{"id":9327,"date":"2015-06-11T10:10:16","date_gmt":"2015-06-11T14:10:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/getitright.pmss.net\/?page_id=9327"},"modified":"2021-08-19T16:45:54","modified_gmt":"2021-08-19T20:45:54","slug":"laurel-house-i","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"http:\/\/staging.pinemountainsettlement.net\/?page_id=9327","title":{"rendered":"LAUREL HOUSE I"},"content":{"rendered":"
Pine Mountain Settlement School
\nSeries 10: Built Environment (Physical Plant)<\/h5>\n

Laurel House I<\/strong><\/h2>\n

1914 – 1940<\/strong><\/h2>\n

\""Pine

“Pine Mountain Settlement School. 1923 – 4- 5. – Laurel House, view from distance. [nesb_073_mod.jpg]<\/p><\/div>CONSTRUCTION<\/strong><\/p>\n

Laurel House, designed by Mary Rockwell Hook, was begun a year following the founding of the School in 1914 and construction continued over the course of 1914 and 1915. The building was occupied as early as possible during this time, even though it was still under construction. It was noted\u00a0as “finished by 1916. However. “finishing” the building took another two years from 1916 through 1917. The structure contained the central kitchen, the dining room, a large living room, and a dormitory space for girls.<\/p>\n

Marguerite Butler [Bidstrup]<\/a>, a worker who was at the School during the building’s construction and completion, writes\u00a0home to her mother about a visit to Laurel House:<\/p>\n

Then we went over to the Laurel House<\/a> which is another dream. The kitchen with its windows along one whole side and entering upon a court beside, the stove big enough to cook for the family, with a baker in a separate room, two sinks (not in yet but ordered, one for dishes, one for pots and pans,) a pastry room, storeroom for food, wood cellar, cement laundry, dining room large enough for family of about seventy and two sleeping porches which will accommodate about ten each, done. Only a part of the house is up but Miss [Ethel] de [Long]<\/a> hopes to raise enough money when she’s out to complete it this spring.<\/em><\/p>\n

Marguerite Butler Letters,<\/a> August 1915<\/p>\n

In 1924 Laurel House I was valued at $17,024,68. It was, by far, the most valuable of the early buildings on the campus from a monetary as well as a programmatic perspective.<\/p>\n

LAUREL HOUSE I: USAGE<\/strong><\/p>\n

Completed by 1917, Laurel House I was a central building for the School. It was a low and somewhat rambling building designed by Mary Rockwell Hook<\/a> and planned around the many critical functions, particularly that of a\u00a0dining commons. Upon completion, it also served as the laundry and main kitchen for the full campus.<\/p>\n

A 1917 letter from Marguerite Butler to her mother\u00a0describes her\u00a0supervision of work of the very young students in the newly constructed building. (This was before child labor laws would have prohibited such activity.)<\/p>\n

I am teaching in the morning, having charge of all upstairs in Laurel House<\/strong>, and\u00a0all\u00a0downstairs except kitchen department and laundry. I tell you it is no joke for five children to wash and dry dishes for 85 people in an hour, besides sweeping and\u00a0dusting rooms and dozens of other odd things. You simply cannot believe the work these children do unless you see it. Little Martha Callahan<\/strong> who is hardly four waited\u00a0on their table this noon. She did it beautifully. We had strawberries for dessert and when she carried the bowls to the table, ten high, they reached most to her chin, but\u00a0above the top was a broad grin.<\/em><\/p>\n

1917\u00a0Marguerite Butler Letters<\/a>, Letter 3, Page 1.<\/p>\n

On January 23, 1940, in the heart of winter, the building caught fire after a careless candle ignited a curtain. The fire destroyed the building as water was frozen in the near-by hydrant and there was little else to do but to stand by and watch the building burn.<\/p>\n

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GALLERY – LAUREL HOUSE I<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\t\t