In line with native historian Elijah Hart Church, Elizabeth Van Buren, who lived at 135 S. Seventh St., must be thought-about the “mom” of the native motion to determine a youngsters’s dwelling. A few years later, historian Norris Schneider, in a Instances Sign article dated Aug. 10, 1958, acknowledged: “Mrs. Van Buren advised the institution of a youngsters’s dwelling in 1861. However the Civil Conflict occupied individuals’s consideration and nothing was carried out on the time.”
In 1865, together with Mrs. George James, Van Buren organized conferences on the Second Avenue Methodist Church. At one such assembly, officers and board members have been chosen for what was to be referred to as the Muskingum County Kids’s Residence. In line with Schneider’s aforementioned article, “The officers have been Henry Blandy, president; Joseph Black and C. W. Potwin, vice presidents; John Taylor, treasurer; D. H. Willard, secretary. The next girls have been named members of the Board of Management: Mrs. Van Buren, Mrs. Hazlet, Mrs. Brown, Mrs. Leggett, Mrs. Benjamin Wheeler, Mrs. Brooks, and Mrs. T. J. Maginnas.”
The primary native youngsters’s dwelling was opened on the residence of Mrs. Thomas Flood on Market Avenue. One bed room upstairs was used for sleeping, whereas the opposite one served as a faculty and playroom. Meals have been served within the household eating room.
Because the variety of youngsters elevated, extra space was wanted, so on Feb. 17, 1866, the Board of Management, for $2,150, bought a house from Stephen Harper on the previous Wheeling Highway reverse the Harris Brick Yard. In A Every day Courier article dated Dec . 27, 1879, Church remarked: “The brand new dwelling was a small body constructing, containing 4 rooms. The Board had the constructing plastered, and completed up in a way appropriate for the lodging of the youngsters. The constructing utilized by Mr. Harper as a carpenter store was devoted to high school functions.” Quickly the board realized extra room was wanted and constructed a second story to the constructing and constructed one other addition to the home.
To assist pay the payments, the trustees borrowed $2,000 from the McIntire property. The town’s founder, John McIntire, by means of his will, had left cash for use for the training of the world’s poor youngsters. In response to this directive, in 1835 the John McIntire Academy was constructed on rather a lot that will later be the location of Lash Excessive College.
With the youngsters’s dwelling below monetary misery, the women of the board requested the McIntire property to offer the lion’s share of help. By now state legal guidelines offered for public training, so the McIntire cash wanted for use for another mission that will fulfill the needs of town’s founder.
Nevertheless, some members of the McIntire Board believed it will be unlawful to make use of this cash to fund the house as a result of a number of of the youngsters there had come from the infirmary, which was situated outdoors town limits. Historian Church defined the following step: “… H. Blandy and C. W. Potwin appointed a committee to go to Columbus and wait upon Supreme Judges, and verify if the McIntire Board may legally help the house. After an examination of the papers, the judges determined that the executors of the McIntire property may apply funds towards the assist of the house, offered the youngsters lived throughout the metropolis limits.” A deal was made with the county to assist pay for any youngsters despatched to town.
Church had this to say a couple of typical day for the youngsters on the dwelling: “The kids have sure hours for work, sure hours (for) faculty, and sure hours for play. At their meals, they sit down at two tables, in a quiet, orderly method. Every of the youngsters earlier than consuming crosses their fingers and asks for a blessing, repeating in live performance, in a low, audible method. Each waits to be served, and good order prevails throughout meal instances.” (Every day Courier, 12-27-1879.)
Quickly the McIntire property was totally financing the youngsters’s dwelling. Consequently, the identify of the establishment was modified to the McIntire Kids’s Residence. In 1880 a brand new constructing was constructed alongside Blue Avenue on what’s now the Zanesville Excessive College campus.
In a Instances Sign article dated Aug. 17, 1958, Schneider described the brand new constructing, which contained 35 rooms: ”Development of the brand new brick constructing was begun in June 1879. It was 125 ft lengthy and 90 ft extensive. The basement was constructed of limestone. The central a part of the constructing consisted of three tales with a mansard roof of slate and tin. The east and west wings have been two tales excessive. The constructing confronted south, and three pairs of stone steps led to the primary halls.
“The kitchen and laundry have been situated on the north facet of the basement. The eating room, 20 (ft) by 25 in dimension, was above the kitchen and was related by a dumb waiter for conveying meals. The primary ground contained the primary halls, workplace, and college rooms. On the second ground have been bedrooms for matrons and kids. It was supposed that the third-floor room within the central part can be used as a hospital.”
This construction served the wants of native youngsters for nearly 65 years. In a Dec. 10, 1944, Instances Sign article, Schneider acknowledged: “Workmen are slowly tearing down the partitions of the … John McIntire Kids’s dwelling on Blue Avenue. The bid of the Dunzweiler Development Firm for razing the constructing was accepted in September 1944. The Dunzweiler Firm provided to do the work for the salvaged supplies and $1,670.”
Though the McIntire Kids’s Residence now not exists, cash from town founder’s property continues to help younger of us from this space. For greater than 70 years McIntire funds have been awarded to native college students who’re pursuing post-high faculty educations. Though John McIntire died in 1815, his is the present to Zanesville that retains on giving.
Lewis LeMaster is a retired instructor of the Zanesville space.