Woman’s Friend Society and District Nurse Committee
12 Hawthorne Boulevard (formerly, Elm Street)
In 1875, Kate Tannatt Woods (1840-1910) (see S22
and S50) addressed an audience in Salem
Town Hall and challenged them to work for the moral improvement
of women. A year later, the society was formed “for the purpose
of extending sympathy and help to girls and women of any nationality
or… to inspire and encourage habits of industry and self-reliance.”25
Its founders — Ellen C. Putnam, Lucy H. Bowdoin, Abby R. Knight,
Mary E. Chipman, Lydia A. Decker, Mary A. Swasey, Margaret A. Bolles,
Mary A. Pitman, and Lucy A. Lander — opened a “Girls’
Reading Room” at the corner of Essex and Daniels Streets for
their first project. Next, they served as an informal employment
bureau, giving orders for needlework to women who had to earn money
at home. The society then wished to provide a residence for young
women, but space was limited. In 1879, Captain John Bertram loaned
half of the building at 12 Hawthorne Boulevard to the society and
upon his death his daughter, Jennie Emmerton, gave it to the them
outright. The second half was purchased a few years later, and a
large ell was built through fundraising efforts. With their ample
new space, the Society created a home for single women and girls
who were students or working women. Residents were given safe, clean
housing, and taught reading, domestic skills, and various self-sustaining
operations. Today, the Woman’s Friend Society continues to
maintain what they named “Emmerton House” as a low-cost
residence for working women and to provide related services. A recent
Boston Globe article reported that “it has never strayed
from its commitment to help women help themselves.”26
A portrait of Jennie Emmerton’s mother, Caroline Emmerton (see
S1 and S2), graces
their front parlor.
The Salem Visiting Nurse Association, an offshoot of the Woman’s
Friend Society, was established in 1897 as the District Nurse Committee
to provide home nursing services to the people of Salem regardless
of their ability to pay. The first nurse, a “Miss Seldes,”
was paid twenty-five dollars per month and made calls on foot, by
trolley, or automobile. By 1900, the District Nurse program was
making two thousand visits a year. Later renamed the Visiting Nurse
Association of Greater Salem, Inc., the organization operated out
of this building until 1959.27
Notes
25. Lucy H. Cleveland, “Salem Charities,”
Salem Gazette, Sept. 14, 1895.
26. Boston Globe, March, 1997.
27. Files of Jim McAllister.
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