SCCS: More than 130 Years Helping Children
William H. Upson
Republican Congressman William Upson was the first official champion of Summit County Children Services. In 1881, he convinced more than 200 concerned citizens to join his cause by signing a petition to establish a home for wayward children. By 1885, the agency opened its doors in temporary quarters at the County Home for the Aged on S. Broadway Street. Two years later, County Commissioners purchased the Cordelia H. Jewett homestead at 264 S. Arlington Street for $8,000 to become the agency’s permanent site.
Community Need Fuels Growth
The Jewett farmhouse provided ideal housing for the next 25 years. Because of overcrowding and unsanitary conditions, a new, spacious brick home was built in 1910. Additional dormitory wings, an auditorium and dining room were added in the 1920s. By now the agency known as the Summit County Children’s Home had emerged as one of the area’s most attractive and responsible public institutions.
The child population exploded during the Depression years and continued to grow in the 1940s reaching nearly 500 children. During this time, the Children’s Home was renamed the Summit County Child Welfare Board, and agency leaders created a formalized Social Services Department by hiring social workers to provide services to children and families and, more importantly, keep more accurate records regarding the care of children.
During the 1950s and 1960s, the child populations increased to more than 1,000 children. To accommodate the rising number, older children were relocated to cottage-style resident halls near Edwin Shaw Sanitarium (now Rehabilitation Center). This area became known as Sunshine Village and was later renamed Andersen Village in honor of Victor Andersen who served as the Executive Director for 23 years. The Child Welfare Board underwent one last name change in the 1970s to what it is called today … Summit County Children Services.
Adapting to Changing Times
Due to new federal and state laws regarding the placement and care of children, Andersen Village was closed in 1985 and children returned to their own families or were placed in alternative kinds of care. To respond to the challenging needs presented by children and families, the agency developed several preventive programs, such as the Mentoring Mothers Program and Independent Living.
Today, Summit County Children Services is focused on serving the needs of abused and neglected children through its clearly defined mission and vision
Interesting Historical Facts:
- Summit County Children Services opened its doors in temporary quarters at the County Home for the Aged located on S. Broadway Street in 1881 with nine children and a staff of six. William A. Hanford was the agency’s first superintendent.
- When the agency opened its doors, it was known as the Summit County Orphanage. Since, the agency has undergone three name changes: Summit County Children’s Home (early 1900s); Summit County Child Welfare Board (1945); Summit County Children Services Board (1975).
- In November 1887, the agency moved to the Cordelia Jewett Farm located at 264 S. Arlington Street – what would become its permanent address. The property was purchased for $8,000 and provided ideal housing for children for 25 years.
- A spacious new brick home was erected in 1910 at a cost of $50,000. It was divided into three separate parts connected by covered passage ways. The central structure housed the administrative offices, kitchen, dining room, and living quarters of the superintendent and matron. The buildings on either side housed boys and girls, their play rooms and sleeping quarters.
- In 1913, then superintendent Frank Saunders hired his daughter, Nellie, as the visiting agent, the agency’s first social worker. Her position was created in accordance with the Ohio State Code Section #3099. She evaluated the placement of children with families.
- In 1916, the Children’s Home inherited a farm of 140 acres near Massillon from the estate of a widow named Charity Rotch, who bequeathed the farm for the education of destitute orphans and indigent children. Twenty-four of the older children were selected to move to Massillon to learn “laudable skills of farming and housekeeping.” A separate Board of Trustees directed the farm. The Board named Mr. And Mrs. E.E. Webb as superintendent and matron. The farm burned to the ground in 1924.
- In 1919, the Board of Trustees hired Hilda Ebbert as the agency superintendent where she served in this position for five years. Ms. Ebbert retired in 1924 to marry local banker Charles S. Marvel. Mrs. Marvel returned to the helm of the agency serving as superintendent a second time from 1946 to 1951, the only person to do so in the agency’s history. Mrs. Marvel, along with Eleanor Voke and Betty Jaycox, was also instrumental in forming the Women’s Auxiliary Board in 1949, the first auxiliary of a child welfare agency in the country.
- By the 1920s, the Summit County Children’s Home had emerged as one of the area’s most attractive and responsible public institutions.
- In 1923, a two-story addition was constructed that housed the dining room and auditorium.
- In the late 1980s and throughout the 1990s, several preventive programs were initiated: The Mentoring Mothers Program, the Teenage Sexuality and Pregnancy Prevention Program and Independent Living.
- With the start of World War II, women went to work, and they suddenly had a need for acceptable child care. The agency became more appealing as a child care agency. By the end of the war, the child population at the Children’s Home was nearly 800.
- By 1967, the child population at the agency exceeded 1,000. Voters passed a capital improvement bond issue to modernize the Children’s Home and create additional facilities on land adjacent to the Summit County Sanitarium (now known as Edwin Shaw Rehabilitation Center). This residential campus was named Sunshine Village. In 1977, it was renamed Andersen Village in honor of Executive Director Victor Andersen.
- By the late 1970s, under the leadership of Executive Director David Miller, the agency officially began the policy of deinstitutionalization. Slowly, Juvenile Court released the children to alternative kinds of care, outside the residential institution. Some children were placed in subsidized adoptions, while others returned to their own families. By 1985, Andersen Village was closed.
- In 1983, David Miller resigned and the Board mounted a national search for a new executive director. The Board hired Joseph W. White, Jr., the first African-American executive director for the agency.
- In the late 1980s and throughout the 1990s, several preventive programs were initiated: The Mentoring Mothers Program, the Teenage Sexuality and Pregnancy Prevention Program and Independent Living.
