PROPOSE $14,000 HOME FOR
THE CRITTENTON MISSION.
Fireproof Building at Thirtieth and
Woodland Will Be Ready by Next
Summer.
Captain J. H. Waite, at the head of the Florence Crittenton mission and home, located in an old dwelling at 3005 Woodland avenue, made the statement last night that by next summer the institution hopes to be in a new fireproof building. It is to be erected, he said, on the corner of Thirtieth street and Woodland avenue, where they own 156 feet fronting on the latter street.
"The foundation should be laid within the next ninety days," said Captain Waite, "so that work on the super-structure may begin in the spring. We have planned a building to cost between $10,000 and $14,000. As we want to make it absolutely fireproof and of reinforced concrete, we anticipate that the cost will be nearer $14,000. It is a grand institution and has done and is doing the noblest kind of work."
The Florence Crittenton Mission and Home for unfortunate girls was started in this city on February 4, 1896, with an endowment of $3,000 from Charles N. Crittenton, the millionaire philanthropist of New York, who died suddenly in San Francisco Tuesday. It first was situated on the northeast corner of Fourth and Main streets in a large three-story brick building which now has been torn down to make space for a city market.
After being at the original location for a short time it was decided to abandon the downtown mission work and establish a home. The institution then moved to Fifteenth street and Cleveland avenue into rented property. In June, ten years ago, the property at the southeast corner of Thirtieth street and Woodland avenue was purchased for the home.
"A debt hangs over our heads for some time," said Miss Bertha Whitsitt, superintendent of the home yesterday, "but now we have 156 feet frontage on Woodland avenue on which we expect soon to erect our new building.
"Since the beginning of the mission and home," continued Miss Whitsitt, "we have cared for 582 young women, the majority of them with children. Just during the last year we cared for twenty-eight young women and twenty-three children. When totaled the number of days spent in the home by all of them amounts to 4,612, which we record as so many days of charity work."
Captain J. H. Waite, who has been at the head of the home for many years, said that Mr. Crittenton had given the home and mission $3,000 to start on. When the property at 3005 Woodland was purchased the National Florence Crittenton Home at Washington gave about $1,500 toward buying and improving the property.
