Harbison: Chambliss Center has been caring for children for more than 147 years

In 1981, Congress passed legislation asking then-President Ronald Reagan to proclaim the week of March 7, 1982, as "Women's History Week." He gladly supported the concept and subsequent presidents continued the tradition until 1987 when Congress expanded the legislation to designate March as "Women's History Month." It seems appropriate for the first article in our local Women's History series to begin with a fascinating story of philanthropy, service and compassionate care.

In the early 1870s, an era in which women seldom worked outside the home, a group of socially-caring women worked together on a small clothes and food pantry that would eventually become one of Chattanooga's largest social service organizations. Concerned women from First Christian Church, First Presbyterian Church, First Baptist Church, Second Presbyterian Church, and the Cumberland Presbyterian Church recognized the needs of children who lacked food and shelter. In October 1877 the leaders officially incorporated as the Women's Christian Association and began providing care and housing for orphaned children.

Who were these innovative women who chose to address the primary needs of Chattanooga's underserved children? They were Mrs. E.D. McCallie, Mrs. E.E. Loomis, Mrs. S.D. McCorkle, Mrs. L.C. Wood, Miss S.E. Shaffer, Mrs. E.M. Wilkinson and Mrs. Lon H. Anderson.

For the next 36 years, the new organization operated from houses donated or rented at minimal costs, moving around frequently as the need for more space to care for additional children increased. In 1913 Dr. T. Hooke McCallie donated a parcel of land on Vine Street that provided a more permanent home, a two-story white stucco building on land that is now the site of UTC's Baptist Collegiate Ministry. Chattanooga residents referred to the site as the Vine Street Orphans Home, and the name became permanent.

When Chattanooga was hit hard by the Great Depression, additional parents were unable to find work or to support their families. The Vine Street facility, built to accommodate 60 children, suddenly found itself housing three times that number. The search began for a new home.

In 1937, the board of directors launched a capital campaign to build a new, larger brick structure on more rural land purchased from the Wilhoit family. The new home was completed by WPA labor in May 1939. The community created a car caravan to transport all of the children from Vine Street to their new home at Gillespie Road in Brainerd. One large building served as the orphanage, the residence for both the children and matrons while another smaller building served as an infirmary. The surrounding land consisted of orchards and gardens in which the children worked and fields in which they could run and play.

In 1945, Alexander W. Chambliss, who previously served four times as mayor of Chattanooga, was chief justice of the Tennessee Supreme Court. Recognizing a need to care for children subject to the juvenile court system, Chambliss funded construction of an emergency shelter home at 212 North Highland Park Ave., known as the "Alexander W. Chambliss Home." At the April 5, 1947, dedication, Chambliss said, "My hope was for a detention home to meet an urgent need which would not only be serviceable but attractive. My purpose was not only to keep our young boys and girls who had wandered astray out of jail but to place them where aspirations for better things might be stirred." As the need grew, the Chambliss Home was expanded to provide emergency services for neglected and dependent children.

In 1955, the "Vine Street Orphans Home" changed its name to The Children's Home, and services continued to evolve to meet the needs of area families. "Care Around the Clock" began in 1969, caring for children of parents who worked afternoon/evening shifts or weekends. In 1983, recognizing mutual and compatible missions, the Chambliss Home and Emergency Shelter relocated and combined with the Children's Home, adopting the name "Chambliss Center for Children."

Today, what began as the Vine Street Orphanage is known as the Chambliss Center for Children, serving more than 700 children each day through critical programs including a residential program, extended child care, two thrift stores generating revenue for program support, child care in county schools for teachers, and the management or ownership of six additional child care centers throughout the city. The visions of both Justice Chambliss and the founding matrons continue today as the Chambliss Center for Children.

Katie C. Harbison is vice president of the Chambliss Center for Children. J. Nelson Irvine, of counsel, Chambliss, Bahner, Stophel, P.C., contributed to this article.