Maternity Homes

Illinois, Evanston - The Cradle, 2049 Ridge Avenue, Evanston, IL 60201 In the 1960’s this maternity home was called The Cradle Society. They had an in-house nursery which all the infants were housed until they went with the adoptive parents. They also operated an infant nurse school from 1926 thru 1972 Louisiana, New Orleans - The Methodist Home The Methodist Home hospital was and still is located on Washington St. Since 1972 It is a home for abused and neglected children. The contact information for The Methodist Home is: P.O. Box 15109, Station B, New Orleans, LA 70175 Missouri, Kansas City - Willows Maternity Sanitarium The following was taken from a post in 1992 on the Prodigy bulletin board: Garnet "Peggy" Marie Haworth… [more]

There are many maternity homes through out the United States. Some still exist and some no longer exist. This 2 part blog series is touching base on only a few. If there is a particular maternity home you are interested in, please let me know. Booth Memorial Hospitals There were Booth Memorial Hospitals in most major U.S. cities and they were run by the Salvation Army. The hospitals are closed now and the records have been warehoused. The contact information is as follows: Central Territory Headquarters 10 W. Algonquin Road Des Plaines, IL 60016-6006 Serving the states of: MI, IN, IL, WI, MN, ND, SD, IA, MO, NE, KS Phone: 1-847-294-2090 Eastern Territory Headquarters 440 West Nyack Road West Nyack, NY 10994-1739 Serving the states of: ME… [more]

The Salvation Army has a missing persons division in each of four territorial regions. Their national headquarters for maternity home records information is at the Georgia address below. The website it: http://salvationarmy-usaeast.org/find/booth_babies.htm Eastern Territory Headquarters for CT, DE, ME, MA, NH, NJ, NY, OH, PA, VT, RI —120 West 14th St., New York City, NY 10011; Central Territory Headquarters for IL, IN, IA, KS, MI, MN, MO, NE, ND, SD, WI —2258 Clyborne St., Chicago, IL 60614; Southern Territory Headquarters for AL, AR, FL, GA, KY, LA, MD, MS, NC, OK, SC, TN, TX, VA, DC, WV —1424 NE Expressway, Atlanta, GA 30329; Western Territory Headquarters for AK, AZ, CA, CO, HI, ID, MT, NV, NM, OR, UT, WA, WY —2780 Lomita Blvd., Torrance, CA 90505. Your inquiry should… [more]

It is my understanding that most maternity homes that existed in the closed adoption era did not instruct about pregnancy, labor, delivery, and were left totally alone during labor and delivery and were not allowed contact with the new mothers, were not provided information about welfare and aid to families with dependent children, child support and other government programs if they existed at the time. Girls forced to live in maternity homes were in some cases made to use ficticious names or first names and last initials only. They allowed no contact with friends and boy friends by letter, phone or in person and they were kept away from everything familiar and made to follow strict daily routines. Some maternity homes took… [more]

There was a point in my life that I wondered how I got to where I was. Finally at the age of 21 I took an active step in finding out and initiated a search for my natural family. I knew virtually nothing about what had happened to me the first four days of my life and why. Through search I had hoped to find the answers. When I initiated my search the internet wasn’t what it was today and it wasn’t until I was into my search that I had a computer or access to email. I wasn’t able or didn’t know how to search for books written on the subject. It wasn’t until I started reading and… [more]