Now home to an apartment complex, this was the location of the Willows Maternity Sanitarium from 1908 until 1969. This home for unwed mothers was one of many maternity homes in Kansas City, which was nicknamed the “adoption hub” of the United States owing to Missouri's unique adoption laws that provided simplicity and privacy for mothers and the adopting parents. Tens of thousands of mothers came to Kansas City in the first half of the 20th century owing to the existence of numerous institutions like Willows Maternity Sanitarium, as well as partnerships between social services organizations and Kansas City hospitals. The Willows and its owners, Edwin P. and Cora May Haworth, earned a reputation for kindness, first-class medical care, and exceptional accommodations for the young women under their care. These factors distinguished the Willows from many other maternity homes, but still, nearly all of the estimated thirty thousand women who entered this facility left alone as nearly all of the babies born here were placed for adoption.
Established in 1925, Florence Home for Colored Girls was an organization dedicated to assisting African American mothers and their children by providing counseling, education, shelter, and medical care in Kansas City. The home was initially located at 2446 Michigan Street and later moved to an expanded facility at 2228 Campbell Avenue. In the 1970s, the Florence Home for Colored Girls became the Florence Home and merged with the previously white-only Florence Crittenton Home.
The location of Welcome House KC since the 1980s, this building served as the home of Fairmount Maternity Hospital from 1934 to 1951. Fairmont was established in 1917 and operated until 1963, and was one of several maternity hospitals in Kansas City that were staffed by professionals who provided medical and social services for unwed mothers who needed assistance during and after their pregnancies. Kansas City was sometimes referred to as the "adoption hub" of the United States in the early-to-mid-twentieth century due to its central location and Missouri's simplified adoption laws that also provided sealed records which appealed to both birth mothers and adopting parents. In addition to Fairmont Maternity Hospital, Kansas City saw an estimated one thousand adoptions each year as women from throughout the region sought the services of this institution and several others in the city including the Willows Maternity Sanitarium and St. Vincent’s Maternity Home. As part of a planned expansion of Welcome House KC, this historic building is scheduled for demolition as of 2023.
From the fall of 1872 until its closure in 1910, the Social Evil Hospital of St. Louis (1872-1910) was located here at the intersection of Arsenal and Sublette streets. The hospital was a place where sex workers admitted themselves to be examined and treated for sexually transmitted illnesses in accordance with the Social Evil Ordinance. This local law was repealed in 1874, and after that time, the institution was known as The Female Hospital. In 1906, the future entertainer and activist Josephine Baker was born at Female Hospital. For a short time after 1910, the former hospital served as makeshift housing for those who might have otherwise been homeless. In 1915, the building was razed as part of the larger effort to create Sublette Park.
Created in the 1840s, the House of the Good Shepherd of St. Louis provided housing for unwed mothers and girls that were said to have impoverished or 'morally questionable' parents. In 1895, the organization moved to a building here on the Northwest Corner of Gravois and Bamberger.
This Tour is a Digital Story Map.
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This state-wide tour explores the history of women's group homes and woman-centered healthcare over the course of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.
