The Clarissa C. Cook Home for the Friendless, circa 1905

Clarissa C. Cook Home for the Friendless, Davenport, Iowa. Circa 1905.

The mysterious house in this damaged picture is the Clarissa C. Cook Home for the Friendless in Davenport, Iowa. I have to say that the intriguingly named “Home for the Friendless” caught my attention from the very first time I saw it listed on a late 1800s Sanbourn Insurance Map of Davenport.

The Clarissa C. Cook Home opened in October of 1882 and continued operation until 2012 (renamed, at some point, the Clarissa C. Cook Retirement Home.) Mrs. Cook left the money and the instructions the Home’s operations in her will. It was to be open to elderly women (over 60) as permanent residents “without regard to creed or color.”  The women, on admission, were to pay $100 and then would be cared for for the rest of their lives. The Home also served as a temporary refuge for single working women (of good repute) with no other home.  Altogether, the home housed about 20 to 25 women in the early 1900s when this picture would have been taken.

Why did our photographer choose to take this picture?  The most likely explanation is that one of the residents, Marie Louison, was probably Marie Christine Louison, the stepmother of Sallie Louison Swenson.  Marie (also called “Christine”) is pictured in numerous family pictures during this period.  (Sallie Swenson was the wife of Olaf Swenson, brother to Elina Paulson, mother of Amy, Nellie, and George – our most likely photographers.)

It is thanks to the knowledgeable eye of Doug Smith that our mysterious “house” has been identified as the Clarissa C. Cook Home for the Friendless in Davenport Iowa.  When I first began my research in Davenport a couple of years ago, my eye was drawn to the area on the late 1800s Sanbourn Insurance map showing the “Cook Home for the Friendless.” Later, in a search to untangle the identity of “Christine” Louison, I found a “Marie Louison” listed as resident of Cook’s Home. Intrigued, I began to track down the Home’s history. Finally on my research trip to Iowa, a couple of weeks ago, I asked a Davenport expert, Doug Smith, if he had any idea where the house in my picture might be. He immediately suggested that it might be the Home for the Friendless, that very place that had so intrigued me. He found a picture of the Cook Home from the 1901 "Picturesque Tri-Cities", matched it to mine, and firmly identified it.  (Thank you, Doug!) Later, I drove over to see the Home and found it pretty much as pictured, looking a little forlorn, but in the process of renovation into apartments for seniors.  So much of research is like this. I circle and circle, find a tiny piece of information here, another connecting bit there, and then suddenly the pieces circle back and connect up with earlier research in new and interesting patterns.

You can find a nicer picture of the Cook Home at the Upper Mississippi Digital Archives - HERE.

Identifiers:

Negative: Paulson037 (1200 bpi tiff downsized to 400 jpeg for this post). The interesting damage to the emulsion on this picture is probably the result of dampness.

Place: Clarissa C. Cook Home for the Friendless (1882 to 2012; soon to find new life as apartments for seniors, 2014 -?), 100 South Pine, Davenport, Iowa.

Sources:

Doug Smith, (personal conversation, October  Doug is the proprietor of QC Collectibles in Davenport, Iowa, the foremost collector of Davenport memorabilia (photos, postcards, etc.), the writer of a column for the local newspaper, producer of a local tv show on collecting, and author of "Davenport" (Postcard history series: Arcadia Publishing, 2007.)   He generously shared his knowledge of Davenport, its environs and history with me during my recent research trip.  With his help, we were able to identify several locations in the pictures.  Check out his web site at: DavenportIowaHistory.com

"Bond V. Home for Aged Women of Cedar Rapids Et. Al. (Supreme Court of Iowa. April 6 1895)." Northwestern Reporter 62: 838.  [The report of this court case includes the history of the foundation of the Home, and a description of its operations. Just as a side note – The Clarissa Cook Home won the case and was awarded the $7,000 estate of the deceased.]

"Davenport and Its Environs-II." National Magazine: A Monthly Journal of American History  v.19 (1893). Clarissa Cook Home for the Friendless, p 176-77.

Lense, Marcia. “New Developments for Clarissa C. Cook Retirement Home in Davenport." (Updated November 11, 2013.  Accessed October 27, 2014  KWQC.com) 

Picturesque Tri-Cities: an art work, containing illustrations of scenery and portraits of the prominent and representative people of Moline, Illinois, Rock Island, Illinois, Davenport, Iowa, the Rock Island Arsenal and Vicinity. C.J. Martin and Company, 1901.