Frances Willard Home (Chattanooga, Tenn.)
Dates
- Existence: 1887 - 1976
Historical Note
The Working Girls Home (later named the Frances Willard Home) was established in 1887 by the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union (WCTU) of Chattanooga. The boarding home was founded to provide low-cost room and board to unmarried, self-supporting women working and attending school in Chattanooga, Tennessee. The Working Girls Home, later renamed the Frances Willard Home, was the first of its kind in Chattanooga and was the only known boarding home for young women solely owned and operated by a chapter of the WCTU in the United States.
The Working Girls Home was designed to be a “model home,” in which young women could find affordable lodgings in a supervised, Christian environment. Members of the WCTU of Chattanooga followed what was then a national trend in seeing a need for supervised, congregate housing options for unmarried, wage-earning young women, particularly in urban areas. Industrialization and urbanization in Chattanooga following the Civil War created significant labor demands that drew unprecedented numbers of unmarried women into the workforce at a time when it was considered improper for young women to live unaccompanied in cities. These homes were intended to protect single women from the temptations and vices of urban living and give them more wholesome options than traditional boarding houses or private landlords. In 1901, the boarding home changed its name to the Frances Willard Home in honor of the national WCTU’s second president.
Frances Willard Home offered two meals a day and cleaning services, organized social events, and hosted religious services. As a non-denominational Christian organization, the Home welcomed residents of a variety of religious backgrounds, including Jewish residents. Extant documentation of other eligibility requirements does not exist. A draft charter for the WCTU of Chattanooga chapter from 1900 stipulated that only white women “in good standing of some Evangelical church” were eligible for membership of the WCTU chapter, but did not mention requirements for residents of the Frances Willard Home. Additionally, while the stated purpose of the organization was to cater to unmarried women, it appears some married, wage-earning women were also temporary residents in the home. Emma Bell Miles, a renowned poet and essayist from Chattanooga, lived at the Frances Willard Home in the spring of 1914 while working for the Chattanooga News, while her husband and children remained on Signal Mountain.
The Frances Willard Home existed at several locations in Chattanooga throughout its nearly one hundred years of operation. The WCTU first operated the Working Girls Home in 1887 out of rented rooms in the upper floors of a store at Eighth and Broad streets. Soon after in 1888, the Home was moved to the Tanksley Building at the corner of Georgia Avenue and Lookout Street. In 1890, the WCTU was offered use of the old McCallie homestead at 101 McCallie Avenue, which they occupied until 1893 when the Working Girls Home moved to rent 408 West Sixth Street. In 1892, the WCTU was able to purchase a lot to construct a new building on the 300 block of Oak Street next to the First Baptist Church. Construction of the building at 309 Oak Street began in 1893 but was not completed and occupied until 1901. Several decades later in 1927, the WCTU purchased lots to construct a new building a few blocks away at 615 Lindsay Street. The building was designed and built by Chattanooga architect R. H. Hunt and was completed in 1928. The Frances Willard Home remained at 615 Lindsay Street for the next forty-eight years.
Between 1928 and 1976, the Frances Willard Home provided housing to over 5000 young women, accommodating up to 96 residents at a time. By the 1970s, the Willard struggled to meet capacity and be financially self-sustaining. Due to changing societal norms and the declining popularity of this housing model, the Frances Willard Home closed in 1976.