Oakland Tribune from Oakland, California • 124

The Knave" I SO CM Continued from Page 23 IT WAS a year and a half before the old house was ready for use as a hospital, but Bertha Wright was not of a mind to wait that long to get to work with children. She established a clinic in "the old carriage house. "The old carriage house was opened as the Clinic in June of 1913, some 15 months before the Baby Hospital," Morgan says. To prove that Murray Morgan's work is much more entertaining than a mere recital of chronological dates we impose on him for one more story from his lively book. This happened some years after Bertha Wright became an institu- i i CM 3 11 JO 9 But she was to become substitute mother to tens of thousands of children.

"Bertha Wright was a visiting nurse for the Collegiate Alumnae Association of Alameda County in f911. Her training and visits made her acutely conscious of the need for an institution offering specialized care for youngsters under the age of five in Berkeley and Oakland, cities which in 1910 had populations of 40,434 and 150,174 respectively, but had no facilities com- parable to those of the Children's -Hospital of San Francisco." It was in January 1912 that Miss Wright first began talking for a similar hospital here. By early September she led a group of women at a meeting in Berkeley's Town and Gown Club House at Dana Street and Dwighf Way. Of 30 invited, 15 attended. "The Baby Hospital Association coalesced the following Sept.

11 at a meeting in the parlors of the HtdMTlMilMMllj Nurses, magnolia tree remain a symbol of health at 51 st and Dover mulated by Solomon Ellsworth Al-den and his wife" "in: 1852." when a Boara meeung was smiocaung under stuffiness. Miss Wright broke the spell. "The other day I was at the Clinic for the pre-natal class," she recalled. "A woman, already several times a mother and about to be so The old mansion was too large forthr MeElraths-now-that-their -children were grown. After considerable negotiations they agreed to sell the house and one and a third acres for $12,500, if the Baby Hospital Association could make an initial-payment of $6,500 by.

December, 1912. "Thus began not the Baby Hospital itself but that inevitable corollary of hospital operations fund raising," the Morgan story ues. On Dec. 4, 1912, Mrs. McDuffie arose at a meeting of the association's Board of a a and "with a somewhat theatrical Pennsylvania accent (she was a half-sister to Sidney Howard, the playwright she announced that the committee had raised $6,852,91.

They bought the McElrath property. again, came to register. I took down her answers for the file card name, age, address, ages of other children and all the rest. When it came to the line about her husband's name and occupation, she said, 'Oh, but I'm not married. 'Not I said, allowing myself a tone of slight surprise.

'Not she repeated firmly. AFTER the Aldens died the property passed to their daughter and her husband, Mr. and Mrs. J. Edgar McElrath, who moved into the big house and reared a family of 12.

They called the place Elmwood, and it was lovely, we read in the Morgan book. "Early in the 1900s the McEl-raths sold most of their property to a promoter who created the Santa Fe tract, one of the largest residential developments in East Bay history. Still, the area retained its rural atmosphere. This was the time of the great influx of Italians, and many houses were surrounded by fruit trees and vegetable gardens. In the fall the scent of crushed grapes was heavy in the air." I may be an old maid, Miss Wright, First Congregational Church in Oakland They continued to meet on Wednesday mornings, sometimes in Oakland, sometimes in Berkeley and (eventually) appointed a committee to select a site for the Baby Hospital "Among the properties available was the historic McElrath estate.

This was part of the holding be but I'm not a fussy old It is our hope you will want to read Murray Morgan's "The Hos- pital Women Built for Children. THE KNAVE tween Berkeley and Oakland accu- I ml butulwlll OAKLAND HOME ORGAN WORKSHOPS flfMnaniRrkwwD ALL TYPES FREE I NOW MEETING TWICE WEEKLY US) xi i it nil ii ii if ii mi ii mi ii ii ii ii ii mm ii i TUPPEK IEED 3201 Grand Oakland Ac UttOTUUU shapes sizes I special! wkScTFI uua runnni rn luinniiT 523-8595 351-2919 Walnut Crtek Area 228-7140 UVERMOIt VALLEY 846-2016 CAL-VET FHA BANK FINANCING 1 1 1llf1 T- OINTURITI t( mlracU pUiflc whlcfc frt la ii minute. Wta rout plni laythiag imrae dialelf. Slopt dickiaf tor luml. Prvenu food pariiclet from (tiling nndrr rour pl.t..

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