Strawn Cottage was sizeable in domestic science schooling | Hood
By Heli Santala 3 weeks agoDomestic science, also acknowledged as Home Economics, and now a lot more commonly referred to as Household and Client Sciences, arrived into currently being as an tutorial area of analyze all-around the change of the 20th century.
Its origins can be traced to the do the job of educator Catherine Esther Beecher, significantly her 1841 publication “A Treatise on Domestic Financial state for the Use of Youthful Girls at Residence and at School.”
Beecher was an educator, an advocate for women’s education and learning, and a prolific writer.
Another important impact in the rising discipline was Ellen H. Swallow Richards, the to start with female graduate from Massachusetts Institute of Technologies, who, right after remaining granted “special student” standing, turned a pioneer in the field of sanitary chemistry.
As the industrial revolution fueled a change in the household from a spot of production to one of intake, a scientific tactic to homemaking was witnessed as a must have to the success of modern society.
Richards and other advocates for domestic science convened 10 decades of once-a-year conferences in Lake Placid, New York, commencing in 1899, to set up a eyesight for the discipline, like the generation of adequately compensated household economics employment.
The resultant institution of the American Home Economics Affiliation in 1909 created expert credibility for the discipline and propelled even more women into pursuing better education and learning.
As the 20th century progressed, women of all ages significantly entered function exterior the household. The Bureau of Dwelling Economics was founded as a division of the U.S. Section of Agriculture in 1923 with an extensive investigation system to aid the get the job done executed by homemakers in the regions of food items and nutrition, textile and outfits, and economics of the house.
As a visionary of domestic science, Beecher established the system for its review at the collegiate amount in her 1874 publication “Educational reminiscences and strategies.”
There, she advocated for an impressive yet realistic approach for arms-on study making use of “model dwelling-houses” that would illustrate “thoughtful modes of development, household furniture, ornamentation, warming and ventilation.”
Beecher’s vision was at last understood in 1908, when Illinois Industrial University, now College of Illinois, founded the 1st apply household. Nonetheless, it was one more 10 years prior to the concept took off.
Also in 1908, just as house economics advocates wrapped up their last Lake Placid conference, Hood University formally acknowledged that “work in the home is a topic worthy of scientific study” and presented programs in domestic science for the 1st time.
In 1913, college President John H. Apple met with architect John B. Hamme of York, Pa., to discuss the strategies for the Administration Creating, later Alumnae Hall, with three flooring to be allocated to the Domestic Science Office and the science laboratory.
When Edith Mathias Thomas, a 1901 graduate of the college, took more than the university of home economics in 1911, the software swiftly grew. She developed the approach for a domestic science apply residence.
Thomas’ obituary recounts that it was via her “ingenuity and power quite a few pupils contributed resources for a house economics follow dwelling.” The venture was even further underwritten by a generous donor and namesake, Dr. David H. Strawn.
Strawn stopped in Frederick to go to his niece at Hood University as he traveled from his property in Illinois to Florida, wherever he expended winters. His financial gift was created devoid of restriction, apart from naming the creating and the generation of a donor’s room for his use on his visits to Frederick.
1 of the most exciting and distinctive details of this endeavor was Apple’s announcement that setting up for the developing “will also be completed by the women and they will attract the layouts and make suggestions to have an best dwelling.”
The to start with two buildings manufactured underneath the college’s ownership have been created by the prolific and really regarded Hamme, building the shift to scholar-led architecture significant.
Finally, the students’ programs had been “wrought into performing drawings” by the local firm of Kepner & Smith.
Strawn Cottage was officially dedicated in November 1918 with a general public ceremony held in conjunction with the college’s 25th anniversary, amid the promise of impending women’s suffrage.
P.P. Claxon, the U.S. commissioner of training, was current and spoke remarkably of the women students’ futures in management and govt.
Determination ceremony speakers also bundled Mrs. Henrietta Calvin, a property economics expert with the Bureau of Training, alongside with the assistant superintendent of instruction of Maryland.
In their subsequent bulletin on household economics, Calvin and Lyford praised the Hood Higher education observe home, stating: “This is the initial exercise household in Maryland and marks an epoch in the instructing of residence economics in the State. The residence is present day in every respect, is comfortably furnished and affords an prospect for all senior dwelling economics pupils to have true encounter in the procedure of a home.”
Strawn Cottage served as the college’s property financial apply dwelling for 60 many years, right until a hearth in 1987 and its subsequent renovation into administrative places of work. The setting up is currently proposed for demolition.
Lisa Mroszczyk Murphy is a historic preservation planner for the city of Frederick.
To promote the preservation and appreciation of historically and architecturally sizeable internet sites, constructions, and districts, the metropolis of Frederick Setting up Office writes a regular monthly column for The Frederick News-Write-up. Mail thoughts or ideas for upcoming columns to [email protected].