Hull-House Highlights

[Origins of the Mary Crane Nursery] in “Plans Park for Ghetto”
Nursery, ca. 1895

Children of the Ghetto district are to have a free playground where the grass and shrubs will be cared for as in parks. Their mothers, especially those who have to work for a living and leave their little ones in the care of others, are to have a model apartment house where rent will be nominal and nurses will be present to watch the children. Mrs. Frank R. Lillie and her father, R. T. Crane, President of the Crane Company, will be the donors.

“Last December my daughter and I went through the Hull House,” said Mr. Crane. “We were surprised at the number of poor women, widows, and those who had been deserted who brought their children and left them to be cared for while they went out to scrub for a few pennies. It seemed to us that the crèche department needed enlarging, and my daughter purposed [sic] building a special house. We have purchased the land and building will begin soon. I understand that the Hull House is now caring for forty children daily, which means about twenty women, and so we have decided on twenty-five apartments. I have discovered that not one apartment house in 10,000 is build so that all the rooms have light, but in this new structure every room will have sunlight.
Hull House to Have Charge.

The nursery and apartment house will be in Ewing street, near Hull House, and will be under the control of that settlement. The park will be near Twelfth and Canal streets, within the shadows of the great manufacturing plant of the company. The exact sum to be expended by Mr. Crane and his daughter has not been settled. The nursery building alone will cost over $50,000, while the value of the land for the park amounts to over twice that sum.

The Crane company intends to erect a large office building at Canal street and Twelfth place, close by the park, which will contain the offices of the company and will cost $100,000. Should the city grant the request of the company and sell the alleys which run through the property, it is said to be the intention to erect another building which may be used as a hospital for the employés.

The plans of Mr. Crane were made public yesterday at a meeting of the City Council Committee on Streets and Alleys West by Alderman Byrne when the question of the sale of the alleys to the Crane company was debated.

Memorial to Mrs. R. T. Crane.

The nursery probably will be a memorial to Mrs. R. T. Crane, and will come as a gift of Mrs. Lillie. It will be modeled after the London apartment-houses and will be planned by Pond & Pond, who have made a study of the question. It will be three stories high, with a large open court in the center and surmounted by a roof garden. The ground floor will be devoted to a large nursery and playroom, while on the second floor and third floors there will be twenty-five apartments, containing from one to three rooms each. The building will be under the direct supervision of Miss Jane Addams of the Hull House. The Jane club, a cooperative organization of working girls, will aid in the care of the children and act as nurses in times of emergency.

The office building is to be the best on the West Side. It will be five stories high and will be 100 by 100 feet. The structure will be fireproof throughout, of Bedford stone and light colored brick.
Park Follows New York Plan.

Plans for the park have not been worked out. It was said yesterday by a member of the firm that it will occupy about two square blocks of the company’s property, and will be modeled after the New York small parks.

The Crane company last December announced that each of the 3,000 employés of the company would receive as a Christmas gift a sum amounting to 5 per cent of his wages. The total amount given out was $100,000 and the average received by each employé was $33. The company was organized in 1855.

[Origins of the Mary Crane Nursery], in “Plans Park for Ghetto,” Chicago Tribune (April 26, 1901): 1.

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