Channing House: the Story of a Unitarian Neighborhood House in Baltimore

Channing House: The Story of a Unitarian Neighborhood House in Baltimore

Diana K. Davies

Channing House was a neighborhood house in Baltimore, Maryland, established and managed by members of the First Independent (Christ’s) Church of Baltimore,1 in the early twentieth century. Its story fills a gap in the larger Unitarian Universalist history of urban missions and sustained social justice endeavors. While the stories of Unitarian and Universalist settlement houses in New England, New York, and the Midwest are known, there is no mention of this successful, Baltimore-based project in any of our major history books. Perhaps this is partly because Baltimore itself is so difficult to categorize within regional studies: culturally and historically, it exists somewhere in between the North and the South. Likewise, in the first part of the twentieth century, Unitarians in Baltimore were neither the established elite, like their peers in Boston, nor were they cutting-edge, progressive leaders. And yet, it may be this very “in between” nature of the Baltimore Unitarians that makes the story of Channing House so compelling. It is at once a uniquely Baltimorean tale, and an example of a Unitarian social justice endeavor that bears much in common with similar ventures of its time.

The basic idea of a neighborhood house wasn’t exceptional, in and of itself. Originally inspired by London’s Toynbee Hall and brought into popular consciousness with the success of

Hull House in Chicago, settlement houses and neighborhood houses weren’t uncommon in large

U.S. cities, by the beginning of the twentieth century. Jane Addams and Ellen Gates Starr opened

1 The First Independent (Christ’s) Church of Baltimore became the First Unitarian Church of Baltimore in 1912, under the leadership of Rev. Alfred Rodman Hussey. Under a previous minister, Rev. Charles Richmond Weld, the word “Christ’s” had been inserted into the name, although it was never legally changed; hence, “Christ’s” is always presented in parentheses. In this paper, I will use “First Independent (Christ’s) Church of Baltimore” when referring to events that took place prior to the 1912 name change, and “First Unitarian Church of Baltimore” for events after that date. 1

Hull House in 1889, and similar settlement houses soon appeared in other U.S. metropolitan areas: about 100 of them by the turn of the century,2 and as many as 400 by 1910.3 Empowered by the What-Would-Jesus-Do, anti-Social Darwinist energy of progressivism and the Social

Gospel movement, and carried (largely) on the shoulders of middle-class women, the settlement house movement strove to assimilate immigrants into the U.S. work force by teaching them middle-class values and life skills, and to provide some relief from the crush of poverty. This was accomplished by offering safe play spaces and gymnasia; vocational and cultural enrichment classes; children’s day care; visiting nurses or other health care services; housing alongside resident, middle-class role models (in the case of settlement houses, vs. “neighborhood houses,” which lacked a residential focus); subsidized meals; and healthy entertainment alternatives to alcohol, prostitution, and “hooliganism.” Baltimore was not untouched by the settlement house movement. Prior to World War I, the United Settlement Workers of Baltimore and Washington

DC reported that there were at least 11 settlement houses and neighborhood alliances operating within Baltimore city.4

Each Baltimore settlement house or neighborhood house served a unique clientele; yet, the services offered were quite similar, and Channing House didn’t stand out from the crowd in this regard. According to that same United Settlement Workers report, Channing House aimed

“to furnish a social, recreational, and educational center which shall increasingly focus and invigorate the neighborhood life.” The Channing House neighborhood is described as:

2 Louise Carrol Wade, “Settlement Houses,” Encyclopedia of Chicago, Chicago Historical Society (2005), accessed Feb. 11, 2017, http://www.encyclopedia.chicagohistory.org/pages/1135.html . 3 J.E. Hansan, “Settlement Houses: An Introduction,” Social Welfare History Project (2011), accessed Feb. 21, 2017, http://socialwelfare.library.vcu.edu/settlement-houses/settlement-houses/. 4 Harris Chaiklin, “Settlement Workers of Washington DC and Baltimore MD,” Social Welfare History Project, accessed Feb. 11, 2017, http://socialwelfare.library.vcu.edu/settlement-houses/settlement-workers- of-washington-dc-and-baltimore-md/. 2

[t]he center of the tobacco manufacturing district which contains also several large bakeries. A large element of the population is negro, resident chiefly in alleys between the main streets. Other racial elements in approximately even numbers are American, Hebrew, Italian, and German. They do not represent the progressive people of these nationalities. They live chiefly in two and three-story houses with one or two families in a house. These houses are mainly without sewer connection. Tuberculosis prevails. Park and playground facilities are as yet entirely inadequate. There is one public bath in the neighborhood.5

Other settlements and neighborhood houses in Baltimore tended to serve less diverse populations, with, for example, the Ann Street Settlement serving the Polish quarter, Carrolltown House serving “colored people,” the Hampden-Woodbury alliance focusing on mill workers, and the Maccabean House/Daughters of Israel serving primarily Russian Jews. Yet, the services offered by these establishments were comparable. Channing House offered: “[a] lunch room where inexpensive hot lunches, averaging eight cents, are served at noon to the women operatives of the neighboring factories. Clubs and classes similar to those usual in settlements.”6

There was nothing unique about Unitarians sponsoring a settlement or neighborhood house. Certainly, even if we discount the Unitarian connections of Jane Addams7 and Ellen Gates

Starr,8 we can see that members of this faith were very active in the settlement/neighborhood house movement, including Mary Collson at Hull House;9 Mary White Ovington, at the

5 Ibid. 6 Ibid. 7 Unitarian Universalist Association, “Jane Addams,” Tapestry of Faith Curricula, http://www.uua.org/re/tapestry/adults/ethics/workshop7/191955.shtml . 8 Jennifer L. Bosch, "Ellen Gates Starr," Women Building Chicago 1790-1990: A Biographical Dictionary, ed. Rima Lunin Schultz and Adele Hast (Bloomington & Indianapolis: Indiana University Press, 2001), 838. 9 Cynthia Grant Tucker, Prophetic Sisterhood: Liberal Women Ministers of the Frontier, 1880-1930 (Boston: Beacon Press, 1990), 176-181.

Greenpoint Settlement in Brooklyn, and Tuskegee Apartments in Manhattan;10 Eleanor Gordon, at the Roadside House in Des Moines;11 and Celia Parker Wooley and Fannie Barrier Williams, at the Frederick Douglass Center in Chicago.12

Beyond individual involvement, Unitarians were engaged in the settlement movement at the congregational level. Perhaps the best known example is the Abraham Lincoln Center, founded by Jenkin Lloyd Jones and the All Souls Church in Chicago in 1905, an expansion of their earlier experiment with the Helen Heath House/Fellowship House.13 In New York, the First

Unitarian Congregational Society of Brooklyn established a settlement house under the leadership of its trustee and deacon, Alfred T White;14 the Unitarians in Yonkers launched

Prospect House;15 and All Souls Unitarian Church in Manhattan ran the Friendly Aid Society, later the Warren Goddard House.16 Further afield, in Pittsburgh PA, Rev. Charles Elliott St. John, a staunch supporter of the Social Gospel, inspired his First Unitarian Church members to rally around the Kingsley Settlement House.17 While not technically a part of the settlement movement, Joseph Tuckerman’s early nineteenth century urban ministry in Boston, especially his idea of the farm school, “where slum children just starting on a career of crime might go to be

10 Dorothy Senghas and Catherine Senghas, “Mary White Ovington,” Dictionary of Unitarian and Universalist Biography (2002), accessed Feb. 11, 2017, http://uudb.org/articles/marywhiteovington.html . 11 Grant Tucker, 174. 12 June Edwards, “Fannie Barrier Williams,” Dictionary of Unitarian and Universalist Biography (2005), accessed Feb. 11, 2017, http://uudb.org/articles/fanniebarrierwilliams.html . 13 Cathy Tauscher and Peter Hughes, “Jenkin Lloyd Jones,” Dictionary of Unitarian and Universalist Biography (2007), accessed Feb. 21, 2017, http://uudb.org/articles/jenkinlloydjones.html . 14 Francesca Norsen, “The First Estate,” Brooklyn Daily Eagle May 20, 2009, accessed Feb. 11, 2017, http://50.56.218.160/archive/category.php?category_id=31&id=28345 . 15 “New York Letter,” Unitarian Register 86.22 (1907): 446-447. 16 Grant Tucker, 173-174. 17 Kathleen Parker, “Charles Elliott St. John: Moral Enthusiasm and the Social Question, 1892-1900,” http://www.test.uucollegium.org/Research%20papers/09paper_Parker.pdf.

taught good citizenship,”18 set a precedent for later efforts, especially as it received the full support of the American Unitarian Association (AUA).

Although I am focusing on Unitarian settlement and neighborhood houses, it’s worth noting that Universalists were also active in the peak years of the movement. Examples include the Unity Settlement House, established by the First Universalist Church in Minneapolis,19 and the Neighborhood House, managed by the Universalist Church of Englewood in Chicago.20 A forerunner of the Universalist neighborhood house was the Everyday Church, launched by Otis

A. Skinner in 1837.21

There was a clear need for a facility like Channing House in 1905 Baltimore. Only a year before, on February 8, 1904, the city had endured one of the country’s most devastating fires.

Over the course of about 30 hours, fire had spread over 140 acres, burning 1500 buildings in downtown Baltimore, devastating over 2500 businesses, resulting in losses of between

$125,000,000 and $150,000,000 and leaving over 35,000 people temporarily jobless.22

At the same time, the city had experienced recent expansion, particularly in its immigrant population, swelling from about a quarter million people to over half a million people, over a thirty-year period. This rapid growth, combined with entrenched government corruption, resulted in a severely inadequate infrastructure. By 1901, Baltimore was the only major city in the United

States without a sanitary sewage system; by 1905, this situation had not improved.23 As late as

18 Edward H. Cotton, “Joseph Tuckerman Loved the Poor,” Unitarian Register 100.3 (1921): 60. 19 University of Minnesota, “Unity House Social Settlement,” https://housesofworship.umn.edu/unity-settlement- house. 20 Errol Magidson, “Rufus Austin White,” Dictionary of Unitarian and Universalist Biography (2011), accessed Feb. 11, 2017, http://uudb.org/articles/rufusaustinwhite.html . 21 Mark W. Harris, The A to Z of Unitarian Universalism (Lanham MD: Scarecrow Press, 2003), 176. 22 Harold Williams, Baltimore Afire (Baltimore: Fidelity Trust Co., 1954), 44. 23 James B. Crooks, Politics and Progress: The Rise of Urban Progressivism in Baltimore 1895-1911 (Louisiana State Univ. Press, 1968), 135-139.

1907, in a study conducted by the Charity Organization Society of over 600 houses in south

Baltimore, only nine had toilet accommodations other than outdoor privies.24 The lack of an adequate sewage system combined with insufficient health ordinances requiring standards for milk and other food production resulted in recurring outbreaks of diarrhea, tuberculosis, typhoid, diphtheria, and scarlet fever. Between 1905 and 1908 (when a milk ordinance was finally passed), 2135 Baltimore children under the age of two died from diarrhea and enteritis.25

The labor situation was troubled, as well. There had been nearly 200 strikes involving about 30,000 workers between 1881 and1900, and many of these had been violent. The first law requiring city inspections and licensing sweatshops wasn’t passed until 1902. That same year saw the first worker’s compensation law in Baltimore, as well as the first law making education mandatory for children ages 8 – 12, and preventing children under the age of 12 from being employed in factories and mills.26 Nonetheless, in 1905, clothing mills, candy factories, and bakeries were routinely disregarding the child labor laws, and 60-hour work weeks were still common.27

With time, health ordinances and labor laws were finally established, voter disenfranchisement laws were defeated, and public education and safe housing standards were mandated. These progressive changes were thanks, largely, to the existence of a fully independent, muckraking newspaper, the Baltimore News, as well as the development of a strong urban progressive movement led by dominant political figures like Charles J. Bonaparte, and key

24 Association for the Improvement of the Condition of the Poor, and Charity Organization Society, Housing Conditions in Baltimore: A Study (Baltimore: np, 1907), 58. 25 H.W. Stoner, “The Milk Problem.” Maryland Medical Journal 55.10 (1912): 240. 26 Suzanne Ellery Greene, Baltimore: An Illustrated History (Woodland Hills CA: Windsor Publications, 1980), 150-152. 27 Crooks, 176.

religious figures like Cardinal James Gibbons. In fact, the progressive movement in early twentieth century Baltimore was truly interdenominational. The Jewish owner of the Baltimore

News, Fabian Franklin, played a critical role, as did Cardinal Gibbons, who regularly preached on the evil of sweatshops, and advocated for African American voter rights, fair elections, and social reform from the pulpit of the grand Baltimore Cathedral. Among Protestant progressives,

Episcopalians dominated. According to James Crooks, “The long religious hand of New England did not rest heavily upon Baltimore progressives. Instead, it would appear that the Southern tradition of the upper class being Episcopalian probably influenced the church ties of its reformers.”28

This was the context in which a group of about twelve “younger” members29 of the First

Independent (Christ’s) Church of Baltimore met together at the home of Miss Alice Morawetz, on Madison Avenue, in the elite Madison Park neighborhood of Baltimore City, in the spring of

1903 or 1904,30 to discuss ways that they might engage in some form of social service. Various possibilities were considered, and the group finally decided that they wanted to take on the challenge of establishing a settlement house in one of the poorer sections of the city. The new minister at First Independent (Christ’s) Church, Rev. Alfred Rodman Hussey, was an active participant in this discussion.

28 Crooks, 197. 29 Alfred Rodman Hussey, Alfred Rodman Hussey memoir [typescript], 1943, Massachusetts Historical Society, Boston, 37. The memoir is typed on the back of letterhead from The Christian Register, where Hussey served as editor of the literary review section from 1916-1930, and The First Parish, Plymouth MA, where Hussey served as minister from 1921 until his retirement in 1939. Although Hussey never defines what he means by “younger members” in his memoirs, he generally describes people of his own age or younger in this way. Rev. Hussey was 38 at the time. 30 The date is missing (left blank) in Hussey’s account of this event.

Alfred Rodman Hussey (1869-1947), an 1895 graduate of Harvard Divinity School, had come to Baltimore in 1902, after serving congregations in West Roxbury and Taunton,

Massachusetts. Both previous pastorates had ended due to “financial shortsightedness” on the part of church leaders.31 Arriving in Baltimore, Hussey found a city with “many of the characteristics of a Southern city, such as Richmond, or Savanna. In those years before the fire, the tempo of life was easy-going, slow. Still many business and professional men went home to a two o'clock dinner, afterwards took a nap, and called it a day.”32

Although Baltimore’s black population was over 80,000, Hussey makes almost no mention of black people in his memoir, and there is no mention of any African American congregational members or service attendees. This is unsurprising, given the segregationist spirit of the time. Although free black residents had been scattered throughout most parts of the city throughout the early part of the 19th century, by the beginning of the 20th century, most black residents could be found on the city’s peripheries, especially in West Baltimore. This pattern was solidified in 1910 and 1911 when Baltimore became the first city in the nation to make racial segregation a part of local housing law. Under a series of ordinances, whites were prohibited from moving into housing, or building churches or schools on blocks that already were majority black, and blacks could not live, study, or worship on majority white blocks.33 Since, at that time, the church was located in one of the most “fashionable” (and, by default, white) parts of the city, these laws resulted in the First Independent (Christ’s) Church of Baltimore becoming increasingly disconnected from the black community.

31 Hussey memoir, 21. 32 Ibid. 33 Garrett Power, “Apartheid Baltimore Style: The Residential Segregation Ordinances of 1910-1913,” Maryland Law Review 42 (1983), 299-300.

Certainly, there was little about the Baltimore congregation that suggested a strong penchant for ambitious social justice projects. Hussey would later write, “My first impressions were of a stately edifice, an order of worship, dignified yet simple, a … choir more earnest than gifted, an average-sized congregation which listened well, and an ancient hymnal altogether out of date, which the Unitarian churches in New England had long since outgrown... In short, my first impression of the church was a general suggestion of conservatism and old age.”34

Part of the congregation’s conservatism was due to the composition and structure of its governing board. According to Rev. Hussey, “Although nominally a congregational democracy, in reality it was a benevolent despotism, its affairs governed by a small group of trustees self- perpetuating, remaining unchanged from year to year.”35In this, Hussey saw the legacy of Enoch

Pratt (1809-1896), a millionaire philanthropist who had made his fortune in wholesaling, banking and finance, iron works, and transportation. Perhaps best known for establishing the Enoch Pratt

Free Library in Baltimore, Pratt also served as a Trustee at First Independent Church from 1848 to 1893, and was Treasurer from 1848 to 1860.36

Today, Pratt is credited with bringing the perennially in-debt church into the black by purchasing the church cemetery in 1876 and canceling all debt certificates outstanding. Pratt went on to turn the cemetery into building lots that he sold at a significant profit.37

Unfortunately, according to Hussey, he also set a precedent for church governance that would prove to be Hussey’s undoing: “An enthusiastic Unitarian, as long as he lived [Pratt] dominated

34 Hussey memoir, 19. 35 Hussey memoir, 22. 36 Rebecca Funk, A Heritage to Hold in Fee: 1817-1917 First Unitarian Church of Baltimore (Universalist and Unitarian) (Baltimore: Garamond Press, 1962), 73. 37 Ibid.

the church. What he said, went. The Trustees met in his office. Out of his own pocket he settled for all deficits. Almost nothing was done without his sanction.”38

The Chairman of the Board during Hussey’s tenure in Baltimore was Judge Thomas J.

Morris. By all accounts, Hussey’s relationship with Morris was complicated. It was Judge Morris who was largely responsible for Hussey’s settlement in Baltimore, in the first place. The AUA had put forward Professor Edward Hale (born 1858) as candidate for the Baltimore pulpit.

Morris, however, explained that “Somehow, Professor Hale did not impress our people as a very…virile personality.”39 Morris backed Hussey, instead, and, in the end, he won.

In his memoir, Hussey writes that his friendship with Judge Morris would last until

Morris’s death: “He was a charming old gentleman, dignified and courtly, the best type of

Southerner.”40 Rev. Hussey would ultimately conduct Morris’s funeral service, speaking of the great good that the jurist had done, which he hoped would find an echo in the lives of those who knew him.41 Certainly, Morris was a man of great accomplishments, having been appointed to the office of U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland by President Hayes in 1879, and serving in this role for thirty-three years. Morris also served as a Vice President of the American

Unitarian Association and a Vice President of the International Congress of Religious Liberals.

He served on the church’s Board of Trustees from 1893 up to his death in 1912.42

Unfortunately, Hussey believed, Morris had taken Enoch Pratt as his model for congregational leadership. He writes in his memoir: “[T]he real control lay in the hands of Judge

38 Hussey memoir, 25. 39 Funk, 77. 40 Hussey memoir, 17. 41 In Memorium: Thomas J Morris, 1837-1912 (Sometime United States District Judge for the District of Maryland) (Baltimore: Norman T.A. Munder & Co., n.d.), pamphlets, Maryland Historical Society, Baltimore. 42 Funk, 77.

Morris, who served as Registrar, i.e. secretary, as long as he lived. The meetings were invariably held in his house, and took on the color of a social affair… These respectable, dignified gentlemen came, and they sat, and they laughed at the Judge's jokes, moved when he pulled the strings, took their drinks, and eventually went home; as nice a sanhedrin of Pharisees as one could imagine."43

Morris’s conservatism, combined with the congregation’s long history of indebtedness and financial insolvency, created what modern church fundraisers would describe as a “culture of scarcity” among congregational leaders. Hussey describes a Board “whose deliberations were the most depressing of any it has ever been my fate to be connected with. Invariably from them I went home utterly disheartened. For, continually, without exception, the treasurer reported lack of funds, the church on the edge of financial ruin; for the avoidance of which no constructive suggestions were ever offered.”44 Perhaps the most egregious example of Morris’s tightfistedness when it came to church funds was his proud statement that the church should never be known as a “four-thousand-dollar” church, meaning that the minister’s salary should always be below that amount.45

In terms of its leadership and its finances, then, it seems surprising that the First

Independent (Christ’s) Church of Baltimore would have taken on such an ambitious project as a neighborhood house. Still, there were forces working in favor of such a venture. In taking the pastorate at the Baltimore church, Rev. Hussey had also taken on some of the charitable projects that had been initiated during the tenure of his predecessor, Rev. Charles Richmond Weld, who

43 Hussey memoir, 24-25. 44 Hussey memoir, 24. 45 Hussey memoir, 64. The $4000 limit appears to have been randomly chosen by Morris.

had served in Baltimore from 1872 to 1898. Weld’s legacy is complicated. It was under his oversight that the church sanctuary was converted from a temple of reason to a Christian cathedral. During a major reconstruction that was originally intended to address acoustic problems and to make repairs to the roof, fix the plumbing, etc., other changes were made that had a “Christianizing” effect. This included the addition of a large, mosaic Lord’s Supper on the north wall of the chancel, a Tiffany cross just under the mosaic, a semicircular window above the mosaic featuring the Chi Rho, and a baptismal font. It was Weld who also inserted the word

“Christ’s” into the name of the church, although this change was never made official.

Under Weld’s leadership, the church became more “respectable” among its neighbors

(including the Gothic “Cathedral of Methodism” just down the street, and the Baltimore

Cathedral, the nation’s first Roman Catholic cathedral, just across the street). But it was also during Weld’s ministry, in the 1870s, that the congregation launched its first significant charitable endeavors, including an Industrial School for Girls, which consisted of a Sewing

School, a Cooking School, and a Household School, where “girls were instructed in fire making, table setting, waiting on the table, table manners, care of the dining room, dishwashing, bed making and care of the bedroom.”46 Later, still under Weld’s leadership, the congregation launched a Boy’s Guild in East Baltimore, “in the hope that the waifs of the street, attracted by light and warmth within…might be brought under better influences than were afforded by the variety of theatres and saloons in the neighborhood.”47 By the end of its first year in existence, however, the Boy’s Guild was moved to the church’s basement. Expanding beyond classes in

46 Funk, 85. 47 Funk, 86.

drawing and brass work, the Guild offered a circulating library, and paid staff made visits to the families of Guild members48 and distributed clothing.

As laudable as these ventures might have been, Hussey suspected a hint of “Lady

Bountiful” in them. He writes in his memoir:

There was a tiny Sunday School, an active Woman's Alliance, a Boys Art Guild, a hold-over from Dr. Weld's time, which met in the church basement, with a paid director and teachers. There was also an archaic institution, The Needlewomen's Guild, or something like that. It met in the chapel on Friday afternoons, where gathered a small assortment of old women, who were paid for their sewing … The whole thing was typical of a church attitude inherited from England savoring of patronage and class distinction, which has long since vanished, I hope, from American Christianity.49

If Weld had introduced charitable work to the congregation, Hussey brought them social justice. He did this first by setting an example of engagement, playing an active role in organizations like the Municipal Reform League (through which he became close with Charles Bonaparte)50, the Charity Organization Society, and the Committee on

Housing and Slum Clearance, eventually becoming chair of the Northwest District board, representing a region that “was comprised chiefly of rooming and boarding-houses, the population being so predominantly colored that we had a subsidiary board composed entirely of negro members, under our supervision. Our own board was made up of representatives from all the churches, schools, lodges, and other social organizations in

48 The purpose of these visits is not made clear by the records, but we do know that Mary Ellen Richmond, a pioneer in the field of social case work, was actively involved in First Independent Church programs, including the Guild, from the late 1880s until she left Baltimore in 1900. Given this connection, it is certainly possible that these were family case visits. See Funk 78-79. 49 Hussey memoir, 23. 50 Although raised Roman Catholic, Bonaparte owned a pew in the First Independent Church. See Funk 70-71.

the district: Catholic, Protestant, and Jew.”51 He would later become president of the

Maryland Child Labor Committee, director of the Maryland Tuberculosis Association, member of the Women’s Civic League Advisory Board, and director of the Maryland

Peace Society.

Beyond his civic engagement, Rev. Hussey preached social justice from the pulpit, sometimes with a fire and directness that would ultimately lead to his forced departure from the church. Although he occasionally preached on the horror of lynchings, and the disenfranchisement of black male voters in Maryland and throughout the South, his preferred topics included immigrant rights, labor (including issues like women’s labor, child labor, and sweatshops), political corruption, and capitalist greed. In more than one sermon, he blamed disasters like the sinking of the Titanic and the burning of the Triangle Shirtwaist Company on rapacious commercialism.52 Later, he would admit, “A minister in a great city, where a host of evils cried aloud for obliteration, I could not hold my tongue. And naturally, I overdid it.”53

Rev. Hussey preached on the evils of capitalist corruption to a congregation that included families of some of the greatest capitalists of their day. Even after Judge Morris took him aside in 1909 to say, “You scold us so!”54 Hussey still couldn’t contain his righteous anger. In a sermon in 1910, he dared speak to the wealthy men of commerce in his congregation directly:

“Too many men are nothing less than parasites drawing for their own profit on the moral health and vitality of the surrounding body politic. ... 'A prominent citizen of no mean city am I!' But what have you done to make your city fair? You have found it a place in which you could sell

51 Hussey memoir, 36. 52 Alfred Rodman Hussey, “The Sorrow of the Sea,” dated April 19 - 20, 1912. Sermons of Unitarian Minister Alfred Rodman Hussey. Box 3. Andover-Harvard Theological Library, Boston. 53 Hussey memoir, 64. 54 Hussey memoir, 65.

and buy. It has made you rich, but have you had time to share, while gaining the place that you hold above the crowd, to add to your city's beauty, and make it proud? You boast of your city's growth of its wealth and trade, but what have you done to make your city grand? What single sacrifice have you ever made that it might be clean, or to stay the spoiler's hand?”55

In his sermons, he also made occasional appeals for direct action: “…you can withdraw financial support from all enterprises deriving profit from the over-working of women, or from child labor. If you are a stockholder in a concern employing children, it is your duty to sell out, even at a loss. If you own a building rented for each purpose, cancel your agreement as soon as you can honorably do so.”56

Let’s return to that meeting of young people that took place just a year or two after Rev.

Hussey’s arrival, on a spring evening, in an elite home on Baltimore’s Madison Avenue.

Ultimately, their vision of a settlement house was scaled back, and what evolved in its place was a neighborhood house with a director who was not in residence, supported by volunteers.

Nonetheless, it quickly became one of the better-known neighborhood houses in the city. 57

Channing House was opened on February 15, 1905, in a rented building on South Charles Street

(number 506). By 1911, it had outgrown its original facility, and was moved into a larger

55 Alfred Rodman Hussey, “The Challenge of the Modern City,” dated October 28-29, 1910. Sermons of Unitarian Minister Alfred Rodman Hussey. Box 2. Andover-Harvard Theological Library, Boston. [Handwritten note in the original text: "This sermon much liked. For myself, I thought the ending could have been made much stronger -- 'YOU are responsible for city's shortcomings.'"] 56 Alfred Rodman Hussey, “The Conservation of Childhood,” dated March 15-16, 1912. Sermons of Unitarian Minister Alfred Rodman Hussey. Box 3. Andover-Harvard Theological Library, Boston. [Handwritten note in the original text: “This is one of the best sermons I’ve ever preached.”] 57 The Baltimore Sun regularly announced events held at Channing House, including the distribution of Christmas baskets (Nov. 6, 1906), a lecture on tuberculosis (Feb. 3, 1907), a traveling exhibit on tuberculosis (Feb. 14, 1908), and automobile rides for “crippled children” (May 30, 1914).

building on the same block (number 527), in a factory district on the edge of one of Baltimore’s worst slums.

The Channing House Association Annual Report of 1911 describes Channing House as “the home of an organization, completely unsectarian, which designs to offer a common meeting- place and discussion-centre for the benefit of the people living in its vicinity.”58 Once moved into its larger facility, Channing House offered bathing and toilet facilities for the young women and girls who worked in the neighboring tobacco and biscuit factories, as well as a library.

Throughout its existence, its chief activity was a lunch room, which, every day, supplied hot, nutritious lunches to the factory girls. There was a weekly dancing class, intended to offer occasions for “innocent pleasure,” but with additional benefits: “The practicing of the dances by the young people at home has, in some instances, been the means of reviving interest in foreign folk dances which had almost been forgotten. Another result has been the physical aid rendered by the class through the unstiffening of bodies, whose muscles, through long hours of one kind of work, had become rigid and unyielding.”59 Lectures, parties, and performances were part of the regular programming. There were debating societies, singing classes, gymnasium teams, and reading circles.60

Channing House also offered health services to its neighborhood. In 1911, it became the headquarters for the Instructive Visiting Nurses Association (which “made possible the

58 Channing House Association, Annual Report (Baltimore: np, 1911), pamphlets, Maryland Historical Society, Baltimore. 59 Ibid. 60 “Put Life into Church: Dr. Hussey Has Seen His Congregation More Than Doubled,” The Baltimore Sun May 5, 1906, 7.

installation of a telephone”), and soon after, it accommodated two “tuberculosis nurses” from the

City Health Department.61

The neighborhood house was managed by a paid director, Miss Miriam Gover, who was joined by an assistant director in 1913. Neither lived on site. All other workers were volunteers

(as many as 30, at one point), from the First Independent (Christ’s) Church / First Unitarian

Church, and from the larger community. Although men played an important role, the majority of

Channing House volunteers were women.

What may be more interesting than what Channing House did or how it was structured is how it was funded. Recall that the First Independent Church (later the First Unitarian Church) was far from wealthy, even though it counted several wealthy individuals as members. Limiting paid staff positions and relying primarily on volunteers helped to hold down salary costs. By charging a modest amount for meals (about six cents per meal)62 and relying on donations for its library and clothing drives, non-salary expenses were also quite modest. Still, there were expenses, and the Channing House Board of Directors couldn’t rely on the Baltimore church’s budget to cover them.

As the President of the Channing House Association, Alfred Rodman Hussey’s job was to raise the necessary funds for a budget of around $1500 to $2000 per year. About two thirds of this money came from individual subscribers. Many of these donors were First Independent/First

Unitarian Church members, including “the misses Eaton, Mrs. E. R. Hussey [sic], Mrs. Francis

61 Funk, 90-91. 62 Channing House Association.

Jencks, Hon and Mrs. Thomas J. Morris, Mrs. Enoch Pratt, Miss Shackelford, Miss M.E. Wentz,

[and] Mr. Louis F. Young.”63 Charles Bonaparte was also a contributor.

Donations alone wouldn’t cover the cost of running a neighborhood house, however. To make up the difference, about $300 - $400 per year, Hussey and the directors of Channing House did what any self-respecting protagonists of a Hollywood musical would do – they put on a play!

More exactly, they put on a series of performances, including concerts, plays, “musicales,” and tableaux vivants, to raise money for Channing House.

Rev. Hussey would later share a memory of one of these performances in his memoir:

“Our young people took to acting like the proverbial ducks to water. Channing House always needed funds; and in this way they added materially to its income. Will Wood, the artist, who was my closest friend, was an actor with almost professional ability. Once we found a rollicking farce, with the euphonious title, “All on Account of the Lobster,” and decided to put it on the boards. … It went over with a bang....”64 According to a Baltimore Sun article on March 25,

1915, the plays “Petticoat Perfidy” and “A Regular Fix” were also great hits. Living recreations of famous paintings, tableaux vivants, accompanied with music from talented musicians from the nearby Peabody School were especially successful. A cursory review of issues of the Baltimore

News and the Baltimore Sun just for the year 1910 reveals at least six positive reviews of these events.

63 Ibid. The Eaton family was one of the wealthiest families in the congregation and had previously funded the purchase of the Lord’s Supper mosaic and the baptismal font, among other elements of the 1893 reconstruction. Louis Young was the congregation’s treasurer, with whom Hussey had strong and recurring disagreements over financial priorities, with Young preferring to consistently turn to the richest members of the church for support, rather than “lowering” himself to accept small contributions from the less wealthy members. In his memoir, Hussey refers to him as “ingratiating to the rich, but contemptuous toward the poor,” 25. 64 Hussey memoir, 57.

Rev. Hussey utilized his love of literature in raising funds for Channing House.65 He offered a series of literary lectures that proved extremely popular. The Baltimore Sun regularly posted announcements and reviews of his presentations on topics like “Dr. Johnson and His

Friends,” (January 4, 1908), “The Brownings at Florence,” (Jan. 18, 1908), and “Emerson at

Concord,” (January 25, 1908). In addition, Hussey frequently offered readings of famous poems with interpretative comments, with donations requested in support of Channing House.

Although Channing House became well known and well regarded as a successful neighborhood house in Baltimore, and despite the popularity of the creative fundraisers and

Hussey’s lectures on literature, Channing House would not last beyond twelve years. The house discontinued operations in 1917. This was a common fate for settlement houses and neighborhood houses in the United States. The First World War diverted resources and focus away from social reform movements, and dramatically tighter restrictions on immigration meant significantly fewer new immigrants, reducing the need for settlement style programs. Beyond this, in Baltimore’s case, Channing House suffered from its own success. Even though a larger facility was acquired in 1911, by 1914, that space was already too small to meet the growing demand for programs. Reliance on volunteers also had its drawbacks. Although the phrase “burn out” never appears in any of the written materials about Channing House, it is noticeable that the same names appear on the lists of volunteers and donors again and again. Finally, it hardly seems coincidental that Channing House closed only about a year after its champion, Alfred Rodman

65 Hussey had a life-long love of literature, as he described in depth in the second part of his unpublished autobiography (shared with me by his grandson, Christopher Hussey, of Boston). In 1943, he gave the Berry Street Essay, “The Reading Ministry,” based on his regular use of secular literature throughout his ministry.

Hussey, left First Unitarian Church of Baltimore. As Hussey would put it, under his successors,

Channing House “was allowed to languish and die.”66

In reflecting on the reasons why he had to leave Baltimore, Hussey would later point to his poor salary as a major factor: “My financial worries, the knowledge that I was living beyond my means, added acid to my spoken comments on property and the responsibility of those who had great possessions.”67 He believed that the new rich among the congregation, even more than the families of established wealth, were deeply insulted by his sermons on the evils of greedy capitalists, and were determined to be rid of him. They found an excuse when the minister made one last creative suggestion for raising funds. He floated the idea of selling the church building, at a time when very few members lived within walking distance of the church and when property values in the area were sky-rocketing. Soon after this, he received a series of harshly worded letters from a group of key opponents. When his most trusted allies did not step up to defend him, he could see “the writing on the wall,” and knew his time there was coming to an end.

Without Hussey’s leadership, the creative energy of the Channing House volunteers and fundraisers dwindled.

What can we learn from the example of Channing House? On the cautionary side of things, we can take note of the importance of remembering one’s audience when speaking with a prophetic voice, remembering that a person who feels insulted and personally judged is unlikely to listen, or to be willing to change, let alone become an ally. Another lesson might be that a social justice project that is funded largely by the minister’s overtime efforts is not likely to survive the departure of that minister. On the positive side, however, Channing House is an

66 Hussey memoir, 38. 67 Hussey memoir, 65.

example of how young people can take a leadership role in launching a major social justice initiative. It also shows how an ambitious project can be funded and supported in a way that is creative, life-affirming, and even joyful. Rev. Hussey and the Channing House supporters were not professional artists or literature professors, but people who loved art and who used their talents and their passions in the cause of justice, for their city.

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