Found more items from the 1800s

My search of the vault uncovered many other items from the 1800s through the 1930s, not just orphan records.

This box marked “Morris” was stored in between boxes of medical files.  Morris Kilgore was a former CEO of the organization, so it caught my eye.

To my surprise, the box contained copies of nearly every single annual report for the San Francisco Protestant Orphan Asylum and Edgewood from 1856 through 1931.   Even more surprising is that despite covering such a span of time, only a handful of years are missing.  I was very excited to have found these as they have a lot of great information about the early administration and donors to the orphanage.

Here they are, piled up by decade.  Most years they used very neutral colors, but as you can see, there is a bright red edition.  What is fun is that some years, there are annual reports printed in more than one color for some reason.

These are pretty short, so I’m going to try to digitize all of these.

I found two more engraved copper plates.  The one of the left is the front door of the administration building and the one on the right is a side door.

And I found piles of land records, deeds, and other property-related documents.  These were much older than the deeds I previously found in the balcony.

The oldest record was a deed from 1853 and describes the location as being from the Yerba Buena Cemetery to Larkin Stret to McAllister Street. I’m somewhat confused by what this property describes, because that’s across the street from the current City Hall and from what I can tell, the orphanage was never located there.  In 1853, they were supposedly located in Pleasant Valley, a neighborhood that no longer exists but was about 2 miles to the east.  But, there isn’t a lot of information about where exactly Pleasant Valley was, so maybe it was the current Civic Center area and not the current South of Market area, which is what I had thought.  Another thing to add to the research list!

Here’s a map drawn in 1853 of the Haight Street location, where the orphanage moved in 1854.  I don’t think the 1853 deed is for this location since they were created in the same year and the street names are radically different (and the deed names streets that are a mile to the east of the ones on this map).

Here’s another map of the Haight Street location. Kate Street (on the left) is now Hermann Street, but the others are the same.

And this is a map of the current location, on Vicente Street in the Parkside neighborhood.  The lot was about two acres larger than it is today.

I was happy to find this letter.  Even though it’s just a list of construction bids, it’s the only record I’ve found from the architects of the current location.  It’s also addressed to Mrs. Dimond, a prominent figure at the organization at the time.

I also found this note from longtime Edgewood secretary Nellie Stow to Mrs. Dimond.  Two of Edgewood’s residential cottages were named after these ladies because the children adored them so much.  I have found a couple of other items signed by Miss Stow, but haven’t found any other correspondence between herself and other managers of the institution.

I was thankfully able to finish searching the vault in just a day and will now move on to looking around the rest of the building and organizing the items into series so I can start to build an inventory.

Last day of searching the gym

I’m happy to report that this week I was able to finish my search of the gym storage, going through the last 17 boxes and 6 large shelving systems that had a mix of random items and small boxes.

This box was filled primarily with news clippings from the 1960s through 1994.

I also found a few more newsletters from the 1960s and 1970s, and two photos of children living at Edgewood in the 1960s.

I also found the architectural plans for the current campus in this box, but forgot to take a picture!  Finding this box about two years ago is what prompted my idea to do this special studies project.  I was worried that it had gone missing since then, so I’m glad I came across it again.

This news article mentions yet another name for Edgewood – Edgewood Children’s Home.  This may have been an unofficial name.  I’ll add it to my list of things to research.  There have been around five variations of the organization’s names between 1924 and now and I’d like to find a more concrete timeline for the name changes.

In this box, someone thoughtfully organized photos by topic and decade.  The box was labeled as “Photos 1980-1986”, but they actually span from the 1960s through the 1990s, with most on the earlier side of the range.  I hope to be able to identify some of the children in the photos through the oral history project.

At the back of this same box, I found this folder, which was filled with deeds and other correspondence from the 1910s.

A list of donations to a memorial fund, from 1886 to 1914.  What I love about this document is that it mentions Ann Swain, the wife of the couple that purchased Camp Swain in 1874 as a summer camp for Edgewood’s orphans.  It also mentions James L. Flood, son of James C. Flood, a prominent local man who started his fortune in the San Francisco Gold Rush.  James C.’s legacy lives on through the Flood Mansion, perched atop Nob Hill.  The Flood Mansion is a registered historic landmark and one of the few Nob Hill mansions that didn’t burn down in the 1906 fire.  It’s now a private club.

This deed was signed by George W. Haight, the lawyer for Edgewood (at the time called the San Francisco Protestant Orphan Asylum) until his death in 1913.  Yes, George was a member of the Haight family, of the Haight-Ashbury neighborhood of San Francisco.  I don’t know the exact relationship, but George’s relative Henry Haight donated the land for the orphanage’s previous location, at Haight Street and Laguna Street (1854-1919).  What is fun about it is that a descendant of this family just the other day got in touch with Edgewood, wanting to reconnect and possibly volunteer.  The Haight family partnership is reignited, 100 years later!

I thought this invoice to “ruin” watermelon patches and trample them was a fun find.  This company still exists, by the way.

This letter is great because it references the sale of Camp Swain, helping to give more documentation of the time the camp was used by Edgewood’s orphans, as well as referring to a significant change in Edgewood’s property ownership and programs for the children.  I also like how their prorated bill was only 60 cents!

And the last find to share with you today is this envelope, which was in the folder with the correspondence and deeds.  Inside were about 15 or so images and their negatives.  I suspect these were donated by a former resident (or staff member) of Edgewood.  I’ll try to verify the sender was a resident and see if I can obtain copyright or usage permissions.  Either way, I will digitize the photos for preservation.

The photos are not labeled, but most were likely taken at Camp Swain.  The image on the top left of the children in clown costumes may have been taken at Edgewood, and the bottom right picture shows Edgewood’s current location, most likely in the mid- to late 1920s before the neighborhood started to get developed.

More coming tomorrow!