Home Of The Good Shepherd
September 21st, 2009 @ 12:15 am by Cliffe | Sorted Historic Buildings
I am once again pleased to hand over writing duties today to Vintage Seattle contributor Jonathan Shipley. Today he gives us a glimpse into the House of the Good Shepherd. You can see his last piece here. Take it away, Jonathan.
“Poor children! Beaten about in the great tempest of the world, they have known nothing but suffering; they have never experienced the sweetness and charms of virtue.”
- Mary Euphrasia Pelletier, Founder of the Good Shepherd Order
“The unfortunate women” lived there. “Fallen girls.” “Troubled teens.” “Wayward women.” “Keepsakes for Heaven.” It was the Home of the Good Shepherd. Piousness was of great import for the girls send there by the courts or families that knew of nowhere else to turn. Morality was taught, spirituality instilled.
Residents, in those early days, rarely left the grounds, could not excuse themselves from the nuns sharing with them those experiences of sweet virtue. Bars were in the windows. There was strict adherence to scheduled – waking, teaching, working at the laundry downstairs, eating meals, bed. Oh how coveted were those Sundays when they could have “parlor” – a time in which appropriate visitors could see them.
Routines were adhered to religiously. A former resident remembered, “We were assigned one day a week to take our bath and wash our hair. We washed our underclothes and socks every night and hung them over a bed rail. The dorm monitors would always check to see that you had washed your clothing.”
Everything was monitored. Toiletries were lined up in a specific order in their small nun-appointed cubbies. One girl at each table, during meals, was sent for food for the entire table. Butter was served only on Sundays. Nuns sat on platforms overseeing the meals, when they weren’t censoring the girls’ mail. Nuns oversaw the girls scrubbing floors, weeding the grounds, polishing woodwork, attending Mass. At the laundry, girls were assigned to shaking, sorting, pressing, folding, and packing the clothes. The commercial laundry was how the orphanage and wayward girls’ home made their money. Their major customers included the Great Northern and Northern Pacific Railroads, along with several downtown hotels. Classes were held Monday through Friday, 9 to 5, that’s if they weren’t already working the kitchen, or in the altar bread room making host for the parish, or in the sewing room making uniforms, or pursuing beautician certification, or at church services. Everything was monitored until the home officially closed for good in June of 1973.
It opened in 1890, as five Good Shepherd nuns arrived by train to Seattle. They opened an orphanage house for orphans and girls leading an immoral life on First Hill. The orphanage grew. The nuns then looked to the newly platted Wallingford and bought property. The new home was designed by the architectural firm Breitung and Buchinger (who also designed Seattle’s The Academy of the Holy Names and the Saint Alphonsus School, amongst other structions) and opened, on 4649 Sunnyside Avenue, in 1907. It housed 171 children.
Those children lived on those grounds, and went little place else. There were two wings in the building – those that were orphans and those that were wayward. They were kept apart. “There was a good side and a bad side,” remembers one resident, “the Angel Guardian side on the right as you go in and Sacred Heart side on the left. On the left side…they did the laundry and that sort of thing. There could be some real hard girls over there.”
In 1926 the orphans were transferred to a home in Laurelhurst, leaving the “Sacred Heart side.” And there they stayed, in later years, behind barbed wire, opaque windows and security systems. All the while, they worked at schooling, chores, their everlasting souls. The nuns were not to use corporal punishment, however. Good behavior was rewarded. Perhaps that meant recreation - like roller-skating, square dancing, swimming (a pool was built in 1959 that’s been since filled in), ping pong.
The 1960s saw declines on most all levels for the school. There were less girls admitted. There was less need for the commercial laundry. There was less supervision even. Some girls were even allowed to walk, unsupervised, to the University District on Saturdays. The laundry closed for good in 1970. Boeing, having given large financial donations to the Home, was having financial difficulties of their own and cut back. The maintenance of the building grew overwhelming and so they closed. Seattle bought the property in 1975, the building was transferred to Historic Seattle and is now used as a multi-purpose community center, complete with schools, non-profits, small businesses, and, sometimes, the quiet footfalls of women who once lived there themselves.
Jonathan Shipley
9/18/2009
“The unfortunate women” lived there. “Fallen girls.” “Troubled teens.” “Wayward women.” “Keepsakes for Heaven.” It was the Home of the Good Shepherd. Piousness was of great import for the girls send there by the courts or families that knew of nowhere else to turn. Morality was taught, spirituality instilled.
Residents, in those early days, rarely left the grounds, could not excuse themselves from the nuns sharing with them those experiences of sweet virtue. Bars were in the windows. There was strict adherence to scheduled – waking, teaching, working at the laundry downstairs, eating meals, bed. Oh how coveted were those Sundays when they could have “parlor” – a time in which appropriate visitors could see them.
Routines were adhered to religiously. A former resident remembered, “We were assigned one day a week to take our bath and wash our hair. We washed our underclothes and socks every night and hung them over a bed rail. The dorm monitors would always check to see that you had washed your clothing.”
Everything was monitored. Toiletries were lined up in a specific order in their small nun-appointed cubbies. One girl at each table, during meals, was sent for food for the entire table. Butter was served only on Sundays. Nuns sat on platforms overseeing the meals, when they weren’t censoring the girls’ mail. Nuns oversaw the girls scrubbing floors, weeding the grounds, polishing woodwork, attending Mass. At the laundry, girls were assigned to shaking, sorting, pressing, folding, and packing the clothes. The commercial laundry was how the orphanage and wayward girls’ home made their money. Their major customers included the Great Northern and Northern Pacific Railroads, along with several downtown hotels. Classes were held Monday through Friday, 9 to 5, that’s if they weren’t already working the kitchen, or in the altar bread room making host for the parish, or in the sewing room making uniforms, or pursuing beautician certification, or at church services. Everything was monitored until the home officially closed for good in June of 1973.
It opened in 1890, as five Good Shepherd nuns arrived by train to Seattle. They opened an orphanage house for orphans and girls leading an immoral life on First Hill. The orphanage grew. The nuns then looked to the newly platted Wallingford and bought property. The new home was designed by the architectural firm Breitung and Buchinger (who also designed Seattle’s The Academy of the Holy Names and the Saint Alphonsus School, amongst other structions) and opened, on 4649 Sunnyside Avenue, in 1907. It housed 171 children.
Those children lived on those grounds, and went little place else. There were two wings in the building – those that were orphans and those that were wayward. They were kept apart. “There was a good side and a bad side,” remembers one resident, “the Angel Guardian side on the right as you go in and Sacred Heart side on the left. On the left side…they did the laundry and that sort of thing. There could be some real hard girls over there.”
In 1926 the orphans were transferred to a home in Laurelhurst, leaving the “Sacred Heart side.” And there they stayed, in later years, behind barbed wire, opaque windows and security systems. All the while, they worked at schooling, chores, their everlasting souls. The nuns were not to use corporal punishment, however. Good behavior was rewarded. Perhaps that meant recreation - like roller-skating, square dancing, swimming (a pool was built in 1959 that’s been since filled in), ping pong.
The 1960s saw declines on most all levels for the school. There were less girls admitted. There was less need for the commercial laundry. There was less supervision even. Some girls were even allowed to walk, unsupervised, to the University District on Saturdays. The laundry closed for good in 1970. Boeing, having given large financial donations to the Home, was having financial difficulties of their own and cut back. The maintenance of the building grew overwhelming and so they closed. Seattle bought the property in 1975, the building was transferred to Historic Seattle and is now used as a multi-purpose community center, complete with schools, non-profits, small businesses, and, sometimes, the quiet footfalls of women who once lived there themselves.
Jonathan Shipley
9/18/2009
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| House of the Good Shepherd, built in 1907 as a home for “orphaned and wayward girls.” Photograph courtesy Special Collections, University Archives, University of Washington, Seattle. |
September 21st, 2009 @ 1:19 am
Very interesting! I’m from Minnesota and my grandparents live near a Home of the Good Shepherd convent. I grew up roaming the halls and chatting with the sisters, and it wasn’t until I was much older that my mother explained that they had programs for women (and at one point had provided job training). Wonder if their school had a similar past. I do think there was a connection between J. J. Hill (another railroad connection, but the Great Northern) and the St. Paul Home of the Good Shepherd.
September 21st, 2009 @ 3:17 pm
Love reading Shipley’s musings.
September 21st, 2009 @ 5:06 pm
Does this building still exist at all?
September 21st, 2009 @ 9:38 pm
Yes, although the cupola with the cross on top is apparently gone: http://www.historicseattle.org/projects/gsc.aspx
September 22nd, 2009 @ 5:24 pm
Mike,
As the article said,
…in 1975, the building was transferred to Historic Seattle and is now used as a multi-purpose community center, complete with schools, non-profits, small businesses…
- rob
September 22nd, 2009 @ 8:17 pm
having grown up in the area (and am now a resident of Wallingford about 3 blocks from the Good Shephard) this was a great story–my dad grew up in Ballard and I sent it to him because he remembers when it still was a home for wayward girls!
September 22nd, 2009 @ 8:45 pm
In 2006 or 2007 I talked with a middle-aged woman who had lived at the Good Shepherd Center for a time when she was a girl, and she reported that she had experienced it as a loving, caring place. I am a therapist in private practice on the Angel Guardian side, and I very much like having my office in the building. The ceilings are high, the windows large, the subculture of the building convivial, the grounds and views marvelous. - Anya
September 22nd, 2009 @ 9:58 pm
I’m a therapist with an office in the Good Shepherd Center. Clients often ask about the building. One day I was telling a client that I lived in Wallingford in the 1950’s and the building was known as a “home for wayward girls”. Now our mothers didn’t tell us what a ‘wayward’ girl was because they didn’t talk about such things in those days. None the less my peers and I knew it wasn’t good as our mothers would imply that if we didn’t behave ourselves, we’d end up there. We would come up to the iron fence, peering in to see what a ‘wayward girl’ looked like. We would just see the nuns in full Habits. So this client remarked….’seems like you ended up here anyway’.
September 24th, 2009 @ 4:57 pm
I work for Historic Seattle, the owner and manager of the Good Shepherd Center. We honored the 100th anniversary of the opening of the building with a free community celebration on Sunday, July 22, 2007. Over 300 people attended the festive gathering and enjoyed a variety of period entertainments in the building and on the grounds that responded to the theme “Come Back to 1907.” Live period music, costumed guests, an informative history brochure, balloons, ice cream, and lemonade made the afternoon a great success.
For those unable to attend, Historic Seattle has PDF files of its commemorative program and brochure online at http://www.historicseattle.org/projects/gsccentennial.aspx.
Also online are pictures of the celebration.
On Sunday, July 22nd, 2007 the Seattle times ran a story about the celebration. Check out the story at “Party to celebrate as Good Shepherd building turns 100,” by Susan Gilmore, Seattle Times staff reporter. http://www.seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2003800539_goodshepherd22m.html
For even more information on the Good Shepherd Center, check out our website under PROJECTS: http://www.historicseattle.org/projects/gsc.aspx?category=34&pLevel=0&pID=31
October 2nd, 2009 @ 4:36 pm
I live a few blocks from the Good Shepherd Center. Inside, on the first floor, there are signs that explain the history of the building. One fact I recall from these signs is that the girls did not in fact do the the laundry. At least, they didn’t do the washing part - it was deemed unseemly for the girls to handle the male railroad workers dirty undergarments - so there were men employed at Good Shepherd who did the washing part, then the girls ironed and folded the clean clothes.
October 9th, 2009 @ 2:01 pm
My grandmother and her sister were both at the Home of the Good Shepherd before and around 1910. Does anyone know if records were kept and where they could be found? Was this only for girls? Where were male orphans put?
October 19th, 2009 @ 9:03 pm
I was a student at the Home of The Good Shepherd in 1953 to 1959. I am trying to find information about the Sisters who are still living. I know most went to Christ the King in North Seattle, but would like to get more information from the time that I was there. I have thanked God everyday for what the Sisters did for me. If it were not for them, I would not be the person I am today. God Bless all those Sisters who devoted their lives to helping, teaching and loving girls like me.
November 11th, 2009 @ 8:34 pm
Ann, you might try contacting Mount st Vincent in West Seattle. It is a retirement home run by the Sisters of Providence but there are a lot of retired nuns up there.