The Morristown Neighborhood House Association has been a beloved Morristown institution for more than one hundred years providing services and support to a diverse group of Morristown residents in need. Originally incorporated as the Association for Work Among the Italians the Neighborhood House has been in the forefront of many social service initiatives, pioneering such strategies as introducing registered nurses into its day care program and advocating for the issuance of birth certificates, as well as advocating for public health services from Morristown. The House has played a prominent and influential role in twentieth century Morristown ably serving an ever changing population with creative and productive methods.
The Neighborhood House was originally organized to assist Italian immigrants and their children arriving in Morristown. Morris County was one county among many final destinations for immigrants of the late nineteenth century. The immigrants were attracted to the region by the prospect of employment on the estates of the community's wealthy citizens. However, as is true with earlier immigrants, they faced the multiple burdens of relatively little education, unfamiliarity with American culture, and, most important, an inability to speak the language. They were a vulnerable group, facing sometimes hostile situations without the familiarity and comfort of their own culture. In addition they faced subtle as well systemic discrimination in employment and housing. Their options in choosing methods for improving their economic and social realities were limited, but there was one form of relief provided by a few local residents. A small group of influential citizens, members of the Morristown Presbyterian Church, organized the Society for Work Among the Italians as a social service and evangelical group dedicated to alleviating some of the burdens of the immigrant. In addition to providing comfort for their physical well being, the organizers were determined to convert the Roman Catholic Italians to the mainstream Presbyterian Church. The Association's temporal activities included classes on English, civics lessons, after school programming for children, and carpentry among other useful programs. Though the immigrants utilized the House for social assistance there was an underlying mistrust due to the evangelical nature of the Association that the Association was never able to overcome.
In the face of the persistent lack of trust on the part of the immigrants the Society changed its name in 1907 to the Neighborhood House, followed by a philosophic change in 1912 to exclude the evangelical aspect of the original charter. The House adopted the beliefs and organization of the Settlement Houses, a late nineteenth/early twentieth century national movement dedicated to assisting recent immigrants regardless of religion or ethnicity. Under its new structure the House continued with its tradition of providing Americanization classes, adult education, after school programming for the children of immigrants, and trade and vocational training.
1912 also saw the introduction of Mr. and Mrs. Aldus Pierson as head workers for the Neighborhood House. They would successfully serve the house for the next few decades finally retiring in 1938 leaving a lasting influence on the organization. Under their direction the House experienced increased visitors and programing. The House soon outgrew its capacity forcing the Pierson's to develop ever more creative methods for achieving their goals.
One of the more difficult issues that the Pierson's had to deal with was a change in demographics. Populations are not static and the Neighborhood House has constantly and effectively changed to meet the needs of the surrounding community. As African Americans began to migrate to the Northern states and the community demographics began to alter in the 1920's and 1930's so too did the population that the Neighborhood House served, though this transition was not always smooth. Some of the older residents, the original recipients of the Neighborhood House's beneficence resisted the migration and even resented the House's welcoming and accommodating manner with the African American population in the Morristown community. Though the Neighborhood House did segregate programs for several years, the organization never wavered in its dedication to serving all of Morristown's residents often stating that its primary "function is to help people develop attitudes of tolerance to achieve self respect and respect for others." Racial tensions remained throughout the next few decades and were only partially resolved by the movement of the Italian community out to other areas of the borough and county, though tension would remain for decades.
The war years were lean ones for the House and the number of community individuals served actually declined due too many of the community serving in the military and others working for the war effort in industry. Despite the decrease in numbers served during the war the House survived to expand in the next few decades.
After the Pierson's retired there was a string of less dynamic directors until in 1953 the House hired Mrs. Carmetta Meade. Mrs. Meade remained in that position for thirty years retiring in 1985. Under her tenure the Neighborhood House moved from its original location, a worn down building far too small to serve as the House's facilities to a brand-new building of it's own completed in 1957. Though the House soon outgrew its new building a new addition, the Industrial Wing was added in the mid- 1960's, and a new playground was built, completed in 1971. Meade's accomplishments were not just confined to the physical structures. Under her direction the nursery school was accredited by the school district and she instituted many successful after school programs.
The Neighborhood House has continued its tradition of success past Carmetta Meade's tenure. In 1998 it celebrated its one hundredth anniversary with a gala affair. The celebration incorporated many of the records found in this collection in a display that highlighted the service that Neighborhood House has provided Morristown. The Neighborhood House is still a vital and vibrant part of the community.
The collection is arranged in seventeen series and encompasses 26 boxes. The arrangement details the administrative structure and history of the Neighborhood House.
This series describes the agency's first years as a Protestant organization. Within this series the researcher will find the Agency's Constitution, both hand written and typed copies, meeting minutes from the first committees detailing the creation of the Association, monthly reports, covering the years 1905-1908, with significant gaps, and an annual report from 1908. This series also includes information on Vincent Azzara, a prominent Italian/American Morristown citizen. Since the Vincent Azzara folder contains material from 1922 the series dates extend past the Association era. The meeting minutes provide a rich glimpse into the early history of the Association.
This series contains a Certificate of Incorporation, the by laws and constitution, and an inventory of the House's possessions that reflect the change from the Association to the Neighborhood House. In addition to the original change in 1912 the House periodically reorganized its bureaucratic and organizational structure to accommodate changing philosophies, funding options, demographics, and most importantly a belief that such reorganization will provide a more effective agency for social change. These changes are represented through proposed amendments to the Certificate of Incorporation, the actual amendments to the Certificate of Incorporation and the new By Laws.
This series does not contain the records of all the executive directors of the Neighborhood House. What it does have is some of the records of the House's most important directors, the Piersons' and Carmetta B. Meade. The first of these, the Piersons' is more complete though in no way an exhaustive sample of the impact that they had on the House. Mr. and Mrs. Aldus Pierson ran the Neighborhood House from 1912 to 1936. Under their direction the House experienced significant annual gains, both in size of attendance and from funding, as noted in the annual reports. This series contains the Pierson's correspondence with the Board, annual reports, administrative records, and an autobiography by Mrs. Pierson, "Notes from My Memory Ball". In a separate over sized box there is a framed photograph portrait of the Piersons, a wood framed pencil drawing of Mrs. Pierson, and a framed copy of the Board's Resolution to the Pierson's upon their retirement in 1938. One of the more interesting items of note is a letter written to the Pierson's by an Italian soldier fighting in the First World War. The records of Mrs. Carmetta B. Meade are also contained in this series. She assumed the position of executive director in 1953 and as noted above in the administrative history the Neighborhood House experienced some of its most dynamic changes with her at the helm. She was with the House until her retirement in 1985. The series contains some of her correspondence and memoranda as well as two copies of her employment contract with the Neighborhood House.
As a nonprofit corporation much of the organization's direction and agenda was determined by a Board of Managers. This is the largest series in the collection and it contains the membership lists, monthly meeting minutes, annual meeting minutes, and annual reports. The earlier meeting minutes, annual meetings, and annual reports were printed together from 1912-1930's. Where possible the meeting minutes were organized into program years. Though the House changed its administrative calender several times most years ran November to October. After 1967 the Board took attendance at the monthly meetings following the calender year, though the program year stayed the same. This is reflected in the arrangement. The Board did not meet in July or August. During the annual meetings the Executive and Program Directors read their annual reports to the Board and many of these reports are included in the Annual Meeting notes. The Association's Annual Reports were written by the President of the Board of Managers and presented to the rest of the Board at the Annual meeting and it detailed the previous Program Year. The collection does not have the complete run of the Annual Reports.
The Board of Trustees is another facet of governance in the Neighborhood House administration. Though the records for the Board of Trustees is not nearly as extensive as the Board of Managers it does include meeting minutes, letters of acceptance from individuals asked to serve on the advisory board, correspondence, Treasurer's reports, and various committee meeting notes.
The Neighborhood House received its funding in the early years from the Community Chest and later from the United Way. This series includes proposed budgets, operating costs, budget cuts, five year financial predictions written at the request of the United Way. Neighborhood House would also occasionally receive bequests from friends and board members. One such bequest came from Mrs. Charles Shelly and some of the records of this bequest are in the collection.
This series contains a copy of the personnel policy, records of staff donations to the United Way, a significant provider of funding for the Neighborhood House, and lists of employee names and addresses.
As a nonprofit organization the Neighborhood House was greatly dependent upon the generosity of its volunteers. This series contains items from the Director of Volunteers Louisa J. Tuttle, who was involved in the Neighborhood House during the middle of the century and items from later in the century.
The Neighborhood House carefully studied the demographics of Morristown in an effort to develop adequate strategies for providing assistance to the town's citizens. To this end the House commissioned studies of the community such as a report written by Albert J. Kennedy titled "A Demographic Study of Morristown New Jersey" completed in 1940, utilized readily available population studies, and carefully schedule their programs to reflect the needs of the participants. This series is comprised of the aforementioned study, a lengthy analysis of Morristown's population, the Neighborhood House's own census of the African American community in the "Hollow" section, dated 1914-1938 and a schedule of activities from 1937.
The Neighborhood House has implemented numerous programs over the course of its history. Many of these programs have been a part of the Neighborhood House since its inception in 1898. Others are far more recent creations. This collection does not have a complete list of all the Neighborhood House's programs, there are however records from some of the more important groups to include the Adult Education/Women's Center, the Mary Hinchman Cutler Music School, the Outlet Store, and the New Americans as well as an article detailing the programs written for a local paper.
The Neighborhood House experienced tremendous growth over the past century and this is reflected in the repeated attempts to either expand the physical building or by building an entire new facility as it did in mid-1950s. This was a termendous undertaking complete with fund-raising and capital campaign drives. The collection has records from the new building, from fund raising to dedication, items concerning the new industrial wing finished in 1967, and the building of a new playground in 1971. There is also a list from 1992 detailing areas of the building in need of repair or improvement, as well as a 2001 insert from a mailing with thoughts on potential expansion.
While the vast majority of the Neighborhood House' funding came from the Community Chest or the United Way there were frequent budget shortfalls where the amount of projected money needed did not match with the amount provided by the agencies. To make up the difference the Neighborhood House would hold fund-raising events. The series includes the records from several of these fund raisers. The series also includes events put on by the Neighborhood House that were not necessarily fund raising in nature but still celebrated the House.
The Neighborhood House held celebrations on several of its more important anniversaries to include the thirtieth, fiftieth, seventy fifth, and the Century mark. There is one folder each for the thirtieth, fiftieth, and seventy fifth anniversaries. The one-hundredth Anniversary records are housed in several separate boxes. The Century celebration was a large affair involving the Board of Managers, staff, volunteers, participants and much of the surrounding community, with displays featuring pictures, text, articles, and memorabilia. The pictures are reproductions of photographs that can be found in the photograph series. The photograph reproductions have accompanying text explaining the picture and detailing the history of the House. The appropriate text display has been placed with the accompanying photograph. In many cases however there is no text for the photographs. Additionally there are a few text items designed for several photographs though there are only one or two photos present. In addition there are framed photos, which were hung on the walls throughout the building for the celebration. There are also some pictures that have been blown up to poster size, on both laminated material and foam board material. Those items that fit into a document box were placed there. The rest were placed in an oversized flat box. The other celebration records include brochures, invitations, and articles.
The collection has several publications of the Neighborhood House as well as an annual brochure and updates as well as a book published by a long time Italian American resident's book on the history of the Italian community in Morristown titled "New Neighbors, Old Friends; Morristown's Italian Community, 1880-1980," by James V. Costanzo Jr. 1982.
The Neighborhood House staff and participants kept numerous scrapbooks over the years, to include books filled with artifacts from different programs, sports, house activities, newspaper clippings, and some books combining elements of all of these. The most delicate books were taken from the bindings and placed in file folders. Others were removed from the bindings are placed in their entirety in boxes. The remaining books are in hard cover. These scrap books were placed together in boxes. Those books that could be identified, title and dates were included on the file folder. The others were labeled as Scrap book, not defined. The scrapbook titled "Laying the Corner Stone" held pictures from the Association for Work Among the Italian era. The scrapbook has been placed in two file folders, first the Association era and secondly from the late 1940's until the corner stone celebration.
As many organizations do, the Neighborhood House marked its important milestones by preserving and marking some of the pieces of its history. In this collection there are two hammers with inscriptions made from a beam of the original building, commemorating the new building completed in 1957. In addition to the hammers there are several framed pictures, documenting mostly the mid-twentieth century period of the Neighborhood House, a framed newspaper article RE: Neighborhood House, and several pictures of program activities.
The Neighborhood House spent a great deal of effort documenting its many activities and programs through photographs. Though there are no photos of the organization as the Society for Help Among the Italians the earliest photos are of Mrs. Aldus Pierson and of the head nurse in a 1918 photo. There are very few photographs of individuals but rather pictures of group activities. Since most of the photos are unidentified they have been placed into rather broad categories, e.g. Halloween, luncheons. The titles reflect the elements of the picture not the exact event which in most cases is difficult to ascertain. There are also many negatives and a few slides. The negatives, where possible were placed with the photographs and the slides were placed individually in protective sheets.
This material is open for research without restriction under the conditions of the North Jersey History Center archives access policy. Records may be copied for use in individual scholarly or personal research, however, as with all materials in the History Center, researchers are responsible for obtaining copyright permission to use material from the collection. Material in the Neighborhood House collection may be photocopied, but because this material is a permanent part of the History Center's collections, researchers are advised to photocopy with care, using only the edge copier for bound material.
The records of the Morristown Neighborhood House Association (1898-2001) were donated to the North Jersey History Center of the Morristown and Morris Township Library.
The Records of the Morristown Neighborhood House Association. North Jersey History Center, The Morristown and Morris Township Library.
Arranged by Lawrence T. Greene, Winter 2004