Series IX - Facilities Records: Industrial Schools, Lodging Houses, Summer Camps, and Farm Schools, 1854-1972 and undated, inclusive; 1854-1958, bulk

This subseries consists of 1 box of records 1882-1937, and 9 volumes 1900-1909, documenting CAS facilities arranged as a group. The box is listed first in the container list, followed by the volumes. The box contains 7 folders of documents from 1882-1912 -- memos, correspondence, reports, and notices -- and 12 folders of statistical reports on all facilities dated 1937. The folders are arranged chronologically. The volumes consist of one volume documenting teacher and staff assignments at All CAS Industrial Schools 1903-1909, and 8 volumes of comprehensive registers of All CAS Lodging Houses, 1900-1907, arranged industrial schools first, then lodging houses.

This subseries consists of 3 boxes of documents, and 76 volumes of records by and about individual facilities of the Children's Aid Society, arranged alphabetically by facility, and chronologically under each facility. The facilities represented include industrial schools, lodging houses, summer camps and farm schools. Convalescent facilities follow in Series X - Convalescent Facilities and Medical Programs.

Some volumes provide statistical data; others provide narrative material (stories about individuals who passed through the facilities). When a volume includes narrative material it is noted in the container list. Some volumes contained interleaved papers; such loose materials have been kept in envelopes with the volume. The boxed materials and volumes are interfiled chronologically by the facility that produced them.

Material types in the boxes include pamphlets, invitations, press releases, reports, memos, correspondence, forms, disbound volumes, property surveys, an address book and bank passbooks, newsletters, programs for minstrel shows and other entertainments and events, and some photos and minutes.

Bowdoin Farm School and the Newsboys' Lodging House are particularly well represented in the boxed materials. The materials from Bowdoin Farm School extend late enough to include alumni reunion materials, and materials related to the end of its existence as a CAS program in 1958, as well as a property survey from 1974. See also Series XII - photographs - for a large amount of material related to Bowdoin Farm School. The Newsboys' Lodging House materials include programs for amateur minstrel shows and other entertainments and events. Both Bowdoin Farm School and the Newsboys' Lodging House materials include newsletters. Some materials from Bowdoin Camp, Bowdoin Farm, Brace Farm, and the convalescent homes are housed in a separate oversized (OS) box, noted in the container list.

The Girls Lodging House, Elizabeth Home, Eleventh Ward Lodging House, Tompkins Square Lodging House, and Emergency Shelter for Women and Children are particularly well-represented among the volumes. There are fewer records from the industrial schools.

Name and Location Changes at CAS Facilities

Children's Aid Society facilities changed names and locations frequently, and were sometimes known by different names simultaneously. An attempt has been made to arrange facilities by the names by which they seemed most commonly known, with other names noted. The following are specific notes regarding names and arrangement:

Bowdoin Camp is arranged separately and alphabetically before Bowdoin Farm School. The two programs shared the same grounds, but performed different functions. Bowdoin Farm replaced Brace Farm as the CAS farm training program in 1929. After that time, Brace Farm changed its mission to focus on children with special needs, but did not change its name. Some material on Brace Farm School can be found among the material on the Newsboys Lodging House, as the programs served the same population, and boys often attended both facilities.

The Emergency Shelter for Women and Children is listed by that name. In practice, sometimes the word Emergency was not used, at other times the name specified "evicted women and children," and when it first opened in 1901 at 311 East 12th Street, next to the Elizabeth Home at 307-9 East 12th Street, it was also called the Elizabeth Home Annex.

The Girl's Lodging House (which operated on 205 New Canal Street from 1862-1872 and at 27 St. Mark's Place from 1872-1892) was replaced by the Elizabeth Home and Training School for Girls (1892-1930) at the new location at 307-9 East 12th Street. Thirty-eight girls, and the facility's record books, moved from one building into the new one. The first two Girls Lodging Houses are arranged consecutively, but the Elizabeth Home is arranged separately under its own name (it was also known as the Elizabeth Wheeler Home in its final years). Researchers should be aware that the collection contains three record books initiated at the Girls Lodging House and arranged under the Girls Lodging House, which also contain early Elizabeth Home records.

Similarly, the Eleventh Ward Lodging House (709 East 11th Street) was replaced by the Tompkins Square Lodging House (295 East 8th Street). Since they were in different locations with different names, they are arranged separately, although the function and clients of one were transferred to the other. The Newsboys Lodging House volume 329 may have come from the Eleventh Ward Lodging House, but is arranged under Newsboys according to its title.

All Newsboys' Lodging House materials are arranged under that name, although the facility was re-christened Brace Memorial Newsboys' Lodging House in 1891 after the death of Charles Loring Brace. It was also known as Brace Memorial Newsboys' Home. The Newsboys' Lodging House moved through several locations, from Fulton Street, to Park Place, to Duane Street, to New Chambers Street, and then Williams Street. In all locations, it housed boys who worked in any occupation, not just newsboys.

The Mott Street Industrial School is arranged under that name, although it was also known as the 14th Ward Industrial School and the Astor Memorial School.

The Sixth Street Industrial School is listed by that name, although it was renamed the Sloane Children's Center in 1945, beyond the bulk dates of this collection. Similarly, the Sullivan Street Industrial School (219 Sullivan St) is listed under that name, although it was later known as the Lower West Side Children's Center, and then the Greenwich Village Children's Center. It is not to be confused with the West Side Italian School, which was also on Sullivan Street, at number 24. The West Side Italian School is not to be confused with the Italian School, which was at 44 Franklin Street, then 156 Leonard Street (1880's-1908), then at 155 Worth Street (1909-1912) and finally at Elizabeth and Hester Streets (later known as the James Children's Center) beginning in 1913.

The West Side Lodging House on West 32nd Street (until 1902) and then West 35th Street, was also known as the West Side Boys' Home. The facility closed as a lodging house in 1917 and became the Wendell Boys' Club, with a different mission. The Wendell Boys' Club is arranged separately from the West Side Lodging House. The building was sold in 1921. The West Side Health School was a different facility altogether, on West 38th Street.

Finally, the main office of the CAS in its earliest days did not have a facility name, but in addition to functioning as an administrative office, it performed intake work. The narrative record books from that facility, located on Astor Place, are listed first among the facilities. Unidentified facilities are listed last.