in the East Boston Social Centers’ archives holds scrapbooks, counselor’s reports, photographs, and artwork for their camps held in various locations: Camp Cielo Celeste, Billerica, MA, 1934 and in Carlisle, MA in 1935; Camp Nashoba, Carlisle, MA, 1935; Camp Wakitatina, Southville, MA, 1937, and a Camp Camelot, Jaffrey, NH in 1936. These were undoubtedly properties begged, borrowed, or rented from individuals or entities as no paperwork has been found to show any ownership on the part of East Boston Social Centers Council. It could be presumed that with the Hyams money, their social connections, as well as the connections S. Max Nelson was making around the city, that there were individuals willing to help by loaning or renting their rural properties for what was considered a good cause. These early camping experiences for girls and boys only reinforced what Isabel and Sarah Hyams already knew: they wanted to fund summer camps for East Boston children.

An article from the Fitchburg Sentinel in 1936 stated: “The Jones brothers have rented their farm to the East Boston Social Centers Council for July and August. Thirty boys and girls from six to 16 years of age [will attend].” Although it is unclear from this brief excerpt what town the farm was located in, it does illustrate to what extent the Social Centers went in order to find places suitable for summer camp use. 138

Isabel Hyams died in 1932139 and did not get to see her dream of the summer camps for East Boston children come into reality. Her trust secured the funding for many years, however. Her younger sister, Sarah, lived until 1942140 and was aware of five years of happy campers at Westford – and at other locations prior to 1937 - before her death. It is sad that the two sisters who cared so much for helping others were not alive long enough to see what magic their money brought into so many East Boston lives.

138 Fitchburg Sentinel, July 9, 1936. https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/45437054 (accessed April 2, 2018). 139 Isabel Hyams obituary. www.tech.mit.edu/V52/PDF/V52-N5.pdf (accessed April 3, 2018). 140 Massachusetts Death Index, 1901-1980. Vol 25, p. 171, index vol. no. 102. Ancestry.com (www.ancestry.com) : accessed March 6, 2018. 107

.Title page of a scrapbook for summer camp, mid 1930s. Found in the archives of the East Boston Social Centers, 68 Central Square, East Boston, MA

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First page of a scrapbook for Camp Cielo Celeste when it was located in Billerica, MA, early-to-mid 1930s. Found in the archives of the East Boston Social Centers, 68 Central Square, East Boston, MA

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Sarah and Isabel Hyams were already involved and interested in East Boston and helping to improve the lives of children and families there before their trust paid for a private firm to scout out the perfect location for what was then known as a “Fresh Air Camp.” The trust ended up buying 16 separate parcels of land in Westford, MA between Stony Brook and Keyes Brook. Included in the purchases was a beautiful 25-acre pond called Burge’s.141 There was a great deal of work to be done: clearing land, building cabins, and creating the proper set up for a camp and the activities it offered. The Social Centers hired men through the Works Progress Administration (WPA) to help build the camp. Pay was $1.00 per day plus a meal. It took two summers to build the camp.142 A year after the Hyams’ purchase, the famous hurricane of 1938 caused considerable damage and took down many trees. As a result, two sawmills were established there. Some of the lumber was used to construct camp buildings.143

141 Marian Harman. “A History of East Boston Camps.” www.westfordfriendsebsc.org/EastBostonCampHistory.pdf (accessed March 7, 2018). 142 An undated newspaper clipping from an unidentified newspaper found in the archives of the East Boston Social Centers, 68 Central Square, East Boston, MA. 143 Harman, Ibid. 110

New building at the Westford Camps, constructed 1937-1938. Photograph found in the archives of the East Boston Social Centers, 68 Central Square, East Boston, MA. Photographer unknown.

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Buses delivering (or perhaps picking up) children to/from the summer camps in Westford, MA. From the archives of the East Boston Social Centers, 68 Central Square, East Boston, MA

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Photograph from the early years of the summer camps at Westford, MA. Found in the archives of the East Boston Social Centers, 68 Central Square, East Boston, MA. Photographer unknown.

Three camps were consolidated in one place: Camp Cielo Celeste for young boys and girls ages 6 to 9; Camp Wakitatina for girls ages 10 to 15, and Camp Nashoba for boys ages 10 to 15. Over time, the age ranges changed slightly in each camp setting.144 Campers came from within the Social Centers’ own programs or were referred to the Social Centers by other nonprofit organizations in Boston. Eventually, children from Westford and surrounding areas were able to participate in day activities at the Westford Camps as well. Regarding the cost of attending in 1939 – “All social agencies referring children paid [a] basic rate of $3.50 a week. Full fees were $5.00 a week.”145 Notes from 1937 reveal that 75 children went to camp that summer, and 200 were turned away. Priority was given to those with health needs.146

144 Harman, Ibid. 145 From an uncatalogued report, 1939, found in the archives of the East Boston Social Centers, 68 Central Square, East Boston, MA. 146 From an uncatalogued report, 1937, found in the archives of the East Boston Social Centers, 68 Central Square, East Boston, MA. 113

Outdoor dining at summer camp, Westford, MA. Counselors and campers at Wakitatina, the camp for older girls. Found in the archives of the East Boston Social Centers, 68 Central Square, East Boston, MA. Photographer unknown.

Old scrapbooks and end-of-summer reports from the camps hold many comments about the children and their health. Since the weakest, neediest children were chosen for summer camps over their healthier, better adjusted schoolmates, it is not surprising to read the notes of the camp nurse at Cielo Celeste, the camp for younger children, in 1937. She documented each child upon arrival; most were described as “pale.” Her final notes at the end of the camping session often included comments such as “got a good tan.” It may seem odd in contemporary times when sunscreen with a high SPF factor is mandated for children outdoors, but getting a good tan in the 1930s was akin to receiving a badge of accomplishment.147

147 Camp Cielo Celeste scrapbook, 1937, found in the archives of the East Boston Social Centers, 68 Central Square, East Boston, MA. 114

The same camp nurse noted that there were quite a few children classified as malnourished. Also, there were multiple cases of bedwetting which usually improved as the camping session went on and the children felt more comfortable in their country environment. The nurse seemed to take the bedwetting in stride, but she sounded irritated as she wrote about children who had never been taught table manners. As expected, the counselors and the nurse took the summer opportunity to teach the young children proper table manners. The children were young, excited, and most likely hungry by the time they sat down at the table, so it is difficult to tell whether their table manners reflected their home lives or just their lively spirits. Sadly, however, the nurse noted that several of the malnourished children could eat only small amounts of food at any one time. One young boy routinely hid food under his armpits to save for later; the nurse mentioned that she thought he came from a household where there was never enough to eat. Gradually, as the summer camp session wore on, she was able to convince him that he didn’t need to hide food; there was enough for him that day and the next day as well.148

How many children can fit in a boat? Summer camp, circa late 1930s. Photograph from the archives of the East Boston Social Centers, 68 Central Square, East Boston, MA. Photographer unknown.

148 Ibid. 115

Watercolor of girls engaged in an activity at summer camp. Artist unknown, but may have been one of the camp counselors. Painting found in the archives of the East Boston Social Centers, 68 Central Square, East Boston, MA

116

Endless cuts and bruises were treated by the nurse. These were routine, however, and she did not feel like going into great detail as to how the children came by these minor accidents. Her attention and time was taken up by a particular 5-year-old boy who used “very bad language.” Evidently, he swore so much that she was worried it might have a bad effect on the other children. Imagine if all the young ones returned to East Boston with a tough, new vocabulary! It must have been a very time-consuming task to work with the young fellow in order to change the way he spoke. At the end of the camp session, she felt that she had made quite good progress with him.149

Tiny children on a seesaw at summer camp. Photographer unknown. Undated photo found in the archives of the East Boston Social Centers, 68 Central Square, East Boston, MA

The main counselor at Camp Cielo Celeste during the summer of 1937 was concerned with other kinds of problems among the little ones. She wrote:

149 Ibid. 117

“Over two thirds of the children accepted had a distinct problem. I say two thirds because I believe that a successful group to work with is one where at least one third is normal.

“We had eight malnutrition cases, four recuperating from illnesses. Twelve maladjustment and six nervous children due to delicate health and improper environment.

“. . .the maladjustment cases have always been to me the most interesting to work with. I think that with camp life they correct themselves the quickest. In every case there was marked improvement and one feels that for these the summer should be much longer. It is sad that much of this constructive work is found to be lost during the winter in spite of the contact we always try to keep up with these cases.”150

It is not quite known what the counselor meant when she referred to “the maladjusted.” Terms like “nervous children,” “delicate health,” and [from] “improper environment[s]” are not phrases that would be used to describe children in the year 2018. Today, the children might be labeled “autistic” or “ADHD” or “dyslexic” or “disadvantaged,” even “abused.” Terminology has changed, perhaps, but children with problems have always existed, and the Social Centers always found ways to help young people, no matter what issue they faced. During the Depression, it did seem that a disproportionate number of children suffered from malnutrition, and those recuperating from illness were sometimes noted as having had rheumatic fever.

Interesting to note the counselor felt a successful group should contain one- third “normal” children. It is assumed she meant ones that had no recognizable behavioral or health issues. If this were the case, and she actually had two-thirds of her campers with problems, it puts her work – and the work of the other camp staff – into an entirely new light. This could not have been an easy job. Also notable is that she referred to the children as “cases” rather than “campers” which may have had to do with her particular academic background or may have had to do with the agency referring the child to the East Boston Camps. Children were referred from many agencies and health centers.

150 Camp Cielo Celeste scrapbook, 1937. Ibid. 118

Undated painting of small children dancing at Camp Cielo Celeste. Artist unknown, but most likely one of the camp counselors. From the archives of the East Boston Social Centers, 68 Central Square, East Boston, MA

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Painting of boys whittling at summer camp. Circa 1930s. Artist unknown, but likely one of the camp counselors. From the archives of the East Boston Social Centers, 68 Central Square, East Boston, MA

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Handwritten chart from Camp Wakitatina, summer 1940, showing sources of referral and ages of campers. From the archives of the East Boston Social Center, 68 Central Square, East Boston, MA

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Religion mixed easily and uneasily throughout the history of the East Boston Social Centers. For an organization with roots in the Congregational Church (through Good Will House Association) and the Episcopal Church (through Trinity House), the Social Centers, which had no religious affiliation, ended up serving predominantly Catholic children of Italian or Irish-American backgrounds. Some parents would not allow their children to attend summer camp unless they were promised that the boys and girls would attend church while away. The staff appeared to be a mix of religions, and it is certain that getting the children to a weekly church service was an added task on their weekly chore list. An excerpt from an old camping report shows the following:

From a typed report by a camp counselor, circa late 1930s/early 1940s, addressing the issue of religious observation at the summer camps. Found in the archives of the East Boston Social Centers, 68 Central Square, East Boston, MA

From taking the children by truck to a nearby town to inviting a Boston-area priest to hear confessions and say mass at the camps, the staff found ways to serve

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the children and meet the expectations of the parents. No one thought much about this other than that the children were mostly Catholic and were required to adhere to their weekly religious observations. Mass was integrated into the Westford Camp routine for years, and it was not until 2007 that a parent complained about their daughter being forced to attend Mass.151 It was bound to happen sooner or later, that a camper would not be Catholic and would not want to go to church or attend a religious service. Because the East Boston Social Centers ran the Westford Camps, but accepted federal money for other programs not camp-related, it was obvious that religion and state do not mix, and they could not afford to be seen as a “Catholic camp.” It was still permissible to take children to Catholic masses if requested by the parents, but it was not considered proper – or even legal – to force a child to go to Mass if he or she were not Catholic.

Mother’s Camp was another part of the Westford Camps experience. In this format, interested mothers went to camp for a week or two with their young children. To raise money for their retreat to the country, the mothers started by having a ravioli supper, a rummage sale, a dance, a Neighborhood Fair, and two more ravioli suppers.152 Their goal was to raise $300 in 1930’s dollars (approximately $4,526.75 in 2018 dollars!)153 which they managed to do. At one time, blankets were donated by the Red Cross. Some years the mothers received partial food donations and were able to arrange transportation at cost.

151 Legal correspondence, 2007 in the archives of the East Boston Social Centers, 68 Central Square, East Boston, MA. 152 From an uncatalogued report in the archives of the East Boston Social Centers, 68 Central Square, East Boston, MA. 153 Inflation calculator. www.usinflationcalculator.com

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Report of Mothers’ and Children’s Camp, circa 1930s, from a scrapbook prepared by a staff member. Found in the archives of the East Boston Social Centers, 68 Central Square, East Boston, MA

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Photograph of arrival at Mothers’ and Children’s Camp at Westford. Circa 1940s. Found in the archives of the East Boston Social Centers, 68 Central Square, East Boston, MA

Because it was the Depression, each mother was asked to bring the following items, although it is not clear if these were required per person or just per family (some mothers attended with one child, but others had more.).

2 lbs. prunes 2 lbs. apricots 2 lbs. granulated sugar 2 cans evaporated milk 1 box cornflakes 1 box oatmeal 1 lb. rice 1 pkg. raisins 1 lb. cornmeal 1 box farina Also: a small bottle of olive oil (it was noted that this was for treating sunburns)154

154 Mothers’ and Children’s Camp scrapbook, circa 1930s, found in the archives of the East Boston Social Centers, 68 Central Square, East Boston, MA. 125

Mothers’ and Children’s Camp was usually held in late June or before the regular camping season started.

Photo of mothers at Mothers’ and Children’s Camp, Westford, MA. Circa 1940s. From the archives of the East Boston Social Centers, 68 Central Square, East Boston, MA

“The mothers were convinced they were in heaven,” says a report written by a staff member.155 It is not difficult to imagine the joy and relief of being able to have a little vacation, even though they were only 32 miles from East Boston. They were seeing and experiencing a Massachusetts they knew little about and had time to relax with their children and make – or grow - friendships with other mothers.

155 Ibid. 126

Their countryside time was a bond they shared with the child or children they brought with them leaving one to wonder what the husbands did without them during this time. Who cooked and watched the other children? Nothing is written in the scrapbooks about that, but it would be interesting to know.

127

Excerpt from typed report by a staff member regarding the organization and philosophy of the Mothers’ and Children’s Camp. From the archives of the East Boston Social Centers, 68 Central Square, East Boston, MA

128

Mothers’ and Children’s Camp during the Depression meant having lots of fresh air, but very limited food. The quantity may not have been small, but the menu variations were. There was very little meat, and examples of daily menus show simplicity:

June 25th - Breakfast: prunes, scrambled eggs, toast, cocoa, milk

June 26th - Dinner: (served at midday): Corn chowder, vegetable salad, fruit jello, cupcakes, bread & butter, milk

June 28th - Supper: (evening meal): Lettuce and tomato salad sandwich, Rice custard pudding with raisins and eggs, milk156

Approximately a decade later, in 1947, a considerable difference is seen in the menu recorded for Mothers’ and Children’s Camp that year. The Camp report reveals: “The meals at Camp were an outstanding feature this summer. The two mothers who cooked regularly were assisted by all others on a regular schedule. Following is the complete menu which was worked out by the mothers at several pre-camp meetings.”

The report actually covers every menu for each day of the camp session, but looking in on just one day – Saturday, June 21, 1947, the improvement from the impoverished menus of the Depression-era camps can be seen.

Saturday, June 21, 1947

Breakfast: Orange Juice Oatmeal Bacon & Eggs Bread & Butter Coffee & Milk

156 Ibid. 129

Dinner: Veal Potato, Beets Salad Pudding & Peaches Coffee, Milk

Supper: Outdoor Hot Dog Roast

It should be noted that meat was served at each meal, a tremendous change from the 1930’s camp menu. And a decade later, the mothers had the option of coffee while in the 1930s, it appears that they drank milk right along with the children.157

157 Mothers’ and Children’s Camp scrapbook, 1947. Found in the archives of the East Boston Social Centers, 68 Central Square, East Boston, MA. 130

Baby in a bucket! Undated photo from Mothers’ and Children’s Camp. Found in the archives of the East Boston Social Centers, 68 Central Square, East Boston, MA

The Mothers’ Club at the Marginal Street Center continued for quite some time with many activities during the year as well as fundraising events. In a 131

report from 1949 – 1950, the following were listed: Halloween Costume Party with apple dunking; a chorus; a Christmas Party with a magician from Harvard, a Santa Claus, grab bags, a danced tarantella (young girls), and carols. There was a Rummage Sale, a cake sale, and sewing for camp (the mothers hemmed towels from material ordered from a textile mill.) as well as sewing for the center (the mothers made curtains.) There were also invited speakers who presented to the Mothers’ Club. One was from Boston Juvenile Court and spoke on “Juvenile Delinquency and Citizenship Training.” Another was a group discussion led by a Harvard graduate student entitled “Disobedience in Children – Why?”158

Social Centers staff who accompanied the mothers and their young children to camp also kept notes and wrote about activities, health of participants, and progress. It was rare to come across a report entry as personal as this one:

Excerpt from an undated, typed report by a staff member regarding a particular mother who benefited from participating in Mother and Children’s Camp. Found in the archives of the East Boston Social Centers, 68 Central Square, East Boston, MA

158 Mothers’ and Children’s Camp, 1949-1950. Report found in the archives of the East Boston Social Centers, 68 Central Square, East Boston, MA. 132

The Mothers’ and Children’s Camp at Westford, MA ended at some point in the 1970s.

Cover of a scrapbook for the Mothers and Children’s Camp, held in the mid-1930s in South Lyndeborough, NH. From the archives of the East Boston Social Centers, 68 Central Square, East Boston, MA 133

Painting of a happy summer camper done by Bob Munstedt. Circa late 1930s. From the archives of the East Boston Social Centers, East Boston MA

134

“Before supper we have retreat and everyone gets shined up. Ya got to be neat and clean,” said a young man at Camp Nashoba in 1938. “And then we get looked over before the flag comes down.” When asked by his interviewer to tell a little bit more about his camp experience, the boy replied: “Say, mister – I can’t tell you all about that camp. You ought to come down and see it next summer. It’s just like a dream come true . . .”159

159 Quote from a young camper, Camp Nashoba scrapbook, 1938. Found in the archives of the East Boston Social Centers, 68 Central Square, East Boston, MA. 135

Camp humor. Painting by Bob Munstedt. Westford Camps, late 1930s/early 1940s. From the archives of the East Boston Social Centers, 68 Central Square, East Boston, MA

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Painting and cartoon by Bob Munstedt. Westford Camps, late 1930s/early 1940s. From the archives of the East Boston Social Centers, 68 Central Square, East Boston, MA

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Camp counselors usually made scrapbooks to commemorate each year’s summer and to validate their work. The scrapbooks in the Social Centers’ archives, many yellowed and brittle, contain whatever the person in charge of writing them thought important: photographs, drawings, paintings, various quotes from the children, the counselor’s thoughts about their campers, programs from drama performed, menus, and other memorabilia. Sometimes goals were mentioned, or statistics included, but the emphasis was more on the human side of the experience.

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Cover of a handmade scrapbook commemorating Camp Nashoba for Boys at Westford, MA, summer of 1939. From the archives of the East Boston Social Centers, 68 Central Square, East Boston, MA

139

Who wants to be the lifeguard? Children swimming at summer camp, Westford, MA. Undated photo. Found in the archives of the East Boston Social Centers, 68 Central Square, East Boston, MA

140

Handwritten list of boy campers at Camp Nashoba in Westford, MA, summer of 1940. List shows ages, home addresses, and school attended. Found in the archives of the East Boston Social Centers, 68 Central Square, East Boston, MA

141

Painting of children performing their daily duties at camp. Westford, MA, late 1930s. Artist unknown, but most likely one of the camp counselors. Found in the archives of the East Boston Social Centers, 68 Central Square, East Boston, MA

142

At Wakitatina in 1939 (by this date the camp was comfortably and permanently located in Westford), a staff member named Wilhelmina wrote the following observations about her young charges, girls ages 7 to 10, in the Forget- Me-Not cabin:

There was a problem child with “a peculiar talent for doing everything the wrong or opposite way.” Also in the cabin was “a very philosophical little girl with a thoughtful face and serious eyes . . .[whose] ideas and actions were older than her years.”

One was “delicate . . .girl who had spent much time in bed with rheumatic fever. She was quiet because of her illness and shy and timid because being with children like this was new to her.” But eventually “her health improved quite noticeably . . .she emerg[ed] from her shyness and quietness to friendliness and confidence.”

Another: “She was always alert with questions. From morning til night was heard the ever ready ‘What’s this is?’ or ‘What’s that is?’”

“One of the most interesting girls . . .she has speech difficulty and a lack of coordination in movement . . .From speaking only two or three words at a time she became able to speak sentences correctly without hesitating . . .”

One of the girls was described as: “a mixup of obedience and contrariness, of goodness and naughtiness, of meekness and stubbornness . . .”

The same counselor, Wilhelmina, wrote a play for the girls in the Forget-Me- Not Cabin to put on. It was entitled: “The Little Girl Who Found the Magic Dewdrops.”160

160 Milne, Wilhelmina. “Camp Wakitatina scrapbook, 1939”. Found in the archives of the East Boston Social Centers, 68 Central Square, East Boston, MA. 143

Watercolor of girls in fairy costumes. Westford Camps, late 1930s. Counselor Wilhelmina wrote a play for the girls to perform. Perhaps she created this painting as well. Found in the archives of the East Boston Social Centers, 68 Central Square, East Boston, MA

144

Painting done by a counselor or a camper, most likely illustrating the play that the campers had put on. Found in the archives of the East Boston Social Centers, 68 Central Square, East Boston, MA

145

Cover of a scrapbook for Camp Wakitatina, summer 1941 at Westford, MA. Unidentified woman blows the bugle. From the archives of the East Boston Social Centers, 68 Central Square, East Boston, MA

146

Camp Wakitatina in 1941, a counselor reports on the role of music in the camp:

“During the summer we learned thirty songs which we sang in the dining- room for the other two camps, and for our own satisfaction around the camp-fire and on hiking and truck-expeditions out of camp. These ranged from comic songs with nonsense words through negro-spirituals and folk-songs to a Brahms serenade. The quality was usually lusty. Though in the last group of older girls, we did hear a few ‘popular’ songs, we had no jazz or any of its cousins in camp. We had too many other songs to sing – which meant camp to these girls – and most of them, realizing how short was their stay, and how precious, would cry down a request for a ‘popular song.’”161

Settlement houses and the organizations that evolved from them were, as has been noted before, criticized for forcing upper-middle-class beliefs and customs on the participants of the programs with which they worked. It is interesting to note that jazz was banned, and popular music frowned upon at the camps in 1941. It can only be imagined what hits the older girls wanted to sing; the counselor didn’t mention them. The number one song that year was Glenn Miller’s “Chattanooga Choo Choo” which the girls might have liked for its liveliness. Likewise, “Boogie, Woogie Bugle Boy” made famous by the Andrews Sisters. Or, being older girls, they may have already been falling under the sway of romantic tunes such as Artie Shaw’s “Stardust” or the very romantic “Besame Mucho” as sung by Pedro Vargas.162

What else were the girls up to at camp in the summer of ’41? One of the counselors took the time to outline a field trip that was taken, and her report of it is reproduced below:

161 Camp Wakitatina scrapbook, 1941. Found in the archives of the East Boston Social Centers, 68 Central Square, East Boston, MA. 162 “Most Popular Songs of 1941,” Billboard Top 100. www.billboardtop100of.com/1941-2/ (accessed March 16, 2018). 147

Excerpt from a typed report by a counselor at Camp Wakitatina at Westford, MA, summer of 1941. From the archives of the East Boston Social Centers, 68 Central Square, East Boston, MA

If anyone thought importing counselors from overseas was a new idea, it should be pointed out that as early as 1941, the Social Centers had counselors who were not from the US. This proved to be educational for the children as well

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as for the imported counselor. In 1941, the woman in charge of art came from Czechoslovakia and made the following observations:

Mie Munzer, an art counselor from the former Czechoslovakia, worked at Camp Wakitatina in 1941 and wrote this report about her experiences. From the archives of the East Boston Social Centers, 68 Central Square, East Boston, MA

149

The woman designated Director of Wakitatina that summer was Sydna White who wrote in hindsight regarding what went right and what didn’t and what could be improved for future summers. In an excerpt from her report below, it is interesting to note the emphasis on not telling the girls to “hurry up.” Also, the lack of material for proper uniforms says a great deal about the times and how large world events affected something as simple as clothing children at a summer camp in New England.

Excerpt from a typed report by Sydna White, in charge of Camp Wakitatina, 1941. From the archives of the East Boston Social Centers, 68 Central Square, Eaat Boston, MA

Running a summer camp in the 1930s or 1940s was far different from running a summer camp in contemporary times. The problems encountered were ones that probably would not exist today, and if they did, would not be solved in the same way. For instance: it is the end of summer, and what shall be done with the pony? This was an actual problem that fell on S. Max Nelson who dealt with it in an ingenious and thoughtful way, but in a manner that definitely would not be approved of in these modern days. He put ads in local newspapers and waited for replies. In September of 1938, a plumber from Littleton, MA responded and expressed interest in having the pony for his children. He noted that Friday would not be a good time to deliver the pony as his children had dentist

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appointments, but that Saturday or Sunday would be convenient for his family to receive the pony.

S. Max Nelson wrote back that the pony – “Teddy” – could go to live with the plumber and his children. He mused about the predictability of the pony and noted that it could have a mind of its own sometimes and might need to be handled firmly. Despite that, he felt the pony was sure to carry the children safely. And, in his P.S. he noted that they’d probably be sending Teddy over on Saturday. Of course, they needed him back by the first week of July.

It makes the year 1938 seem full of innocence and charm. Today a pony on loan would come with endless paperwork, insurance and liability questions, and undoubtedly someone from an animal rights group would want to do a home visit and background check on the plumber and his family. It just seemed like a simple little problem in 1938, though, and easily solved. What to do with Teddy?

151

Letter from Roy Staveley answering an ad in the paper for someone to care for the camp’s pony.1938. Found in the archives of the East Boston Social Centers, 68 Central Square, East Boston, MA

152

Director of the East Boston Social Centers Council, S. Max Nelson, writes back to Mr. Staveley regarding his thoughts on the pony, “Teddy” as arrangements are made for the temporary transferal of care. From the archives of the East Boston Social Centers, 68 Central Square, East Boston, MA

153

The Westford Camps transformed with the times. The children who attended changed as the East Boston neighborhood took on new residents. During S. Max Nelson’s years, he was both Director of the East Boston Social Centers Council as well as Director of the Camps. His successor, Clarence Jeffrey, was also Director of both program sites. After Jeffrey, the next person in charge of the Social Centers, Jack Forbes, would go to Westford with his wife and nine children. It was an entire family experience. But eventually Mr. Forbes decided that the Westford Camps needed their own director. He was Executive Director of the East Boston Social Centers, but he hired competent individuals to direct the summer camps.

B.J. Woodward was one of the first to hold the title. He was also, at the time – 1969 – one of only twenty individuals in the United States to be certified as a camp director through the American Camping Association163 Another early camp director was Jack Cassetta, a former camper and counselor, known by the nickname, “Jimbo.” The next director was Bill Freeman, unique in that he had not attended the Westford Camps as a child or worked there previously as a counselor. He did, however, bring with him a great deal of camping expertise and was instrumental in creating many of the policies and procedures required of more modern-day camps. Following Freeman was Jim McGrane who served as camp director for six seasons.164

Because camping occurred in the summer, it was sometimes difficult to retain an individual for more than a season or two. Most needed full-time, year-around employment, and even if they loved being a director at the Westford Camps, they could not easily quit their permanent job to take the summer off. It was – and remains – rare in nonprofit organizations to have the budget to employ a camping director on a full-year basis. When it did happen, the person usually worked with youth during the school year and transitioned to camp for the summer months.

163 Newspaper article, 1969, from unknown newspaper. Clipping found in the archives of the East Boston Social Centers, 68 Central Square, East Boston, MA. 164 McGrane, Jim. Newspaper article about the Westford Camps, from undated clipping found in the archives of the East Boston Social Centers, 68 Central Square, East Boston, MA. 154

Following Jim McGrane, a more comprehensive list of Westford Camp Directors is available:165

Debbi White - 1984 – 1990 Colleen Pino - 1991 - 1993 Linda Galletto 1994 - 1999 John Lovasco. 2000 Gloria DeVine. 2001 - 2002 Brian Rich 2002 - 2004 Chris Tremonte 2005 - (camps closed in 2007)

165Gloria DeVine, interview by Kyle Ingrid Johnson, Boston, MA, May 2018. 155

B.J. Woodward of the East Boston Camps at Westford MA became one of only twenty certified camp directors in the United States. Newspaper clipping from unidentified newspaper. 1969. Found in the archives of the East Boston Social Centers, 68 Central Square, East Boston, MA

156

The Hyams Foundation had always held ownership of the Westford Camps, and in 2005, after 68 years of operation, the Foundation made the decision to sell to the town of Westford to the great disappointment of many East Boston residents and former campers. There had been ample warning as a letter dated December 18, 2001 from the Hyams Foundation to the East Boston Social Centers delivered the following message:

“[the] trustees have for some time been giving serious consideration to the future of the Westford Camps property . . .in the future, the Foundation will no longer make direct grants for summer programs . . .the trustees believe that East Boston Social Centers should not proceed at this time with a capital campaign for the Camps . . .the trustees also voted not to support East Boston Social Centers’ request for a full-time camp director at this time.”166

The Social Centers continued operating the camps for two more seasons past the sale of the property, 2007 being the last and marking 70 years.167 Generations of East Boston families had attended the camps, and many families looked forward to sending their own children or grandchildren to experience what had been a major part of their own childhood. Disappointment was everywhere. The reality was that settlement houses all over the country were making major decisions about what to do with their summer camps. Private foundations and corporate sponsors were less likely to fund short-term activities such as summer camping and more inclined to put their dollars toward longer- term projects that could engage youth year around.

Without the help of the Hyams Foundation, the Social Centers had many extra expenses they had not had to shoulder in the past. Insurance, for example, was very expensive as were continued repairs on the property and all the other expected pieces of a camp budget such as salaries, food, and recreational equipment. The main income was from paying campers and whatever fundraising could be done toward keeping the camps going and open. It appeared that fees and fundraising were not going to cover the costs. Another problem was the changing demographics in the East Boston neighborhood. Participants in the Social Centers’ in-town programs were largely Latino, and for various reasons most families in this demographic were not inclined to send their children off to

166 Hyams Foundation to East Boston Social Centers, December 18, 2001. Letter found in the archives of the East Boston Social Centers, 68 Central Square, East Boston, MA. 167 From various paperwork found in the archives of the East Boston Social Centers, 68 Central Square, East Boston, MA. 157

the countryside for a summer vacation. With declining numbers of campers, especially local ones, it did not make sense for the Social Centers to continue to operate summer camping. Instead, the choice was made to end camping at Westford and to concentrate on summer day camps as well as year-around programs in East Boston.168

The 1950s

The Great Depression was over, World War II had been fought, and the 1950s brought a new era to the United States and to East Boston. The general attitude was more upbeat, young people were getting married and having children, and East Boston Social Centers under the leadership of S. Max Nelson had two decades of active programming under its belt. Except for the Cold War, the 50s ushered in good times.

The Cold War was very evident, though. Children participated in air raid drills at school, and some families made bomb shelters in their yard or basements. October 29, 1951, the City of Boston Civil Defense List noted two East Boston Social Centers’ employees as emergency personnel in the event of an attack. Max Nelson from the Social Centers’ 79 Paris Street location and Clarence Jeffrey from Central Square Center. Mr. Jeffrey was Associate Director at the Social Centers and was also Nelson’s neighbor on White Street (the Nelsons lived at 110 White and Clarence Jeffrey was at 108.)169 Neither Social Centers’ site was found on a list of shelters for Civil Defense during that time period, so it is unclear what Mr.

168 Ibid. 169 Boston Civil Defense List, October 29, 1951. Found in the archives of the East Boston Social Centers, 68 Central Square, East Boston, MA. 158

Nelson and Mr. Jeffrey’s exact duties would have been or from where they would have been doing them. Luckily, the Cold War years passed without the Social Centers or their personnel having to deal with such an unthinkable emergency. East Boston residents were undoubtedly relieved to know, however, that they could turn to the Social Centers’ employees they knew and trusted for safety as well as for childcare, parties, clubs, classes, and recreation.

World War II was over, but the Cold War years were filled with concern. In this typed note from the 1950s, S. Max Nelson is worrying about his Associate Director, Clarence Jeffrey, possibly being recalled to the Air Force. From the archives of the East Boston Social Centers, 68 Central Square, East Boston, MA

159

An 18th birthday party was held in 1950 with the East Boston Social Centers Council celebrating their official opening from 1932. The Good Will Neighborhood House (by this time noted as a member agency of the Greater Boston Community Fund) was working closely with the Social Centers by the early 50s as well, although they had not yet officially merged. Correspondence from 1951 shows the two organizations as having separate stationery, but writing to each other about common concerns such as Good Will Neighborhood House interviewing a woman to work at Central Square Center.170

As was usual under S. Max Nelson’s direction, staff documented activities carefully and with great pride. Boys’ Worker, George DiLorenzo, created a handmade book describing a dance in 1951 organized by teens at Central Square Center in order to raise money for the “gym floor fund.” His very organized report covered all elements of planning and execution, although it did not include a report on the number of attendees. Girl winners of the Jitterbug Contest and Waltz Contest received an engraved 14” trophy cup. The boy winners of the same contests were given $2.50 gift certificates to Sabo & Co in Central Square. $2.50 in 1951 would be the equivalent of $24.00 in 2018 currency.171

170 From various paperwork found in the archives of the East Boston Social Centers, 68 Central Square, East Boston, MA. 171 DiLorenzo, George. Handmade book containing report, 1951. Found in the archives of the East Boston Social Centers, 68 Central Square, East Boston, MA. 160

Dancers at the Social Centers, 1950s. Photographer unknown. From the archives of the East Boston Social Centers, 68 Central Square, East Boston, MA

Change was afoot at the Social Centers. In the spring of 1952, popular boys’ group worker, Israel Silver, put in his letter of resignation. Israel, affectionately known as “Izzy,” lived communally with other Social Center employees in the house on White House. His name is found throughout the East Boston Social Center archives, a very active and ever-present individual who touched the lives of many of the Centers’ participants and whose archival “presence” comes alive in photos and reports.172

172 John F. Moore to Israel Silver, May 7, 1952. Letter from the archives of the East Boston Social Centers, 68 Central Square, East Boston, MA. 161

A typed letter acknowledging with great regret the resignation of Israel Silver, one of the popular employees evidence of whose excellent work with boys was found again and again throughout the archives. Many of the young men who worked at the Social Centers went on to have long, meaningful careers in the nonprofit sector. From the archives of the East Boston Social Centers, 68 Central Square, East Boston, MA

162

The biggest change at the Social Centers in the 1950s was the retirement of S. Max Nelson in 1954. Born in 1889,173 he would have been 65 that year, and the time would have felt right for retirement. The average life expectancy of a US male in the 1950s was 67 years of age,174 and perhaps Mr. Nelson felt that time was creeping up on him. As much as he loved community work and as many years as he had devoted to it, he also deserved some years for himself and his family. He had spent two and a half decades living and working in East Boston, bringing to fruition the vision of the Hyams sisters. He had shepherded the organization through the Depression, WWII, and the after-war years. By the mid-1950s, it seemed sensible that he step aside and let someone else take over the reins. An anticipated merger with the Good Will House Association might have been another reason he chose to retire. He was succeeded by his Associate Director, Clarence Jeffrey.

Excerpt from a letter of inquiry by a gentleman interested in applying for the position of General Director of the East Boston Social Centers Council. Letter directed to William S.G. Kidder, President of the Board of Directors. Found in the archives of the East Boston Social Centers, 68 Central Square, East Boston, MA

173 U.S. Social Security Death Index, 1935-2014. Ancestry.com (www.ancestry.com) accessed March 20, 2018. 174 “Life Expectancy for a U.S. Male,” https://www.seniorliving.org>History (accessed March 22, 2018). 163

Undated photograph clipped from an unknown newspaper showing Clarence Jeffrey. Jeffrey served as Associate Director under S. Max Nelson and followed Nelson as General Director in 1954-55. From the archives of the East Boston Social Centers, 68 Central Square, East Boston, MA

164

Although the official merging of Good Will House Association and the East Boston Social Centers Council had not yet officially taken place, there was a great deal of interaction regarding finances and personnel between the two organizations. From a letter dated February 1954 found in the archives of the East Boston Social Centers, 68 Central Square, East Boston, MA

165

On Goodwill House Association letterhead, a notice of the Annual Meeting to be held on February 24, 1955 at which a vote would take place to officially change the name of Goodwill House Association to East Boston Social Centers, Inc. Found in the archives of the East Boston Social Centers, 68 Central Square, East Boston, MA

166

A three-ring binder in the Social Center’s archives holds reports of the Vari Art Club (alternately written as Vari Arts) for the years 1956 – 1958. It appears as though this was a group for adult women. Some of their activities included: decorating windows for Valentine’s Day, hosting a bazaar for arts and crafts, spaghetti suppers to raise money (it was noted that these annual suppers started in 1933), an “elephant table” at the bazaar (this seems to be the equivalent of a jumble sale or rummage sale table.). Proceeds from the spaghetti supper netted $200 ($1728 in 2018 dollars)175 which the Vari Art Club members donated to the Social Centers for the purchase of blankets and bedding at the girls’ camp. Other activities of the Vari Art Club included ceramics, mosaic crafts, candle making, corsage making, and theatre arts (Christmas play). 176

The notes from the club’s meetings are filled with tidbits of information that invoke the atmosphere when club members met. A note from October 1957 mentioned: “We are very sorry to learn that Marie C has resigned from our club. We shall certainly miss seeing her running around in her stocking feet and daubed with chalk and paint.” Earlier that year, in January, the notetaker wrote down the following: “It was requested that all members be a little more quiet during meetings and especially during our formal meeting.”

January of 1958 brought the following report: “Decorations used at our Christmas party were sold and more money than expected was realized. The amount was applied to our party expenses.” Sixty years later, the women can be admired for ahead-of-their-time thinking which showed an ingenious way to recycle!

The 1950s brought in a wave of kitchen shortcuts, some embraced happily by women all over the U.S. for their time saving elements. In East Boston, however, the Vari Art Club had strong feelings about modern trends vs their reputations as bakers. “Elizabeth L read an article on cake mixes for our cake table but it was agreed that according to our former custom we shall not use them as our pastry has always been highly praised and we want to keep our reputation on that level.”

The women fretted in April of 1958 when they learned about the closure of

175 www.usinflationcalculator.com

176 Vari Art Club, notebook and meeting minutes, 1956-1958. Found in the archives of the East Boston Social Centers, 68 Central Square, East Boston, MA. 167

Central Square Center. “A very sad announcement was made at [t]his meeting. Vari Art is going to lose its home of so many years. It seems that all activities must be suspended after our spaghetti supper until it is determined what is going to be done with the building.”177

The old church building which housed the Center was much loved by the women and, at their next meeting in May of 1958 they read a love poem that had been “adapted” to the Vari Art Club. They expressed concern about the Rose Window (the window, it should be noted, was preserved and transferred to the new Social Centers building that was constructed on the site of the old church.)

It is suspected that at some time in the decade of the 50s, that the name East Boston Social Centers Council was officially changed to East Boston Social Centers. Paperwork citing the organization as East Boston Social Centers Council appeared regularly throughout the early years of the agency, but showed up infrequently after the retirement of S. Max Nelson. By the end of the 1950s, almost all written communication referred to the East Boston Social Centers. Nothing was found regarding when or why the name changed, but it should be noted that it did. It would be reasonable to assume that the name change happened when Good Will House Association became part of the Social Centers. If so, that would date the dropping of “Council” from the East Boston Social Centers’ name to February of 1955.

177 Ibid. 168

What they were singing? Photograph of a quartet performing at the Social Centers, circa 1950s. Photographer unknown. Found in the archives of the East Boston Social Centers, 68 Central Square, East Boston, MA

169

Folk dancing at the Social Centers, early 1950s. Photographer unknown. Found in the archives of the East Boston Social Centers, 68 Central Square, East Boston, MA

170

Dance performance at the Social Centers. Circa 1950s. Photographer unknown. Found in the archives of the East Boston Social Centers, 68 Central Square, East Boston, MA

171

The 1960s

The Vari Art Club continued on into the next decade as charming notes from their meetings show:

“Our Chair Lady made a little black poodle and it was decided that chances will be sold for making a little money for our treasury. It certainly was nice of her to have made it.” November 1, 1960

“ . . . the raffle on the poodle realized $21.00.” ($177.05 in 2018 dollars) – January 3, 1961

“A rule was decided upon at our previous meeting that the girls will not be able to buy any bazaar articles until the end of the evening and that nothing will be marked down until then.” January 31, 1961

“It was decided that we will not have a hostess during Lent since we should not eat in-between meals.” February 14, 1961

“Grace requested that no money be taken for donations on pastry. All must donate [home] baked goods.” April 18, 1961

“Frannie C brought in a cordial – brandied cherries – it certainly cheered us.” November 28, 1961

Menu for Carnivale Party – February 6, 1962: “Sausages, prosciutto pizza, pastiera, fritto misto, antipasto, vinegar peppers, meatballs in wine, bows with honey, gelati, and, of course, wine.”178

178 Vari Arts Club, notebook and meeting minutes, 1960-1962. Found in the archives of the East Boston Social Centers, 68 Central Square, East Boston, MA. 172

Typed meeting minutes of the always entertaining Vari Art Club. Circa 1962. Found in the archives of the East Boston Social Centers, 68 Central Square, East Boston, MA

The club moved into the new Central Square building. Comments from members – March 13, 1962

May 15, 1962 minutes of the Vari Art Club note that there is always a problem with members not paying dues or not always paying or paying late or only partial dues.179

There is nothing in the archives to pinpoint exactly when the Vari Art Club stopped meeting, but sometime in the 1960s is probable. Why? Because “The Times They Are A’Changin.’’ Even reading through the women’s meeting notes from the late 50s and early 60s showed some tension between the traditionalists

179 Ibid. 173

and the busier, more modern women. Should cakes be baked from scratch? Are cakes made from cake mixes permissible at a bake sale? Not serving refreshments during Lent spoke to religion and we infer that most if not all of the women observed Lent, many possibly attended the same church. But as the decade wore on, was this still the case? Were there other women of different religions joining? Or was the base of the participants aging? The 1960s saw many younger women joining the workforce, and two-income families were sometimes a necessity. A woman raising a family and working 40 hours might not have time for an activity such as the Vari Art Club. The 1960s saw tremendous changes in the United States from the Civil Rights Movement to the Vietnam War to campus protests and the Women’s Liberation Movement. It is not difficult to see why a club designed around mostly traditional female activities and membered by what were probably mostly traditional females might not survive a decade as turbulent as the 1960s.

Another distraction by this time was in the home: television. In the 1930s and 1940s, men, women, and children went to activities at East Boston Social Centers. By the 1950s, televisions were becoming the desired technology for the home. At the beginning of that decade, approximately 9% of American households owned a television,180 and clubs, classes, and activities, although still useful and enjoyable, started to take a back seat to that new form of entertainment that was changing the way Americans lived. In the 1960s, the number of homes with a television rose sharply to 90%.181

There were also subtle, behind-the-scene changes going on in the decade of the 1960s. The fundraising world, particularly the secure, predictable funding source upon which the East Boston Social Centers was dependent, was coming out of a long, sleepy tradition of funding the dreams of two women long dead. When Godfrey Hyams set up his trusts, he used the law firm of Hutchins and Wheeler. His main contact there was a lawyer named H. LeBaron Sampson. Mr. Sampson knew Godfrey as well as his two sisters, Isabel and Sarah. When Godfrey died, both sisters were trustees and Sampson worked with them. After their deaths, he became the managing trustee for the next 41 years. He was careful to keep to the sisters’ wishes, and made decisions based on what he knew they wanted. His long presence managing the trust was definitely beneficial to the East Boston Social Centers.182

180 ‘Moving Picture Section – Motion Picture, Broadcasting, and Recorded Sound Division.” https://memory.loc.gov/ammen/awhhtml/awmilo/television/html (accessed March 27, 2018). 181 Ibid. 182 Lukas, J. Anthony. “Common Ground: A Turbulent Decade in the Lives of Three American Families.” New York: Knopf. 340. 174

A study was deemed necessary by the boards of both Trinity Neighborhood House and the East Boston Social Centers in 1964. The purpose of the study was to determine what the problems were in East Boston as well as the needs of the community. The concentration of the study was on how organizations that arose from the settlement-house movement might best help. The first part of the study focused on the work of two interviewers from the Research Department of the United Community Services (a predecessor of today’s United Way of Massachusetts Bay). 50 families were contacted and 39 agreed to participate. Names were chosen from the 1960 census and represented four sections of East Boston: Central Square, Day Square, Jeffries Point, and Orient Heights. The second part of the study included meetings and interviews with 75 different officials and organizations including Boston Redevelopment Authority, Massachusetts Port Authority, East Boston police, veterans organizations, the Probation Department, churches, and many others. Daniel Murrow, the author of the report, was the main interviewer for the second part, and also was in charge of compiling the results of the study and writing the final report.183

Some of the findings of the study give an intriguing view into East Boston as a community in the 1960s, as well as into the minds of some of its residents. It was found that neighborhoods within East Boston were rather territorial, and many residents would not travel out of their immediate area to take advantage of programs or services within easy access.

“There is a kind of local Nationalism in the many individual neighborhoods that make up a community.” In the residents’ expressed desire for a community swimming pool, for instance, they pleaded that it be located at Wood Island so that “no one neighborhood could claim it.”184

Teenagers were focused on heavily in the study, not only the opinions of teens but others’ opinions of them as well. Staff at both Trinity Neighborhood House and East Boston Social Centers felt that they were limited by budget, staffing, and facility size and felt that they were unable to expand their work with teens.

183 Murrow, Daniel. “A Study of East Boston with Particular Emphasis on the Social and Recreational Conditions of That Community.” 1964. Study initiated by Trinity Neighborhood House and East Boston Social Centers. Typed report found in the archives of the East Boston Social Centers, 68 Central Square, East Boston, MA. 184 Ibid. 8 175

Heard over and over again was “[There is] NO PLACE FOR TEENAGERS TO GO, AND NOTHING TO DO!” But some of the teens belonged to a group started in 1960 called The East Boston Teenage Committee for Civic Affairs which the author described as having 55 members and [a] President [who] is a 20-year-old, knowledgeable, dedicated, responsible, articulate high-school dropout.” The focus was on keeping youth off the street. At the time of the report they were looking for a place where the kids could work on cars for fun. They wanted East Boston High to open their gym to them, and they wanted to emphasize helping each other.185

Many teens interviewed wanted a street social worker (not attached to an organization) who could help them with their problems. The problems, however, were not specified. One youth felt adamantly that “We should also have a psychiatrist.”186 It is interesting to note that teens felt the need for professionals to work with them and would even be open to the idea. Street social workers were rare in the 1960s and many children (and their parents) were very resistant to any notion to do with psychiatry.

Most parents and teens alike endorsed the idea of more storefront clubs with supervised activities. Some of the ideas they had for groups were: safe driving, educational goals, vocation and job seeking, armed services, and health (including venereal disease and drug addiction education.) Several people suggested that the Social Centers hire an individual to coordinate throughout East Boston. From the description in the report this person would be what we would think of today as an Outreach Worker and/or Civic Engagement Leader. In 1964, however, the proposed individual was described as “He would be like the unofficial Mayor of East Boston. He should be a man who likes people and can talk with teenagers and ‘big shots’ alike.”187 Those interviewed definitely pictured a male in this role.

185 Ibid. 10 186 Ibid. 187 Ibid. 12 176

Photograph of a corner of Central Square, East Boston in the 1960s when the Social Centers were struggling to find solutions to the many problems appearing in the neighborhood. Photographer unknown. Available from: Google Images www.google.com (accessed May 23, 2018).

Vandalism had started to become more common, and, after windows at a local public school were broken, one teen commented: “If the adjacent playground weren’t deserted of ‘adults who care’ a youngster could hit a ball instead of breaking windows when he is angry.”188

Daycare was starting to become more important, too, as East Boston had a higher percentage of working mothers than comparable areas of the city. It was obvious in 1964 that the number of employed women with children was going up each year, yet there were only two daycare centers in the community: Trinity Neighborhood House and Guardian Angel at the East Boston Health Station. Between the two, there were only 37 slots available, and 12 of those were reserved for developmentally disabled children.189

Keeping teenagers occupied and supplying childcare for little ones were only two of the big problems facing East Boston in 1964. Integration of public housing

188 Ibid. 13. 189 Ibid. 14 177

was an issue. “The publicized incident of several weeks ago involving inflammatory remarks made against the four Negro families who live at this Project was deeply disturbing to the responsible residents of East Boston. Many were shocked and ashamed that such a social blemish occurred in their community.” The neighbors put the blame on outsiders and non-Boston residents, but that was not going to solve the reality that Mr. Murrow wrote about in his report: “[That] it is likely that Negroes will, in the not too distant future, move in greater numbers to East Boston.” Real estate agents said that “their ‘only in’ will be through Public Housing.” The real-estate community felt that private homeowners would not respond favorably to non-white buyers. Thus, another problem was identified.190

Meanwhile, the long-time residents of East Boston were struggling with their own problems such as lack of adequate housing. Even in 1964, many people – particularly those living in the southern part of East Boston – had no tub or shower in their house or apartment. The latest available statistic at that time (from the 1950s) said that 28% of East Boston residences lacked bathing facilities. Most of those used the Paris Street Bathhouse.191

At the same time that Daniel Murrow was working on the study for Trinity Neighborhood House and East Boston Social Centers, Elizabeth Lyon Bucell, from the Research Department of United Community Services did a comparison study of South Boston and East Boston in which she found the residents more welcoming and friendly in East Boston. The random people who spoke with Bucell complained about teenagers, but otherwise impressed her by conveying quite vocally the feeling that “each person should do his own part” to help the community.192 Bucell concluded that East Boston had a better chance of becoming a melting pot than did South Boston.193

Between 50% to 75% of the East Boston residents with whom Bucell spoke recognized the names Trinity Neighborhood House and Central Square Center, but not many of them used the services available at either site. One woman told Bucell that she didn’t believe in community centers (she also didn’t approve of babysitters.)194 Bucell heard complaints that Trinity House was dirty and, on the opposite side, that Central Square Center was so new and cold that is was actually

190 Ibid. 15. 191 Ibid. 17. 192 Elizabeth Lyon Bucell. “East Boston and South Boston: Observations of Two Areas.” 1964. 7. Typed report found in the archives of the East Boston Social Centers, 68 Central Square, East Boston, MA. 193 Ibid. 194 Ibid. 178

uninviting. Many of those she spoke with said that they missed the old Good Will House. Several felt that the neighborhood around it had gone down since it closed.195

Bucell noted that housing, overall, in East Boston seemed to be better kept than comparable housing in South Boston. The residents she interviewed were pleased to point out how many people were fixing up their homes. This must have included landlords as well since Bucell discovered that nearly 70% of the housing stock was renter occupied. She also found that while South Boston had beaches and more recreational facilities, the residents of East Boston seemed happier in their neighborhood.196

It is not known if Bucell’s comparison study played into Murrow’s more comprehensive report. She, after all, was just comparing two similar Boston neighborhoods (largely Catholic, of predominantly one ethnic group, each being somewhat geographically apart from Boston proper), and he was trying to narrow down statistics, opinions, and available solutions in order to make recommendations to the settlement houses that had requested the study.

Eventually, those conducting the main study concluded that “The Social Centers can, in effect, be a nerve center for the community pooling its problems, concerns, leadership and potential for change and respond with a community sanctioned coordinating effort to launch community-betterment work.”197 The researchers also spoke to what they felt was the role of a settlement house in the 1960s: “The broad, emerging modern role of the Settlement House is to concentrate more on neighborly, social and civic concerns, by providing the understanding staff and welcoming atmosphere for all of its neighbors.”198

“There is a de-emphasis on settlement-based or sponsored routine recreational activities such as sports. Instead, efforts are being made to encourage regular Recreation Agencies such as the Metropolitan District Commission and Parks Department of Boston, to provide this service.”199

195 Ibid. 10 196 Ibid. 13 197 Murrow. Ibid. 18 198 Ibid. 19 199 Ibid. 179

A contentious issue was the closing of Good Will House. Board minutes from August 16, 1961 mention that the announcement regarding the closing of Good Will House occurred at the annual meeting in March of 1961.200

Another change for the Social Centers in the 1960s was the departure of Clarence Jeffrey. Jeffrey who, as previously stated, served as Associate Director under S. Max Nelson was elevated into the Director position when Nelson retired.201 This occurred at some point in the spring of 1954. By the following year, Jeffrey and his wife had moved from 108 White Street into 110 White Street where the Nelsons had resided for years.202 Mr. Jeffrey was somewhat elusive. Very few personal papers, agency correspondence, or agency reports with his signature have been found in the Social Centers’ archives. His tenure lasted approximately 11 years.

Harry Baughman, then President of the Board of East Boston Social Centers wrote a letter to other board members in November of 1967 that John Lawrence Forbes had been appointed as “General Director” of the Social Centers.203 Mr. Forbes had worked at Denison House in Boston in the 1950s and served as director there from 1959 to 1965. Denison House originally occupied several small brick rowhouses on Tyler Street at the edge of today’s Chinatown and behind Tufts Medical Center.204 One of its most famous workers was Amelia Earhart who worked there from 1925 to 1928. She taught adult education, performed home visits, supervised the girls’ program, coached basketball and other activities. 205

Denison House moved to Dorchester in 1942, occupying various buildings until it merged with several other Dorchester settlements to become Federated Dorchester Neighborhood Houses in 1965.206 The creation of a federation of settlements in Dorchester was possibly the reason Mr. Forbes was looking for a

200 Board minutes, August 16, 1961. Found in the archives of the East Boston Social Centers, 68 Central Square, East Boston, MA. 201 “Boston, Massachusetts, City Directory, 1954.” U.S. City Directories, 1822-1995 (online database). Clarence J. Jeffrey, Associate Director, 108 White Street, East Boston. Ancestry.com (www.ancestry.com) accessed: April 2, 2018. 202 “Boston, Massachusetts City Directory, 1956.” U.S. City Directories, 1822-1995 (online database). Clarence J. Jeffrey, Director, 110 White Street, East Boston. Ancestry.com (www.ancestry.com) accessed: April 2, 2018. 203 Harry Baughman, President of the Board to members of the Board, letter, November 1967. Found in the archives of the East Boston Social Centers, 68 Central Square, East Boston, MA. 204 Robert A. Woods and Albert J. Kennedy, “Handbook of Settlements,” 1911, New York: Charities Publication Committee. 109. 205 J Miller-Cribs and J Mains. “Amelia Earhart (1897-1937): Social Worker, Women’s Advocate, Word Famous American Aviation Pioneer. Social Welfare History Project . Accessed via www.wikipedia.org (April 7, 2018). 206 “Records of Denison House, 1890-1984: A Finding Aid.” Harvard Library. Accessed via www.wikipedia.org (April 7, 2018). 180

new position which he found with United Community Services South Area Planning Division in Quincy where he worked from the fall of 1965 until he assumed duties at East Boston Social Centers in early 1968. At the time of his appointment to East Boston Social Centers, he was 36 years old, married, and the father of 9 children. He lived in Quincy, MA, and Mr. Baughman informed the board that Mr. Forbes would not be moving to East Boston.207 This broke the settlement-house tradition of having staff live either at the settlement house or in the neighborhood. But, settlement houses were changing, not only in East Boston, but in other areas of the city as well. They reflected the changes in society, government, citizens’ needs, and city demographics.

207 Baughman Letter to Board. Ibid. 181

John “Jack” Forbes, shown here in a 2007 photograph, was Director of the East Boston Social Centers 1968-1983. Photograph courtesy of the Development Department, East Boston Social Centers, 68 Central Square, East Boston, MA

182

President of the Board of Directors, Harry W. Baughman, announces the appointment of John Laurence Forbes as General Director of the East Boston Social Center, November 1967. From the archives of the East Boston Social Centers, 68 Central Square, East Boston, MA

183

Forbes started work at the Social Centers in January 1968. Soon his wife, Terry, was assisting at the Centers, too, and their nine children, although going to school and living in Quincy, were soon incorporated into the Social Centers’ family as well.

In a letter from the United Community Services, the Social Centers are informed of a shortage of money in the funding realm. 1966. From the archives of the East Boston Social Centers, 68 Central Square, East Boston, MA.

184

Another large change in the 1960s occurred in 1966 and spilled over into 1967 as the Trinity House board merged with the East Boston Social Centers. Correspondence in the archives indicates that this was not necessarily a smooth process. There were several letters of resignation from board members around this time. Reasons for leaving the board were generally generic “unable to attend meetings regularly,” but the underlying reason often appeared to be the merger. A letter from March 18, 1966 includes a list of the board members who chose to join the merged board.208 The merger of the two agencies, of course, had been suggested in the Community Foundation study and report of 1964.209

In response to a question, perhaps, Howard S. Whiteside wrote to Henry Baughman, President of the Board of East Boston Social Centers stating “The charter purposes of Trinity Neighborhood House are as follows: Conducting a neighborhood house and day nursery and such further similar and incidental purposes as may be necessary or advisable and as may be allowed by law.”210 Mr. Whiteside might also have boasted that Trinity House offered the first day-care equivalent program in East Boston beginning in 1881.

208 Letter to board members, March 18, 1966, regarding what members of Trinity House were joining the combined East Boston Social Centers board. Found in the archives of the East Boston Social Centers, 68 Central Square, East Boston, MA. 209 Murrow, Ibid. 23 210 Howard S. Whiteside to Henry Baughman, Letter, 1966. Found in the archives of the East Boston Social Center, 68 Central Square, East Boston, MA. 185

Organizational Chart of the East Boston Social Centers, 1968. From the archives of the East Boston Social Centers, 68 Central Square, East Boston, MA

186

Page One of a two-page report on the East Boston Social Centers, 1968. Found in the archives of the East Boston Social Centers, 68 Central Square, East Boston, MA

187

Page Two of a two-page report on the East Boston Social Centers, 1968. Item #6 outlines ownership of real estate. Note at bottom states Trinity House’s ownership and responsibility for its own camp. Found in the archives of the East Boston Social Centers, 68 Central Square, East Boston, MA

188

The East Boston Times ran an article on January 4, 1962 about the possible sale to the Salesian Brothers of the Max Nelson Gymnasium (built in 1955) at Jeffries Point and stated: “The gymnasium near the corner of Summer and Lamson streets was built for the use of the children in that area and was closed down a few months ago when a budget was not established for the Good Will House and gymnasium as a result of all monies being expended for the new building in the Central Square area.”211 The sale did not occur. East Boston Social Centers still owns the property at Jeffries Point; however, the second home of Good Will House (the old Plummer School on Lamson Street) was later demolished. In 1985, the National Guard built a playground on the site.

The new East Boston Social Centers headquarters in Central Square was built circa 1961-1962, and the first event held there was the Annual Meeting on March 1, 1962. After the demolition of the church and while the construction of the new Central Square Center was going on, some club meetings and activities were held in rooms over Lombardo’s, the well-known local function facility.212

By the end of the decade, word came from the West that S. Max Nelson had died. A letter from Mrs. Nelson dated April 23, 1969 was written in response to sympathy letters received after the death of Mr. Nelson. She said they would have liked to have remained living in East Boston and only left the community because their three daughters and their families were living on the West Coast. The letter was written from Altadena, California. 213

211 “Max Nelson Gymanasium,” East Boston Times, January 4, 1962. Newspaper clipping found in the archives of the East Boston Social Centers, 68 Central Square, East Boston, MA. 212 George Gambale, phone interview by Kyle Ingrid Johnson, Boston, MA, April, 2018. 213 Irene Nelson, letter, April 23, 1969. Found in the archives of the East Boston Social Centers, 68 Central Square, East Boston, MA. 189

The 1970s/1980s

If the 1960s represented change, then the following decades proved the old adage that “the only thing constant is change.”

The Boston Globe ran an article highlighting East Boston in August of 1971. The neighborhood was changing, but the Globe’s main message was that it had lost none of its “vitality.” At the time the article was written, 85% of the community residents were of Italian extraction. The other 15% were mostly of Irish heritage. Only 326 African-Americans lived in East Boston at the start of the 70s. A decade before, in 1960, there were 100 African-Americans living in the neighborhood.214

There were 13,718 units of housing in East Boston in 1971, but only 1334 were single-family homes. Rents were somewhat lower than in other neighborhoods. Of 8700 households surveyed, 37% paid less than $60 a month rent. Most renters paid between $60 and $99 a month for apartments ranging up to seven rooms ($371.18 to 618.57 in 2018 dollars). Only 20 out of 8700 reported paying $200 or more per month for rent.215

Longtime residents complained to the Globe mostly about teenagers, despite the fact that the teenagers may have been their grandchildren or neighbors.

“They’re crazy. They’re all on dope and they don’t care for nothing. They should take these kids out to a big island and leave them there,” said one irate resident. His second biggest complaint after the teenagers was the airport. “The airplanes, too, are a torment, especially on the hot nights when it’s hard to sleep anyway.”

There was concern about change in the neighborhood as the community reported to the Globe that their friends and neighbors were relocating to Saugus,

214 Blake, Andrew. “Complaints yes, but ‘Eastie’ keeps its vitality.” Boston Globe, August 16, 1971. 9. 215 Ibid. 190

Peabody, and Lynnfield. “They are Saturday Italians,” said a grocer noting that these former residents returned every weekend to shop for the familiar foods they were not able to purchase in their new, suburban neighborhoods.

Another merchant wasn’t as concerned about the departing residents as he was the teenagers. Like the first gentleman interviewed, he didn’t have much hope for the younger generation: “They got too much these kids. Everyone’s got a car and nothing to do but ride around all day. They don’t need playgrounds, they need cells.”216

Despite the negative feelings of the neighborhood elders, the Globe reported East Boston was the only Boston neighborhood during that time period to show a substantial decline in crime statistics.

Drugs were singled out as an issue. The most popular drugs of the day were barbiturates and amphetamines. City officials told the Globe that East Boston had the best drug rehabilitation program in the state. They acknowledged this was largely due to involved citizens. Interestingly, 1 in 5 East Boston residents at the time felt that heroin should be made legally available to adults if it would help to reduce crime. 51% of the neighborhood felt that rehabilitation was the better route for dealing with criminals and addicts rather than tougher policing and subsequent court dealings.217

Other problems identified in East Boston during the 70s were air pollution and dirty streets. Most residents talked about the airport and were worried about any possible expansion. The Globe interviewed many people and asked many questions. Although 42% thought that rents were a very serious problem, only 26% worried about “inferior living conditions and opportunities for black people.” Of those, 4 in 10 felt that the city’s black neighborhoods got too much attention and money from the city, often at the expense of East Boston. Despite feeling that way, 9 out of 10 in the community said they would not object to a family of another race moving to a house on their street. Slightly less – 7 out of 10 – said they were okay with integrated classrooms in the schools. Over 80% were adamantly against any form of busing, however.218

Despite seniors complaining about teens, overall, crime and violence were considered a very serious problem by only 41% of those interviewed. Just 32% felt that police protection was an issue, and 21% thought street lighting was poor.

216 Ibid. 217 Ibid. 8 218 Ibid. 191

Over 80% of East Boston residents in 1971 said they would not hesitate to report a crime if they saw one being committed.219

How did the Social Centers respond to these problems? A newspaper article from October of 1972 reported that the Social Centers wanted to open a group home for troubled teens on White Street, but the neighbors objected.220 Already, in the 1970s, East Boston was starting to react in the “not in my backyard” style seen across the city and, especially, in the suburbs. This resulted in many residences serving various populations such as recovering alcoholics, recently incarcerated, developmentally and emotionally disabled adults as well as group homes for teens in trouble being placed in other areas of the city where neighbors were either more transient or more tolerant.

Letterhead of the East Boston Social Centers, 1970. Note the Narcotic Addict Counselling Center. Found in the archives of the East Boston Social Centers, 68 Central Square, East Boston, MA

219 Ibid. 220 Clipping from unknown newspaper, dated October 1972, found in the archives of the East Boston Social Centers, 68 Central Square, East Boston, MA. 192

The Social Centers had already taken some of the suggestions from the Community Foundation assessment of the previous decade and started running a program called the Youth Family Counselling Service. It was located at Central Square Center and funded under a contract through the Massachusetts Department of Youth Services. It started in the fall of 1972 and served a wide range of youth ages 7 to 17. The purpose of the program was to “encourage the personal growth of a participant” through exploring their problems and giving them positive direction as well as counseling, advocacy, recreation, and work experience. Those involved in the juvenile justice system were provided with guidance and caring staff members who could guide them into the proper activities.221

Photo clip and blurb from unknown newspaper, circa 1970s showing members of the Youth Development Program. From the archives of the East Boston Social Centers, 68 Central Square, East Boston, MA

221 From a brochure, 1972, found in the archives of the East Boston Social Centers, 68 Central Square, East Boston, MA. 193

The other need indicated in the Community Foundation assessment of 1964 was the need for childcare. The merger with Trinity House gave East Boston Social Centers a well-developed and ongoing daycare program. Following this path, the current-day Social Centers created several early childhood programs across East Boston as well as afterschool programs.

The 70s did see a continuation of classic Social Centers programming, however, with the grand opening of the Jeffries Point Neighborhood Center in September of 1974. The head worker there was Sue Palmer and some of the activities included the Mother’s Club; their activities included fundraising, sewing, party planning, etc. There was also a Men’s Club where it was reported that the men “smoked cigars and played cards.”222

Jeffries Point offered open space for bocci and street hockey. The interior of the building featured several multi-purpose rooms, a dark room for photography, and a gymnasium. A brochure from the 1970s indicated that the age ranges of those attending programming at the Jeffries Point Center were from 2 years of age up to 93. There was something for everyone. The afternoon programs included cooking, arts and crafts, boxing, acrobatics, dancing, and drama as well as ping pong and billiards.223 It was, in a way, reminiscent of the S. Max Nelson social centers of the 1930s and 1940s.

222 From paperwork found in the archives of the East Boston Social Centers, 68 Central Square, East Boston, MA. 223 Ibid. 194

Photograph of the opening of the Jeffries Point Neighborhood Center, 1974. Photographer unknown. From the archives of the East Boston Social Centers, 68 Central Square, East Boston, MA

The Maverick Neighborhood Center, Orient Heights Neighborhood Center, and Trinity Neighborhood House were also busy parts of the East Boston Social Centers in the 1970s. Trinity House continued its tradition of nursery school as well as afterschool programming. There was a Teen Lounge, and counselling and information and referral services were available. Adults attended pottery and sewing classes and there was a weekly whist party. Trinity also offered year- around recreational programs for children with special needs. The Maverick and Orient Heights Centers were located in space owned by the Boston Housing Authority and the programming there was funded through the Massachusetts

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Department of Public Welfare. Their focus was to provide counseling and advocacy for families; adult group work; day trips out of the city for families, and activities for children.224

Central Square Center was in the 1970s, and remains, the Social Centers’ headquarters. In addition to the Youth Family Counselling Service, other activities there at the time were after-school daycare, an elderly nutrition program and elder lounge, rooms given or rented to various community groups, and the main offices of the East Boston Camps at Westford, MA.225

But all was not as it seemed. An ambitious and forward thinking woman working at the Hyams Foundation was quietly shaking up the funding scene by questioning how the Foundation could better serve more people. Joan Diver, who started at Hyams in late 1970 began to question why the Foundation continued to fund the same organizations over and over. Why weren’t they looking at applications from new nonprofits with newer ideas? Joan wondered – and worried – about whether the dollars sent to the old, traditional agencies were being used in the proper way and whether there was any accountability.

J. Anthony Lukas in his famous Boston-based book Common Ground, wrote: “ To Joan, the old Hyams Trust was symbolized by a set of panels which decorated the foundation’s boardroom. Purchased by Godfrey Hyams on a trip to London, the panels were said to be copies of ones which had hung in the House of Lords. Depicting common people bowing and scraping before the King and nobility, they struck her as incredibly patronizing, the flip side of Yankee noblesse oblige. There was something wildly anachronistic too, she thought, about those aristocratic tableaus hanging above the trustees’ heads as they deliberated on racial unrest, juvenile delinquency, teenage pregnancies, and heroin overdoses. The times had changed, the social needs of the city were different than they had been in Godfrey Hyams’ day. They could no longer be addressed from the lofty reaches of the traditional philanthropy.”226

The symbolism Joan saw was there, but it may have been a stretch for anyone to think that Godfrey Hyams saw the same thing when he purchased a set of decorative panels. If alive, Isabel and Sarah might very well have agreed with Joan that they needed to look around and assess current needs. Isabel, with her background in public health, would undoubtedly have championed the funding of drug clinics and programs to prevent children from having babies while still in

224 Brochure, found in the archives of the East Boston Social Centers, 68 Central Square, East Boston, MA. 225 Ibid. 226 J. Anthony Lukas, Ibid. 341 196

school. Joan Diver probably didn’t do anything that the Hyams sisters would not have done, but the fact that she came along and shook up standard thinking at the Hyams Foundation meant change was ahead for many agencies, including East Boston Social Centers, although the Social Centers were, by terms of Isabel’s trust, protected from much of the initial change in direction.

The Commonwealth of Massachusetts State Senate presented an Official Citation to the Social Centers in November of 1981 in recognition of Trinity Neighborhood House which had its beginnings in 1881. This was the first centennial celebrated by the Social Centers after Trinity House became a part of them in 1966.227 Around the same time, Trinity House at 406 Meridian Street was designated a historic landmark by the Boston Landmarks Commission. 228

During the early part of the 1980s, the Hyams Foundation suggested, and the United Way partnered to fund a study of the Social Centers. The study was done by the Technical Development Center (TDC) and various changes were suggested.229

John Forbes – or “Jack” as he was commonly known – chose to resign his position as Executive Director in May of 1983. He served 15 years with the organization and was responsible for expanding the Social Centers’ programs to include the Maverick Neighborhood Center as well as the Orient Heights Center. The new Jeffries Point also opened during his tenure. East Boston Social Centers was one of the first agencies to provide community-based services to youth through the Department of Youth Services, and Mr. Forbes was Executive Director at the time that program was put into place. Mr. Forbes was a member of the East Boston Kiwanis Club and also served as its President. He was popular with East Boston residents and Social Centers’ program participants alike. The East Boston Chamber of Commerce honored him at a luncheon held at Lombardo’s to thank him for all he had done for the community over his time at the Social Centers.230

227 Commonwealth of Massachusetts to East Boston Social Centers, Citation of centennial, 1981. Citation found in the archives of the East Boston Social Centers, 68 Central Square, East Boston, MA. 228 “Trinity Neighborhood House Study Report,” Publications, Boston Landmarks Commission. www.cityofboston.gov (accessed May 5, 2018). 229 From paperwork found in the archives of the East Boston Social Centers, 68 Central Square, East Boston, MA. 230 Newspaper clipping from unknown newspaper, May 17, 1983. From the archives of the East Boston Social Centers, 68 Central Square, East Boston, MA. 197

When John Kelly took over at East Boston Social Centers, he was impressed with Forbes’ legacy of running superb social-recreational programs, and for his nurturing and mentoring approach, particularly with the boys of the neighborhood.231

Trinity House was damaged by fire in the spring of 1983. The Social Centers were in the process of doing extensive renovation there and were close to completion. It must have been devastating for those who had worked so hard to see the rehabilitation of this beautiful building find that they would most likely have to start from scratch. Because Trinity House had been designated by the Boston Landmark Commission in 1981, the cost of re-doing the fire damage was astronomical.232 The Social Centers were not anti-historic preservation, but they didn’t have sufficient funds available for another go-round to preserve the building according to historic preservation guidelines.233

Five years later, the Trinity House problem had yet to be solved. An article from the East Boston Community News in 1988 reported “Groups Vie for Control of Trinity House.” The initial fire had gutted a nearby home, partially destroyed Trinity House, and caused damage to adjacent Meridian House (a drug rehab center).234 Eventually Trinity House was turned into private rental housing.

231 John Kelly, interviewed by Kyle Ingrid Johnson, telephone interview, Boston, MA, May 2018. 232 Brown, Laura. “Trinity House Rehab Preserves Landmark,” from undated newspaper clipping from unknown newspaper. Found in the archives of the East Boston Social Centers, 68 Central Square, East Boston, MA. 233 John Kelly, Ibid. 234 “Groups Vie for Control of Trinity House,” East Boston Community News, 1988. Newspaper clipping found in the archives of the East Boston Social Centers, 68 Central Square, East Boston, MA. 198

The interim period between Forbes’ departure and the start of a new executive director saw a few selected board members overseeing the agency. They did not have to perform the role for long, however, as it took just four months to find Forbes’ replacement235. John Kelly was appointed the new executive director and started work in September of 1983. He was chosen out of a pool of 200 applicants. Mr. Kelly was the Director of the South Boston Boys and Girls Club for four years prior to his hiring at the Social Centers, but had been at that agency for 11 years in various roles. He had an MEd in Community Counseling from Northeastern and had earned a Bachelor’s degree from Boston University in Social Sciences. Other work involved starting a program at the Cardinal Cushing Center, South End, focused on Latino youth.236

235 Board Correspondence found in the archives of the East Boston Social Centers, 68 Central Square, East Boston, MA. 236 “John Kelly,” September 14, 1983. Newspaper clipping from unknown newspaper, found in the archives of the East Boston Social Centers, 68 Central Square, East Boston, MA. 199

Newspaper clipping from unidentified newspaper, September 1983, announcing the appointment of John Kelly as the new Executive Director of the Social Centers. From the archives of the East Boston Social Centers, 68 Central Square, East Boston, MA

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John Kelly was, in some ways, returning to his roots. His father emigrated from Scotland in 1925 and settled first in East Boston where he worked for a shipbuilder, Mystic Steamship. His father told Kelly that East Boston was made up of Irish, Italians, Jews, and Finns. They were his co-workers and his neighbors. Although the senior Mr. Kelly eventually moved out of East Boston, his stories about his time there made an impression on his son who, 58 years after his father’s arrival in the United States, went to East Boston to try to help the neighborhood that had once welcomed his Dad.237

East Boston Social Centers was a tough job for Kelly to take on. The Social Centers were running out of money, the roofs were leaking at various agency properties, the question of what to do with Trinity House hung over everything, most of the employees wanted a raise, and some community members were upset about other issues including the fact that Kelly was essentially an “outsider” coming into what was considered a “local” agency where several East Boston residents had been interested in the directorship.238

In 1987, the East Boston Camps celebrated their 50th birthday party, so even though Mr. Kelly took on a great deal of new and sometimes difficult responsibility, he was also rewarded by celebrating milestones as important as this one.239

237 John Kelly interview, Ibid. 238 Ibid. 239 From paperwork found in the archives of the East Boston Social Centers, 68 Central Square, East Boston, MA. 201

1990s, 2000s, 2010s

In asking John Kelly what he remembers most about his thirty-four years at East Boston Social Centers, the answer comes easily: he loved the job. His long tenure is evidence to the fact that he felt engaged, comfortable, accepted, and competent. He had to make unpopular decisions in order to save the organization, and he did so with mindfulness and forward thinking, keeping the budget forefront while taking into consideration the needs of the community.

Under Kelly, the Social Centers moved away from being a social-recreational agency to becoming the go-to place in East Boston for quality childcare. He started the childcare program in Chelsea and expanded the ones in Orient Heights and Maverick. Afterschool programs were begun on his watch. The Boston Youth Network for at-risk neighborhood youth was a program of which he was especially proud. Although Kelly may have occasionally been viewed as the “bad guy” as Trinity House was sold and the Westford camping program closed on his watch, he was also the director with the business brain who, because of tough choices such as the above, managed to save the Social Centers.240

Kelly had always been interested and involved in family issues. He was a member of the citywide Family Engagement Network and also served as its chairman. The idea behind it was to set standards for childcare with the belief that “Boston would be the leader.” He also helped to draft legislation in MA having to do with childcare issues.241

He was always enthusiastic about how to involve different ethnic groups within a community. Using some of his early work experience at Cardinal Cushing Center, he made a concerted effort to outreach to the Latino population in East Boston. The community had changed quickly in the mid-to-late 1980s when the bank crisis created a bit of a real-estate panic, many longtime East Boston homeowners fled to the suburbs, and vacant properties rented quickly at reasonable prices. War and turmoil in Central America meant that people from other nations, particularly El Salvador, were fleeing to areas where they could find employment and safety. East Boston became home.242

240 John Kelly, interview. Ibid. 241 Ibid. 242 Ibid. 202

A program for Latinas was started due to Kelly’s interest, the needs assessment he did when he first arrived, and his sense of a gap in local services. Recently arrived immigrant girls were considered at-risk for substance abuse. Ages of program participants were 10 to 14, a difficult age mix to have in one group. Despite studies that had shown young Latinas in need of such a service, the Social Centers’ board felt uncomfortable in having a program that was not only specific to gender but also to ethnicity. Eventually “Project Listen” included boys and girls, all teenagers considered “at risk,” and was absorbed into the Boston Youth Network.243

Another program was Family Focus which the Social Centers ran in partnership with the public schools. The idea was to place a social worker in each classroom with Spanish speaking students not only to ease their introduction to a new language but addressing any adjustment problems they might be having settling in their new land. This was federally funded, but ended abruptly when the Commonwealth of Massachusetts passed legislation mandating bilingual classrooms. While this, in itself, was a good and forward-thinking idea, it did end Family Focus and probably took a bit of comfort away from Latino youth who had been experiencing the benefit of having a social worker directly in the classroom.244

When Kelly started work at the Social Centers, the Youth Family Counselling Service was already in place. The participants were court-involved youth, and the biggest problem at the time was the Mafia recruiting young people for its lower ranks. Although this may sound stereotypical (Italian-American, city neighborhood, vulnerable youth looking up to “bad guy heroes”), this was a very real and legitimate concern of many East Boston mothers who, like mothers everywhere, would prefer their children graduate from high school and take respectable jobs or perhaps go on to college. Instead, there was a strong and frightening menace in the presence of a still active Mafia, eager to show young men a way to make money and gain “street credibility” in a way other than studying history at the high school or pumping gas at the station on the weekends. This program ended at some time during Governor William Weld’s administration when the Commonwealth decided that programs such as these should not be run at the community level, but rather be delivered under a hospital license.245

243 Ibid. 244 Ibid. 245 Ibid. 203

Kelly, always trying to engage different ethnic groups within the community, was especially concerned with problems at that time between Asian youth and Latino youth. Well-known Boston mural artist, Roberto Chao, was engaged to work with members of the Boston Youth Network to create a “positive message” mural. The mural – known as “UNITY” depicted the letters of the word with each letter representing a separate continent. Originally the mural was destined for indoor use, but when Kelly saw the completed form, he felt that the art should be placed on the outside of Central Square Center where the neighborhood could see it, enjoy it, and understand its message. UNITY remained on the exterior of 68 Central Square for a long time. Unfortunately, it was never really meant for outdoor use and couldn’t withstand the elements. Extensive rot was the cause for its removal, thus leaving Central Square Center with a blank façade.246

Photograph of the mural “Unity” created by Boston-area mural artist, Roberto Chao along with a team of teens from the Boston Youth Network. The mural had a long and colorful life on the exterior of Central Square Center, but has since been removed. Photograph (photographer unknown) found in the archives of the East Boston Social Centers, 68 Central Square, East Boston, MA

246 Ibid. 204

Kelly liked the idea of murals mixing with the community, however, so he gave a nod toward what he considers a “feminist mural” that was done by a woman artist from New York who had executed several of these type of murals in different areas. It was a community effort, and many local women participated in its creation. The message was to draw attention to violence toward women, how to keep women safe, and how women wanted to be treated. That mural, designed to be temporary, was only up for a prescribed length of time; however, it gave the Social Centers confidence that public art was appreciated (and yes, disputed as well) by the neighborhood.247 But public art is designed to promote dialogue, and what better place to have such talks but at a community organization? In participating in mural projects, the Social Centers go back to their settlement- house roots where art in all forms was considered as a necessary part of every living person’s life.

Many other events happened during Kelly’s tenure at the Social Centers. The Isabel F. Hyams Fund gave the Central Square Center building at 68 Central Square to the East Boston Social Centers in the fall of 1996. The Hyams Fund had always owned it, and it was a tremendously large gift to the Social Centers.248

When asked about his last decade at the Social Centers which ran from 2007 (the last year of the Westford Camps) to 2017 (the year of his retirement), Kelly said he was most proud of newcomer family engagement in what has always been known as a gateway community. He felt strongly about helping linguistic minorities engage in their new culture. Other points of positivity were working to get raises for childcare staff from the Commonwealth and working more with the Boston Public Schools.249

Many may not be aware that the Boston charter school, EXCEL Academy was started by John Kelly and Debra Cave (Debra being a longtime Social Centers’ board member and also President of the Board). EXCEL Academy used space at Central Square Center when it first opened. It now occupies three sites in East Boston. Although EXCEL Academy is not a part of the Social Centers’ programming, it is notable that two influential individuals affiliated with the Social Centers were the driving force behind the start of what is now considered a very important educational resource in East Boston

247 Ibid. 248 Isabel F Hyams Fund to the East Boston Social Centers. Document 31, Recording date September 20, 1996, Type: Deed. Book/Page: 20874/319. Suffolk County Registry of Deeds. www.masslandrecords.com/suffolk/ (accessed May 11, 2018). 249 John Kelly interview. Ibid. 205

John Kelly retired from his position as Executive Director of the East Boston Social Centers in 2017. With a 34-year tenure, he is, to date, the longest serving director of the Social Centers.250

Justin Pasquariello, the current Executive Director of East Boston Social Centers. Photograph from the organization’s website: www.ebsoc.org

250 Ibid. 206

Justin Pasquariello started his directorship at the East Boston Social Centers in 2017. Justin, living on Gove Street in East Boston at the time, heard about the upcoming opening for an Executive Director at the Social Centers. He recognized it as the perfect opportunity to combine his concern for children, his love of community, and his commitment to social justice. Now he is in the perfect place to carry on the legacy of the East Boston Social Centers.

Justin holds an undergraduate degree from Harvard University, an MBA from the Harvard Business School, and an MPA from Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government. He founded Silver Lining Mentoring and served as Executive Director for six years. He is still a member of their board. The organization focuses on mentoring youth in foster care. The desire to do this work grew from Justin’s own experience of living with his birth mother in England until he was 7 years old, and, at age 9 being adopted into an Italian-American family in the States.

Justin was a Rappaport Fellow in Legislative Affairs at the Massachusetts Department of Children and Families and also worked at a family foundation whose goal it was to increase naturalization of immigrants. Prior to his arrival at the East Boston Social Centers, he was the Executive Director of Children’s HealthWatch. Located on the campus of Boston Medical Center, Children’s HealthWatch’s mission is “to improve the health and development of young children by informing policies to address and alleviate economic hardship.” Much of their work revolves around research and policy development.251

What is Offered at the East Boston Social Centers in 2018?

Programs at the East Boston Social Centers in 2018 include:

 4 Early Learning Centers, ages infants to 5. All sites are accredited by the National Association for the Education of Young People.  2 sites providing after-school and summer programming for children ages 5 to 14.

251 Staff Profiles, East Boston Social Centers. www.ebsoc.org (accessed May 17, 2018). 207

 Boston Youth Network - an afterschool program for at-risk East Boston teens ages 13 to 18.  East Boston Family Engagement Network – the Social Centers leads this collaboration of agencies designed to inform and engage families regarding opportunities, services, and programs for children and parents  Senior Place - meals, classes, education, and field trips for seniors

Also, as a founding member of the East Boston Collaborative for Families, Parent College was started through the East Boston Social Centers and was later adopted by the Boston Public Schools under the name Parent University.

The East Boston Social Centers is committed to providing space for the community for classes, forums, meetings, and other events. Some space is given for free to the community, and there are also space rentals available.252

252 Information from East Boston Social Centers’ website. www.ebsoc.org accessed: May 18, 2018). 208

Timeline – East Boston Social Centers

1799 - Massachusetts Missionary Society is formed in Boston

1827 - The Domestic Missionary Society of Massachusetts Proper merges into the Massachusetts Missionary Society

1844 - The Massachusetts Missionary Society changes their name to the Massachusetts Home Missionary Society to differentiate between work being done locally and work done abroad

1881 - Trinity Church, Boston, begins social services and a day nursery on Meridian Street, East Boston

1908 - The Italian Mission is located at 180 Webster Street in East Boston. Likely early name of Good Will House

1911 - The House of Good Will is recorded as being at 177 Webster Street, East Boston (Congregational Church)

1915 - The Italian Mission is recorded as being at 180 Webster St.

1917 - Trinity House becomes the official name of the settlement House and day nursery that the Episcopal Church founded in 1881 on Meridian Street.

1918 - Good Will House Association is incorporated as a 501c3. The Italian Mission name disappears around this time, and evidence points to the two being connected/the same.

1927 - Massachusetts Home Missionary Society merges with the Massachusetts Congregational Conference (Good Will House was started by this group, and the President in 1927 was a Congregational minister.)

1930 - The Hyams sisters recruit S. Max Nelson from New York to move to Boston, conduct a study, and carry out their dual vision of an active social center and healthy summer camps. After the study is finished, it is decided that East

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Boston is the neighborhood in most need of these services. They are to be carried out through the East Boston Social Centers Council.

1931 - First in a series of annual Leadership Training events created and coordinated by S. Max Nelson

1932 - Official opening of East Boston Social Centers, although the Nelsons have been around and working before this time

1932 - Isabel F Hyams, benefactor, dies, aged 66. The trust bearing her name gives East Boston Social Centers the status of sole beneficiary

1934 - Camp Cielo Celeste, summer camp, is held in Billerica, MA

1934 - Camp Camelot, summer camp, is held in Foxboro, MA

1935 - Camp Camelot, summer camp, held in Foxboro, MA

1935 - Camp Cielo Celeste, summer camp, held in Carlisle, MA

1935 - Camp Nashoba, summer camp, is held in Carlisle, MA

1935-36 - Approximate dates for Mothers and Children’s Camp in South Lyndeborough, NH

1936 - Camp Camelot, summer camp, is held in Jaffrey, NH

1937 - Camp Wakitatina, summer camp, held in Southville, MA

1937-1938 Relocation and creation of new summer camps in Westford, MA - Camp Cielo Celeste (younger children); Camp Wakitatina (older girls); Camp Nashoba (older boys)

1940 - Full-time staff in this year numbers 18. The organization relies heavily on volunteers to lead groups and clubs.

1942 - Sarah A Hyams, benefactor, dies at age 74. The trust bearing her sister’s name continues to fund the Social Centers

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1942 - The City of Boston closes the old Plummer School at 11 Lamson Street, East Boston

1945 - The City of Boston deeds the closed Plummer School to the Good Will House Association.

1946 - Good Will House relocates from Webster Street into the old Plummer School at 11 Lamson Street.

1950 - East Boston Social Centers celebrates its official 18th birthday

1954 - S. Max Nelson retires from his directorship of the Social Centers after serving approximately 24 years

1954 - Clarence Jeffrey, Associate Director of the Social Centers takes over as Director from S. Max Nelson

1955 - Good Will House Association becomes part of East Boston Social Centers on 24 February 1955

1955 - It is unclear exactly when the name of East Boston Social Centers Council is changed and replaced by East Boston Social Centers, Inc., but it appears to be around the time Good Will House Association becomes part of the Social Centers

1960-61 - East Boston Social Centers constructs a new building at Central Square that replaces the old church

1961 - The Board of Directors makes the decision to close Good Will House

1962 - The first event held in the new Central Square Center is the Annual Meeting on March 1, 1962

1964 - The Community Foundation (predecessor of the United Way of Mass Bay) conducts a study on behalf of the Board of Directors of both East Boston Social Centers and Trinity Neighborhood House

1964 - Recommendation is made by the Community Foundation

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that East Boston Social Centers and Trinity Neighborhood House should consider a merger

1966 - Trinity Neighborhood House merges into East Boston Social Centers

1966 - The Board of Directors of both Trinity House and the Social Centers merges. Quite a few members resign around this time.

1968 - John “Jack” Forbes is appointed the new General Director of East Boston Social Centers and starts in the position in January of 1968

1969 - S. Max Nelson dies at his home in Altadena, California

1972 - East Boston Social Centers wants to open a group home for troubled teens at 110 White Street, but neighbors oppose.

1972 - Youth Family Counselling Service opens at Central Square Center

1974 - Grand opening of the Jeffries Point Neighborhood Center

1980s - The United Way and the Hyams Foundation partner to fund a study of the East Boston Social Centers

1981 - Trinity House is designated as a landmark by the Boston Landmark Commission

1981 - The Commonwealth of Massachusetts State Senate presents an official citation to the Social Centers in recognition of the centennial of Trinity House

1983 - The Hyams Foundation suggests a study be done of the East Boston Social Centers. It is funded mostly by the United Way and Hyams, and is carried out by Technical Development Center (TDC). The study focuses on organizational structure, management, and operations.

1983 - Fire damages Trinity House

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1983 - Jack Forbes resigns as Director of the Social Centers

1983 - John Kelly is appointed new Director of East Boston Social Centers

1985 - The National Guard creates a new park on the vacant lot next to the Jeffries Point Center in April. The playground sits on the site of the old Plummer School, home of the second Good Will House.

1987 - 50th Birthday Celebration of the East Boston Camps

1992 - East Boston Social Centers releases its right of first refusal to repurchase Trinity House

1992 - Trinity House is listed on the National Register of Historic Places

1996 - The Isabel F. Hyams Fund gives the building at 68 Central Square to the East Boston Social Centers

1996 - The last year for Camp Cielo Celeste at Westford, MA

1997 - 60th season of the East Boston Camps at Westford, MA

1997 - Expanded day camp program at Westford, MA camps for area children is offered using the old Cielo Celeste buildings

1997 - The Annual Report from the Social Centers shows that the organization’s budget has tripled since 1989, just 8 years before

2002 - The Boston Youth Network celebrates 10 years of serving at- risk East Boston youth

2002 - This year marks the 25th anniversary (approximately) of family camping at the Westford Camps over Memorial and Labor Day weekends.

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2005 - The Hyams Foundation, owners of the Westford Camps sell the property to the Town of Westford

2007 - The East Boston Social Centers ends the summer camps at Westford after 70 years of operation

2017 - John Kelly retires as Executive Director of the Social Centers

2017 - Justin Pasquariello is chosen as the new Executive Director of the East Boston Social Centers

2018 - East Boston Social Centers celebrates the 100th birthday of its incorporation under its predecessor agency, the Good Will House Association.

A Geographic Tracing of East Boston Social Centers and Predecessor Organizations’ Locations

Name of Address Original Dates Used Current Usage Building Usage

Good Will 177 Webster *Private Built circa Currently used as House Street residence, 1847 private housing *Settlement House Jeffries Point 120 Marginal *Former 1930s – to The current building on Boys’ Club Street Sailors’ Home (end date that site is used for (run by the unknown) housing. Episcopal City Mission)

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*Boys’ Club Marginal 72 Marginal *The Built 1912 East Boston Community Street Center Street Immigrants Used as Development @ the Cunard Home Marginal Corporation Dock *Settlement Street House Center in 1930s to (end date unknown) Good Will 11 Lamson *The School Torn down. House Street Plummer dates: Former site now a School closed 1942 playground ( playground (of the Boston Settlement built by the National Public House Guard in 1985) Schools) dates: 1945 *Settlement to 1961, House approximate White Street 110 White *Private S. Max Zoned Residence Street (as well Home Nelson, Residential/Commerical as 108 White *Home of Director of by the City of Boston. Street) Executive The Social Owned by Paz Director of Centers Properties (part of EBSC (110 lived there NOAH) White) and (110 White) housing for from certain staff 1930 to members (108 1955, White) approximate Central Corner of *Church *Church, The church was Square Center Central built 1843, demolished Square and *Settlement in use as a approximately 1960 to Liverpool House church for make way for the Street at almost 100 construction of the new Meridian years Social Center *1940s to 1961 as EBSC Central 68 Central *East Boston Built 1961- *East Boston Social Square Center Square Social 1962 Centers headquarters Centers and including administrative headquarters presently in offices, program space, including use. gym, etc. administrative offices, program

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space, gym, etc. East Boston 79 Paris Street Main offices 1940 to – Part of the East Boston Social (end date Neighborhood Health Centers, Main unknown) Center Office Trinity House 406 Meridian *Private Built circa Placed on the National Street Home (built 1847 Register of Historic 1847 for local 100th Places in 1992, the businessman, Anniversary building is now private Noah of the rental housing. Sturtevant) settlement house in *Settlement 1981 (from House 1917 at that location, *Private transferred residential from a housing program run by Trinity Church in Boston, 1881) Damaged by fire in 1983 Maverick 41 Maverick *Unknown 1960s or 70s New housing on this Neighborhood Road to - site. Center unknown

Jeffries Point 425 Sumner *known first 1974 – Now operated as one of Neighborhood Street as the S. Max recreated as East Boston Social Center Nelson the Jeffries Centers’ childcare Gymnasium Point centers. Neigh- borhood Center Later turned into a childcare facility. Orient Heights 41 Vallar *Used for 1960s or 70s Boston Housing Neighborhood Road programming to Authority Center space Camp Cielo Billerica, MA *Summer 1934 Became part of the Celeste Camp Westford Camps

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Camp Foxboro, MA *Summer 1934 Name of camp did not Camelot Camp transfer to Westford Camp Foxboro, MA *Summer 1935 Name of camp did not Camelot Camp transfer to Westford Camp Carlisle, MA *Summer 1935 Became part of the Nashoba Camp Westford Camps Camp East Jaffrey, *Summer 1936 Name of Camp did not Camelot NH Camp transfer to Westford Camp Southville, *Summer 1937 Became part of the Wakitatina MA Camp Westford Camps Mothers’ and South *Summer 1930s Became part of the Children’s Lyndeborough Camp Westford Camps Camp NH Westford Westford, MA *Summer 1937 to Camps closed, 2007. Camps Camps 2007 Property sold to Town of Westford Orient Heights 171 Faywood *Early Current Presently in use Center Avenue Childhood Programs Oh Yes! 191 Faywood *Preschool Current Presently in use Preschool Avenue Jeffries Point 425 Summer *Early Current Presently in use Child Care Street Childhood Center Education Central 70 Central *Early Current Presently in use Avenue Avenue, Childhood Children’s Chelsea Education Center

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East Boston Social Centers’ Staff Members 2018

Early Learning Staff Name Position Years with East Boston Social Centers Michele D'Ambrosio DELC 26 years Kirsten Blaney Family Worker 13 Lorraine Clougherty Site Coord 22 Sharon Dsouza Lead Teach 2 Meaghan Testa Lead Teach 2 Toni Garadozzi Quinn Ast Teach 33 Kara Finocchio Ast Teach 1 Anna Ricci Mejia Ast Teach 1 Miza Barrientos Teach 1 William Quinn Cook 23 Luz Maria Rodriguez On Site Coord 26 Ivonne Cano Lead Teach 15 Katherine Gonzalez Teach 3 Lourdes Henriquez P Lead Teach 4 Iris Molina Lead Teach 22 Claudia Gonzalez Teach 17 Adrianna Mejia Teach 2 Blanca Perez Cook 16 Lesly Huarings Ast Teach 1 Anacaona Gonzalez Ast Teach 1 Alicia Carmenatty On Site Coord 14 Viviana Gomez Lead Teach 17 Lourdes Velez Teach 5 Trina Torres Lead Teach 11 Samantha Driver Ast Teach 1 Krysten Buccella Lead Teach 6 Natiery Potrazo Teach 1 Blanca Ayala Lead Teach 8 Gladys Santiago Teach 15 Kiara Ortiz Teach 3 Natalie Marrero Ast Teach 2

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Jorge Carmenatty Cook 2 Cathy Ann Castro Teach 24 Jacqueline Carmenatty Lead Teach 13 Claudia Restrepo Floating Teach 20 Carmen Oliva Enrollment 14 Melissa Montano Ast Teach 2 Luz Medina Ast Teach 1 Gererdo Rodriguez Food Delivery 1

School Age Staff Name Position Years with East Boston Social Centers

Christian Amaya Asst Group Leader 1 Christina Boesch Asst Group Leader 1 David Cali School Age and Operations 26 Dir. Kassandra Carmenatty Group Leader 5 Samantha Castro Site Coordinator 14 Wilson Colon Group Leader 14 Diane Crete Group Leader 1 Amanda Diccicco Asst Group Leader 1 Destiny Eason Asst Group Leader 1 Jose Garcia Asst Group Leader 1 Naztaja Garcia-Arroyo Group Leader 5 Adamarys Hernandez Group Leader 3 John Lovasco Site Coordinator 10 Stephan Marin Asst Group Leader 3 Luis Marin Group Leader 1 Christopher Marroquin Program Director 6 Orpa Rahman Asst Group Leader 1 Geraldo Rodriquez Group Leader 1 Kasandra Salmeron Asst Group Leader 2 VanessaTrujillo Asst Group Leader 2

Transportation Staff Name Position Years with East Boston Social Centers

Alberta Cali Transportation Director 29 Tin Tak Wong Bus Driver 14 Maria Gonzalez Bus Monitor 10 Brisa Mendoza Bus Monitor 7 Janelle Allison Bus Monitor 2 Antonio Figueroa Bus Monitor 1 Nestor Gonzalez Bus Monitor 1 Adriana Martinez Roa Bus Monitor 1 Barbara Rivera Bus Monitor 1 Ivan Wilson Bus Monitor 1

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Administration and Other Name Position Years with East Boston Social Centers James Justin Pasquariello Executive Director 1 Brenda Cartagena Payroll Manager 6 Wendy Castro Receptionist 3 Tori Rivera Receptionist 3 John Roch Business Manager 9 Danisse Vega Billing and Marketing 4 Gloria Devine Family Engagement Dir. 19 Marisa DiPietro Development Director 14 Jeannie Spinazola Senior Service Director 6 Jason Torrey Youth Services Director 2 Micheal Henry Receptionist 3

“When All Give, All Gain” was researched and written for the East Boston Social Centers by Kyle Ingrid Johnson, 2018.

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