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Our Heritage
The Hanna Perkins Center traces its
roots to the legacies of two of Cleveland’s most socially-conscious and
philanthropic families, the Hanna and Perkins families, and to their supportive
involvement with the Day Nursery Association of Cleveland. This was the
eventual name of the Young Ladies’ Branch of the Women’s Christian Association
organization, founded in the 1880s to focus on the welfare of Cleveland’s
children.
As detailed in Eleanor Hosley’s (pictured) “A Century for Children – A History of the Day Nursery Association,” the first nursery or day care center for children in Cleveland was opened in 1880. At the time it was one of only six such centers in the country. Two more centers, eventually named in honor of the Mather and Perkins families, were opened within the next two years and another, named in honor of the Wade family followed five years later. The training of teachers soon became the focus of this organization of women who, by 1893 had renamed themselves the Cleveland Day Nursery and Free Kindergarten Association, the name they would have until 1931 when they became the Day Nursery Association of Cleveland. By 1900 there were 93 graduates of their teacher training program. By 1910 the Association was operating ten kindergartens within the city of Cleveland. They continued to expand and in 1915 the Samantha Hanna Kindergarten, named for the mother of Mark and Lillian Hanna, was founded. In 1919 it was housed in a new building adjacent to the Perkins nursery. These buildings were razed in 1960 to make room for the construction of the interstate through downtown Cleveland. Shortly after, as our former building was being constructed on Cornell Road in what came to be known as University Circle, Louise Humphrey (great niece of Lillian Hanna Baldwin) and Gertrude Oliva (a descendant of the Perkins family) took up the cause to raise money for the new building which was, in turn, named the Hanna Perkins School. In the summer of 1961 the Hanna Perkins building was completed and opened.
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Send mail to
ddewalt@hannaperkins.org with
questions or comments about this web site.
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