Showing posts with label early Dallas history. Show all posts
Showing posts with label early Dallas history. Show all posts

Wednesday, June 22, 2011

It's Our Birthday

Tomorrow, Hope Cottage, Dallas' oldest non profit, nonsectarian adoption agency turns 93!  Come join the party by watching our Birthday Video - and be sure to share it with a friend!




Hope Cottage is the oldest nonprofit, non sectarian adoption agency in Dallas. Since 1918 Hope Cottage has been building and nurturing strong families through counseling, education and adoption services.



If you have questions about adoption, please call Hope Cottage at 214.526.8721.

If you are a woman facing an unwanted pregnancy and would like to talk to someone about adoption, please call Hope Cottage at 1.800.944.4464 or 214.404.4546.

Tuesday, February 22, 2011

Picture Tuesday - Come on In!

Every Tuesday we feature pictures from Hope Cottage, Dallas' oldest nonprofit, nonsectarian adoption agency.  Last week we featured pictures from the "front porch".  This week we want to welcome you inside Hope Cottage and see what life was like in the early days!

An early nursery at Hope Cottage.  Twenty four hour nursing staff looked
after their precious charges.





One of the original cribs from Hope Cottage used for
newborns.  It is about the size of  today's
NICU unit.




One nice thing about being, according to historical records, the only adoption agency in Dallas at the time, we got a great deal of press.  Below is a photo from the Dallas World newspaper.  Unfortunately, the scrapbook in which these old clippings were mounted, seems to have suffered a bit of damage.  From what I can tell, this picture ran during the early 1920's.  Note the sidebar "Christmas is Not Christmas Without Children in the Home." 



The article below ran November 21, 1921.  The headline reads "Hope Cottage Only Salvation of Homeless Waifs".  Forty nine babies lived at Hope Cottage and times were dire.  County Comissioners thought $30 a month per baby for milk was too much to spend!  The County actually spent more to save hogs and cotton than it would spend on milk for the babies of Hope Cottage. 






1921 seems to have been a very good year, publicity wise for Hope Cottage and it needed to be.  The actual Hope Cottage was over crowded, leaky with torn screens, little heat and was situated next to a horse farm (think manure, flies, Dallas in AUGUST?).  All the publicity brought to light the fact that Hope Cottage needed a new home and fast!  By 1922 thanks to generous donors, we were living in what was to be our home for the next fifty years, but that is another story for another time.






Hope Cottage is the oldest non profit, non sectarian adoption agency in Dallas.  Since 1918 Hope Cottage has been building strong families through education, counseling and adoption services.  

If you have questions about adoption, please call Hope Cottage at 214.526.8721.


If you are a woman facing an unwanted pregnancy and would like to talk to someone about adoption, please call Hope Cottage at 1.800.944.4464 or 214.404.4546.








Tuesday, February 15, 2011

Picture Tuesday - February 15, 2011

The Front Porch

Every Tuesday is Picture Day at the Hope Cottage Blog.  This week's pictures offer a view from The Front Porch.  The front porch was very important at Hope Cottage.  All the time we were at our baby cottage on Welborn Street in Dallas, we would open the door and yes, there would be a baby on the front porch in a basket, with a little note pinned to his/her that said "please find my baby a good home."  Just like in the movies.  So, enjoy some pictures from the front porch at Hope Cottage!



Hope Cottage could accomodate 50 children at one time.  When all the beds were full, we put up a sign that said "No More Babies Taken".  When a bed opened up, the sign came down.  Of course, if someone left an infant, that baby was taken in, regardless of what the sign said.



An early resident enjoys fun in the sun

Hope Cottage nurse with her young charges

Hope Cottage is the oldest nonprofit, non sectarian adoption agency in Dallas. Since 1918 Hope Cottage has been building and nurturing strong families through counseling, education and adoption services.


If you have questions about adoption, please call Hope Cottage at 214.526.8721.

If you are a woman facing an unwanted pregnancy and would like to talk to someone about adoption, please call Hope Cottage at 1.800.944.4464 or 214.404.4546.