{"id":1044,"featured":0,"modified":"2026-03-04 21:32:05","latitude":41.45852952350281128701681154780089855194091796875,"longitude":-81.7014598846435546875,"title":"The Jones Home and School for Friendless Children","subtitle":"A Story of Transformation ","fullsize":"https://clevelandhistorical.org/files/fullsize/1757ef1c1c3a34dde1248a7bd97f30f2.jpg","address":"3518 W 25th St, Cleveland, OH","zoom":15,"creator":["Aidan Sellman"],"description":"The Jones Home was founded on December 15, 1887, by Carlos and Mary B. Jones, who intended for it to provide mainly short-term housing for children who still had one or two parents, but who were currently unable to care for them. The Joneses began a policy of accepting only white, Protestant children for foster care that lasted for several decades. The farmhouse was situated on six acres and, in November 1889, housed about twenty children between four and ten years old. In 1890 the Home was reportedly “in a prosperous condition,” with extensions made to the main house and a new $1,300 building that enabled the Home to take in an additional thirty children.
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\r\nWhenever possible, the Jones Home’s administrators wanted families to be reunited. Orphanages understood that they could never hope to replicate traditional home life but did their best. The First Annual Report noted: “One little fellow was readmitted after an absence of several weeks, and ran about wild with delight, poking his curly head into all his beloved play-places. 'Oh, is my little bed here yet?' was the first thing he said when the door opened to readmit him.”
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\r\nIf after staying at the Home for a time the children were unable to return to their parents, they would be apprenticed to a family when “age and acquirements justify” and given a Bible. The families were required to be “regular attendants of some Protestant church.” This preoccupation with religion was not unusual for the time.
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\r\nDuring the annual harvest day festival in October 1895, Mr. Jones shared his vision to build a new three-story brick building near the original farmhouse, “at the corner of Pearl street and Daisy avenue.” The cornerstone of the new building, designed by Sidney R. Badgley, was laid in late November 1902. Dedicated in October 1903, the building was a “buff brick, with red stone trimmings” and cost $33,703.24. The first floor included an entrance hall, reception room, dining room, kitchen, girl’s cloakroom, reading room, library, and the matron’s private rooms. The second floor contained four dormitories, bedrooms for attendants, and bathrooms. The third floor held a meeting hall, sewing room, and five sleeping rooms with bathrooms that the executive director later lived in with his family. The basement had a receiving room and bathroom for newly admitted children, boy’s coat room, coal room, and storage space.
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\r\nAt the turn of the century, the Jones Home had a bright future ahead of it. In 1908, a two-story playhouse was built for $5,500, allowing the children to play in bad weather. In 1910, the third floor of the main building was converted into sick rooms and additional dormitories, creating space for twenty more children. In 1921, a vegetable garden was being “maintained bountifully.” Unfortunately, this prosperity would only continue for a few more years.
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\r\nThe Jones Home struggled during the Great Depression; while in the past it had usually received “hundreds of dollars a month” from donations, in 1933 “less than $50 a month comes in” because of extremely high unemployment in Cleveland. The closure of banks caused its endowment to become inaccessible. Despite these troubles, fifty-eight children were living at the Home – with space for ten more but but no means to support them – and was described as “old-fashioned but comfortable.” The Home scraped by, however, with what limited funding the community could provide, and in 1937 year it partnered with Community Chest – later renamed United Way Services – which brought in additional funding.
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\r\nWhen the Home celebrated its seventy-fifth anniversary in 1962, the “long-ago stipulation” that the children be Protestant had been “abandoned.” In late 1966, the Jones Home merged with Children’s Services, allowing it to provide psychologists and case workers for the children for the first time. A $400,000 renovation in 1971 was largely funded by selling land to the state to build I-71. Despite the encroaching city, it was a “quiet oasis” for “neglected children of any race or religion,” surrounded by eighty-year-old sycamore trees planted by Mr. Jones. The goal of the Home was to house children for “a few months to a year or two” while they and their parents received counseling.
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\r\nThe Jones Home continued to adapt to the community’s needs by expanding its ability to help children with mental health–related issues. In 1990, the Home was kept running with a 10 percent allocation from United Way, an endowment and trust fund, government funds, and donations. By this time the Home had three programs for children according to their needs: “a residential treatment program for children who are victims of sexual, physical and psychological abuse” and who were wards of Cuyahoga County’s Department of Human Services; “two classrooms funded by the Cleveland Board of Education for severely, behaviorally handicapped children”; and “court-designated programs providing temporary shelter and short-term, intensive residential treatment.” In 1997, the Jones Home merged with Guidance Centers, a psychiatric clinic founded seventy years before, to form Applewood Centers.
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\r\nThe Cleveland City Planning Commission named the Home a Cleveland landmark in 1984, and it was listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 2012 as part of the Jones Home Historic District. Flats Construction completed a three-year long restoration in 2021, ensuring the Home will continue to serve the needs of Greater Cleveland's youth for many years to come.","sponsor":null,"accessinfo":"","lede":"On the opening day of the Jones Home and School for Friendless Children, the weather was “dark and stormy,” but even so, “a large number of interested visitors found the house at 1633 Pearl St.,” which was a “half day’s drive by carriage or wagon” from Cleveland. Since that day in 1887, the Home has endeavored to improve the lives of children and families while adapting to more than a century of change. ","website":"www.applewoodcenters.org/","related_resources":["“About Run Its Course. Diphtheria in the Jones Home for Friendless Children – One Death Tuesday.” Cleveland Plain Dealer. January 19, 1893.","“Board of Education. Proceedings of the Regular Meeting Held Monday Evening, Nov 17, 1890.” Cleveland Plain Dealer. November 20, 1890.","“Bombing Drill.” Cleveland Plain Dealer. June 25, 1942.","Crenson, Matthew A. Building the Invisible Orphanage: A Prehistory of the American Welfare System. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1998.","“Endowment for Jones Home. Mary B. Jones Deeds the Home Ten Acres of Land on Daisy Avenue – Terms of the Gift.” Cleveland Plain Dealer. April 13, 1897.","“Formal Beginning Made of New Building for Jones Home. Handsome Structure the Gift of J. D. Rockefeller and Others.” Cleveland Plain Dealer. November 23, 1902.","“Fortune for Jones Home. Settlement Reached in the Famous Will Case – Stepdaughter Receives a Concession.” Cleveland Plain Dealer. March 14, 1899.","“A friend to children in need of one.” Cleveland Plain Dealer. September 1, 1990.","Hacsi, Timothy A. Second Home: Orphan Asylums and Poor Families in America. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1997.","“Happy Children. The Little Folks at the Jones Home Are Visited by Friends – Plans for a New $30,000 Structure.” Cleveland Plain Dealer. October 16, 1895.","“Homes Aided By Fund Send 2,000 To War.” Cleveland Plain Dealer. October 22, 1945.","“Is Ready For The Dedication. The New Jones Home On Pearl Street is Now Complete. Admirably Fitted for the Work to be Carried On.” Cleveland Plain Dealer. October 1, 1903.","“The Jones Home. Annual Reception and Harvest Day Exercises.” Cleveland Plain Dealer. November 15, 1889.","Jones Home. First Annual Report. 1888. Cleveland Public Library.","“Jones Home: Life Looks Brighter.” Cleveland Plain Dealer. August 14, 1971.","“Jones Home Opened Doors 75 Years Ago.” Cleveland Plain Dealer. June 20, 1962.","“Jones Home. Opening Day of the Harvest Festival Brings in Many Donations.” Cleveland Plain Dealer. November 11, 1896.","“Jones Home Host Today. Marks 50th Anniversary with Public Reception.” Cleveland Plain Dealer. December 15, 1937.","“The Jones Home Is Dedicated. Prominent Clergy and Laymen officiate at Exercises.” Cleveland Plain Dealer. October 9, 1903.","“The Jones Home. Prosperous Condition of the School – Meeting of the New Board of Managers.” Cleveland Plain Dealer. January 11, 1890.","“The Jones Home. That Institution is Still in Great Need of Subscriptions for Running Expenses.” Cleveland Plain Dealer. March 15, 1899.","Jones Home. Thirty-Third Annual Report. 1921. Cleveland Public Library.","“Jones Home Time Capsule Opened. Industrialist’s Photo Found In Metal Box.” Cleveland Plain Dealer. October 25, 1997.","Jones Home. Twenty-First Annual Report. 1908. Cleveland Public Library.","Jones Home. Twenty-Third Annual Report. 1910. Cleveland Public Library.","“Kind Mr. Jones Is Dead. He Established a Home for Friendless Children and Gave a Large Fortune to the Work.” Cleveland Plain Dealer. February 6, 1897.","Morton, Marian J. “Jones Home of Applewood Centers.” Encyclopedia of Cleveland History.","“New Playground Ready. Knights Templar Will Give Jones Home “Tot Lot” Tomorrow.” Cleveland Plain Dealer. May 3, 1940.","“Public Child Care Becoming Puzzle. War Babies Burden County and Private Agencies.” Cleveland Plain Dealer. July 16, 1947.","Rice, Karin Connelly. \"Jones Home for Friendless Children: A Journey from Adversity to Compassion.\" Freshwater Cleveland. September 10, 2023.","“Two Women Will Charity $130,600. Rockefeller and David Estates Probated.” Cleveland Plain Dealer. September 25, 1942.","“Welfare Merger.” Cleveland Plain Dealer. October 7, 1966.","“Will Leaves $500,000 To Art Museum.” Cleveland Plain Dealer. August 18, 1939.","“Wonder If Father Will Ever Come. Jones Home Youngsters Sometimes Wait in Vain; They Need Your Help.” Cleveland Plain Dealer. November 20, 1933."],"factoids":[],"files":{"https://clevelandhistorical.org/files/fullsize/1757ef1c1c3a34dde1248a7bd97f30f2.jpg":{"id":12384,"mime-type":"image/jpeg","title":"The Jones Home","description":"This photograph shows the Jones Home in 1937. It was designed by Sidney R. Badgley and dedicated in early October 1903. | Cleveland Public Library, Photograph Collection | 1937","thumbnail":"https://clevelandhistorical.org/files/square_thumbnails/1757ef1c1c3a34dde1248a7bd97f30f2.jpg"},"https://clevelandhistorical.org/files/fullsize/b0735582d68f0519e3e2c581da6a0a0a.jpg":{"id":12415,"mime-type":"image/jpeg","title":"Jones Home Dormitory","description":"This photograph shows "a corner in a dormitory" from the Jones Home and was likely on the second floor of the building. | Jones Home Twenty-First Annual Report, Cleveland Public Library. | 1908","thumbnail":"https://clevelandhistorical.org/files/square_thumbnails/b0735582d68f0519e3e2c581da6a0a0a.jpg"},"https://clevelandhistorical.org/files/fullsize/4073e5a3aca0ca24ac5f20a3d06dd781.jpg":{"id":12413,"mime-type":"image/jpeg","title":"Jones Home New Play House","description":"In 1908 a new playhouse was built, allowing the Jones Home children to play even in bad weather. It was "two stories high, of brick construction, and connected” to the main building. It cost $5,500 to build. | Jones Home Twenty-First Annual Report, Cleveland Public Library. | 1908","thumbnail":"https://clevelandhistorical.org/files/square_thumbnails/4073e5a3aca0ca24ac5f20a3d06dd781.jpg"},"https://clevelandhistorical.org/files/fullsize/eace3f44555b3bace2c0d8f80728e64b.jpg":{"id":12414,"mime-type":"image/jpeg","title":"Jones Home Dining Hall","description":"This image shows the dining hall of the Jones Home c. 1915. | Jones Home Twenty-Eighth Annual Report, Cleveland Public Library. | 1915","thumbnail":"https://clevelandhistorical.org/files/square_thumbnails/eace3f44555b3bace2c0d8f80728e64b.jpg"}}}