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NPs Form 1aeoo-e (e-�1 OMB APwcrallJo. 1024-0ora United States Department of the Interior National Park Service National Register of Historic Places Continuation Sheet Section number R Page 3 Children's Dispensary St. Joseph County IN NARRATIVE STATEMENT OF SIGNIFICANCE As part of the larger movement for social reform in health services. the Children's Dispensary represents the community's efforts to provide a comprehensive program of general medical care to disadvantaged children. The functional and still handsome building is eligible for the National Register under Criterion A in the areas of social history and health/medicine. The movements for social welfare that characterized the Procaressive Era at the turn of the twentieth century did not miss South Bend. The Associated Charities formed "to systemize and regulate the giving if aid to the weak ones of society." Among major concerns was public health. During the first decade of the 1900s the Visiting Nurse Association was organized (1902). and Dr. Charles E. Hansel helped found the St. Joseph County Anti -Tuberculosis League in 1908. The following year the fledgling organization erected four cottages in Pottowatami Park to house an anti -tuberculosis camp. Born in 1874. Dr. Hansel had-ccme to South Bend from Lakeville in 1905. A graduate of the Illinois College of Medicine. he had completed his medical studies in Boston, specializing in children's diseases. Perhaps influenced by the fact that his own son had been sickly from birth, Hansel dreamed of opening a free children's clinic_. in Snuth Rend. where the infant mortality rate was hiah. In 1909. with financial help from Richard Elbel. the president of Associated Charities. among others. the Children's Dispensary was organized. Hansel served as its medical director. First located in a rented storefront in a small frame buildina at 1029 West Division (today. Western Avenue) and furnished with piecemeal donations. the dispensary in its first few years mainly served to distribute free milk to poor children during the summer months. The Visitina Nurse Association provided a few hours of services, and other doctors donated their time. By 1912 the dispensary had its own fulltime nurse and its service.s.were available year round. As its programs expanded. the dispensary moved across the street into a large two-story house at 1040 West Division. The location was no accident: it was placed in the heart of a poor workincrclass neighborhood. whose mostly foreign -born residents worked at the large factories of Studebaker. Oliver. and Singer. By the mid -1910s the dispensary had extended its medical services to include classes to instruct mothers in childcare, nutrition. and sanitation. ?t also served as a social and cultural center where low-income children could participate in concerts. plays. and festivals. A small library branch was added, and various clubs for boys and girls instituted. Sewing