Hillcrest Children's Center (Washington, D.C.) records, 1815-1966

Scope and Content Note

The records of the Hillcrest Children's Center span the years 1815-1966, with the bulk of the material concentrated in the period 1880-1960. Largely administrative, the records reflect the financial and managerial techniques of the institution that until the 1950s provided for the care and protection of homeless youths and in subsequent years for the treatment of emotionally disturbed children. The records include correspondence, minutes of meetings, committee and staff reports, admittance and application records, indentures, journals, ledgers, financial statements, deeds, mortgages, bank checks, budget estimates, index cards, and miscellaneous material.

The records have been organized into three series: Unbound Records, Bound Records, and Miscellany (Oversize). The Unbound Records are further subdivided into seven numerically classified categories: general records (100s), children's records (200s), lady managers' records (300s), trustees' records (400s-500s), property records (600s-700s), legacy and gift records (800s), and historical and miscellaneous records (900s). The numerical classification system, which also extends to the other two series, was designed by Dorothy Smith Coleman for the center in 1953 and has been left largely intact with only minor revisions and processing refinements.

The Washington Female Orphan Asylum, Hillcrest Center's original name when it was founded in 1815, was initially established to care for girls left homeless by the British invasion of the capital during the War of 1812 [1]. In the years since its founding, many Washington notables, including Dolly Madison (the center's first director), Marcia and John Van Ness, William Corcoran, and Blair Lee, among others, have contributed to the success of the institution as trustees or members of the Board of Lady Managers. Documentation relating to the early history of the institution is scanty and can be found chiefly in the minutes of the meetings of the Board of Lady Managers.

1. In 1828 the institution's name was changed “forever” by act of Congress (May 24) to the Washington City Orphan Asylum. Though Washington City Orphan Asylum still remains its official name, the institution was called Hillcrest Children's Village from 1927 to 1953 and Hillcrest Children's Center since 1953.

Traditionally the administration of the asylum rested with a Board of Lady Managers, charged with supervising the daily management of the institution and the care of the children, andwith five male trustees, whose duties included financial and property management. Of the two administrative units, the ladies' records are the more varied and complete, especially after the turn of the century. Of prime importance to the ladies' records are the minutes of the meetings which contain much of the basic information abstracted for the annual reports. The minutes contain correspondence, directives, committee and staff reports, resolutions, and memoranda prepared for and included as a result of the meetings. Other informative data concerning the lady managers, as well as the children receiving services, will be found in the staff and committee reports which, for the most part, are organized separately. Staffing, budgeting, maintenance, and medical services available for the children are the central points depicted in the superintendent and staff reports for the period 1933-1956. Beginning in the 1930s, a social worker prepared reports for the case committee detailing information on the applicants and residents. This information, in the form of case histories, describes to some degree the child's family background and personality traits. The lady managers' records also include reports of the Grounds and Educational Committees, journals listing the amount of overhead such as staff salaries and plant maintenance, and financial records pertaining to the Hillcrest home on Nebraska Avenue, N.W.

The records relating to the trustees are primarily financial in character, reflecting their role as budget directors and property managers. Although incomplete, the files include minutes of meetings, ledgers, journals, auditors' reports, promissory notes, and some correspondence. The property records, which comprise a separate series, greatly augment the fragmentary trustees' file and contain a wealth of information focused equally between investment properties and the asylum's residences.

The property records, while lacking in correspondence, reflect land values, building, repair, and rental costs in Washington, especially for the years 1870-1900. The trustee and property records and the files relating to legacies form the core of the center's financial records for the middle period and later years.

A significant though limited amount of material remains in the collection relating to the merger of Hillcrest with the Washington Institute of Mental Hygiene and Children's House. Documentation supplied by the annual reports and the ladies' minutes outlines the merger procedure which took place over the period 1953-1961. The superintendent's reports, together with information supplied by the case histories, treat with detail the staff's growing conviction that psychological treatment of children took precedence over other considerations. Consequently, in 1953 Hillcrest formed a working arrangement with the above-mentioned institutions to care exclusively for emotionally disturbed children. In 1961, after a report prepared by the Community Research Center of New York, the separate institutions merged under one administration.

Rounding out the collection are three file groups entitled children, general, and miscellaneous records. Files within these groups contain references to adoptions, indentures, constitutions, bylaws, annual and biennial reports, early acts of Congress relating to the formative years of the institution, historical sketches of the asylum, and complete description of the archives by Coleman.

In addition to the numerical classification outlined above, there is a further decimal classification for some of the records (see the first folder in Container 1 for details). Generally, the numerical classification is followed by three letters as described below:

Alphabetical Key

The alphabetical key classifies documents or file groups into three component parts: administrative relationship, chronological time span, and type of material.

*All documents formerly in looseleaf and window binders have been placed into folders and should be considered under the “F” classification. Consequently, all materials labeled E, R, or F are contained in the Unbound Records.