Homes for “Unwed Mothers” 1945

Homes for “Unwed Mothers” 1945 –

Visit 450 Pape Ave at Harris History

“A report by the Canadian Welfare Council of 1957 estimated there were about thirty such homes across Canada. By the end of the 1960’s there were roughly fifty homes” – “Gone to an Aunts”, Anne Petrie

During the 1800’s compassionate Victorian ladies were disturbed by the plight of unmarried mothers who had no resources and strived to create “Maternity Homes” which were homes to give those mothers a safe place to take their pregnancy to term, and to learn to care for and nurture their babies. At no time were mothers and babies separated, and in fact, in Minnesota, there was actually a Breast Feeding Statute that stated a mother had to breast feed for at least three months (Minnesota Three Month Nursing Regulation), which was devised to keep mother and child together and to promote bonding. The mother in this scenario however, was a “Fallen Women” and her baby labelled “illegitimate” or a “bastard”. The stigma attached to these labels were heavy indeed.

After World War II with the onset of the profession of Social Work, society decided that unmarried mothers could be rehabilitated or “made marriageable” again after being pregnant and giving birth. These same Maternity Homes and policies that were devised to help mothers and children stay together now became the means to separate them as adoption became the vehicle by which a mother could “be redeemed”.

Many of these homes were run by religious organizations in conjunction with the province. The Salvation Army and the Misericordia Sisters were the most prominent, but each denomination seemed to have their own facility for the “unwed mother” as the list below will show.

In her article “Not By Choice” Karen Wilson Buterbaugh shows how thought reform was alive and well in the Maternity Homes of that period.

Keep a Person Unaware

Girls were not instructed about pregnancy, labor, delivery; were left totally alone during labor and delivery; were not allowed contact with new mothers; not provided information about welfare and Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC), child support and other government programs.

Control their environment and time.

Girls forced to live in maternity “homes”; made to use fictitious names or first names and last initials only; allowed no contact with friends and boy-friends by letter, phone or in person; kept away from everything familiar; made to follow strict daily routines.

Create a sense of powerlessness.

Took away our money (pay phones only); no personal (familiar) clothing; not allowed freedom to come and go; removed everything that would remind us of who we were.

Rewards and punishments to inhibit behaviour reflecting former identity.

Called “neurotic” if we said no to “relinquishing”; told we were “out of touch with reality” and “selfish” if we kept our babies; told our pregnancy was “proof of unfitness.”

Rewards and punishments promoting group’s beliefs or behaviors.

Allowed no television, phone, visitation or radio privileges if not following rules; scolding and de-meaning lectures for disagreeing; harangued when speaking up against “counseling” (reasons why we should “choose” adoption); praised for agreeing to surrender.

Use logic and authority which permits no feedback.

Director, caseworkers and housemothers enforced strict rules and rigid schedule: wakeup, bedtime, meals, chores and approved visitation; censored mail (both incoming and outgoing); no legal counsel; no support system.

It seems clear that all of the thought reform conditions were present during the many months we were forced to hide away in maternity homes.

Rickie Solinger, in Wake Up Little Susie: Single Pregnancy and Race Before Roe v. Wade (1992), gives us a sense of the maternity home environment:

The world of maternity homes in postwar America was a gothic attic obscured from the community by the closed curtains of gentility and high spiked fences. The girls and women sent inside were dreamwalkers serving time, pregnant dreamwalkers taking the cure. Part criminal, part patient, the unwed mother arrived on the doorstep with her valise and, moving inside, found herself enclosed within an idea…

Maternity homes… served to further stigmatize pregnant young women by removing them from their families, friends and neighbors… these “homes” could create an austere and frightening atmosphere for the mother, whose freedom of movement was strictly curtailed by these instant chaperones and guardians. Typically, mothers were expected to help out in these homes with chores such as cleaning, dishwashing, and so on… while the mother’s physical needs were met, seldom were her emotional needs addressed…

Most of these homes are now closed and thankfully so, but the history of the”Home for Unwed Mother” is not over as the mothers that resided there from after World War II to well into the l980’s are now giving voice to their stories and experiences during their incarceration there, and their stories must be preserved for their children.

Origins has tried to compile an accurate list of the homes, however we need more information. If you have any further information that will help us with the accuracy of this list please contact us at admin@originscanada.org

Please note that the majority of these homes are now closed.

The address shown reflects the last known address of the home.

THE SALVATION ARMY

NEWFOUNDLAND

The Anchorage

26 Cook St.

St. John’s, Newfoundland

Glenbrook Lodge

18 Wood Street

St. John’s Newfoundland

NOVA SCOTIA

Grace Haven/called Parkdale House after 1975

47 Byng Avenue

Sydney, Nova Scotia

Bethany Home

6080 Young St. also 980 Tower Road

Halifax, Nova Scotia

NEW BRUNSWICK

Evangeline Home “Rathbone House”

260 Princess St.

Saint John, N.B.

QUEBEC

Grace Haven

6690 Monkland Ave.

Montreal, PQ

ONTARIO

Grace Haven

138 Herkimer St.

Hamilton,Ontario

Bethany Home

450 Pape Avenue

Toronto, Ontario

(Births from this home took place at Grace Hospital, Toronto)

Bethany Home

1140 Wellington St.

Ottawa, Ontario

Bethesda Home & Hospital

54 Riverview Avenue

London, Ontario

Faith Haven

Windsor, Ontario

Grace Haven/Florence Booth Home

497 N. Lillie St.

Thunder Bay, Ontario

Florence Booth Home

Fort William, Ontario

MANITOBA

Grace Haven

Box 2907

Steinbach, Manitoba

Bethany Home/ Lindenview Place

250 Booth Drive

Winnipeg, Manitoba

SASKATCHEWAN

Grace Haven

2929 26th Avenue

Regina, Saskatchewan

alternate address also found: 2301-15th Avenue, Regina

Bethany Home & Hospital

802 Queen St.

Saskatoon, Saskatchewan

ALBERTA

Hill Haven/Parkwood House

1340 8th Avenue N.W.

Calgary, Alberta

VANCOUVER

Maywood Home

7250 Oak St.

Vancouver, B.C.

Note: The Salvation Army ran a number of Homes and Hospitals across Canada

Please note that any “Grace” or “Booth” Hospital would also be Salvation Army

ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH

We have tried to compile a list of homes.

Please contact us if you know of any more places and names of homes.

PEI

Catholic Family Services

69 Pownal Street

Charlottetown, P.E.I.

(Catholic Family Services on first floor and “unwed mothers” lived on top floor

NOVA SCOTIA

Catholic Home of the Guardian Angel

Halifax, Nova Scotia

The Little Flower Institute

Little Bras d’Or

QUEBEC

Centre Rosalie-Jette (Sisters of Misericordia) 1955-1969

1801 Boulevard Goin East

Montreal, Quebec (Sault-au-Recollet)

Villa St.-Michel (Sisters of Misericordia) 1957-1971

7400 Boulevard Saint-Michel

Montreal, PQ

Foyer Joly (Sisters of Misericordia) 1958-1970

105 Joly St.

Trois Riverieres West, PQ

Known as Villa Joly 1970-1976

Foyer Sainte-Dorothee (Sister of Misericordia) 1957-1968

Laval, PQ

Carrefour Bethesda (Sisters of Misericordia 1980-1985

355 rue Laviolette

Gatineau, PQ

Villa Marie-Claire (Sisters of Misericordia) 1967-1974

225, rue Belvedere nord

Sherbrooke, PQ

Pavillon Jette: Foyer Marie-Lucie et Foyer Marguerite (Sisters of Misericordia) 1948-1971

850, Boulevard Dorchester

Montreal, PQ

Misericorde

St. Hubert & Rene Levesque Blvd

Montreal, PQ

ONTARIO

St. Mary’s Infants Home (Sisters of Misericordia) 1920-1956

550 Jarvis St., Toronto (closed and moved to Scarborough Rosalie Hall)

Rosalie Hall (Sisters of Misericorde) 1956- Present

3020 Lawrence Avenue East

Scarborough, Ontario

Sundale Manor1960-1976/Mercy Shelter 1953-1960 (Sisters of Misericordia)

140 Park Avenue East

Chatham, Ontario

St. Mary’s Home (Sisters of Providence)

Daly Avenue 1933-1972

Ottawa, Ontario then moved to:

Cadboro Road in Gloucester 1972-1987 then moved to:

659 Church St., Ottawa, Ontario and taken over by

Les Filles de La Sagesse d’Ontario

Rideau Terrace (in Rockcliffe)

Ottawa, Ontario

St. Martin`s Manor
Catholic Home for Girls
Mohawk Rd. West
Hamilton, Ontario

Misercordia Hospital Home (Sisters of Misercordia) 1959-1971

Georgina Avenue, Haileybury (urgencies only)

St. Monica House

Kitchener/Waterloo, Ontario

Centre Maria

Hawkesbury, Ontario

MANITOBA

Villa Rosa (Sisters of Misericorde) 1965-1993

784 Wolseley Avenue

Winnipeg, Manitoba (formerly Rosalie Hall on Sherbrooke)

(Have archival records going back to 1898 and can conduct searches upon written request subject to privacy legislation)

SASKATCHEWAN

Martha House est 1936

1855 2nd Avenue North

Regina Saskatchewan S4R 1Y1 (now home for retired priests)

(Founded by the Sisters of St. Martha in the old Mercy Hospital at the corner of Victoria Ave and Smith St. Home relocated several times Sisters of St. Joseph carried on the services from 1984 until June 1994.)

ALBERTA

The Providence Creche

Calgary, Alberta

The Pineview Home for Unmarried Mothers (Sisters of Misericordia) 1963-1969

9830, 165th Street

Jasper Place, West Edmonton, Alberta

Edmonton, Alberta

BRITISH COLUMBIA

Our Lady of Mercy

Vancouver, B.C.

ANGLICAN CHURCH OF CANADA

ONTARIO

Humewood House

40 Humewood Drive

Toronto, Ontario

St Monica’s Home

30 Sycamore Place

Kitchener, Ontario

QUEBEC

Elizabeth House (Co-sponsored with Presbyterian & United Church)

2131 Marlowe Avenue

Montreal, PQ

MANITOBA

Church Home For Girls (Co-sponsored with United Church)

2594 Henderson Hwy

Winnipeg, Manitoba

ALBERTA

St. John’s

Edmonton, Alberta

B.C.

Marion Hillard House

Serle Road, RR#1

Kamloops, B.C.

UNITED CHURCH OF CANADA

Victor (Massey) Home for Girls

1102 Broadview Avenue

Toronto, Ontario

(Many mothers from this home delivered at Burnside Hospital or Mayfair Hospital. These records have not survived)

Elizabeth House, Montreal, (cosponsored with Anglican Church as above)

Church Home for Girls , Winnipeg (cosponsored with Anglican Church as above)

United Church Home for Girls (1953)

1750 Sussex Avenue

Burnaby Home for Girls

7401 Sussex Avenue

South Burnaby, British Columbia

Cedarvale Home for Unwed Mothers (Previously Ontario Home for Girls)

Georgetown, Ontario

EVANGELICAL

Bethel Home (sponsored by the Pentecostal Benevolent Assoc of Ontario)

115 Bonis Avenue

Agincourt, Ontario

Friendly Home

5867 Cote St. Antoine Rd.

Montreal, PQ

Beulah Home

134th and 101st

Edmonton, Alberta

Jewels for Jesus Mission

2110 Argentia Road

Mississauga, Ontario

PRESBYTERIAN

Armagh Home

Meadow Wood Road

Clarksville, Ontario

Elizabeth House (co-sponsored with Anglican Church as above)

ECUMENICAL

Northern Ecumenical Maternity Homes

P.O. Box 955

Sudbury, Ontario

PRIVATE

Molly Breens Boarding House

18 Wood St.

St. John’s, Newfoundland

Ideal Maternity Home

East Chester, Nova Scotia

The Strathcona

32 Gothic Avenue

Toronto, Ontario