Zoar Home is a private nonprofit social services agency initiated as a maternity home and affiliated with the United Methodist Church, though residents are admitted without regard to race, religious creed or age. Records primarily include reports, correspondence, financial records, histories, publications and newspaper clippings about Zoar Home, construction records, plans of the buildings and other sundry materials.
Language
The material in this collection is in English.
Author
This guide to the collection was originally prepared by: Tatyana Anstupova on August 1, 1996. Revisions occurred to the finding aid as a part of the encoding process in Fall, 1999.
Sponsor
This finding aid has been encoded as a part of the Historic Pittsburgh project a joint effort of the University of Pittsburgh and the Historical Society of Western Pennsylvania. Funding for this portion of the project has been donated by the Hillman Foundation.
Zoar Home is a private nonprofit social services agency initiated as a maternity home and affiliated with the United Methodist Church, though residents are admitted without regard to race, religious creed or age. It is situated on Mount Royal Boulevard in Allison Park (Allegheny County), Pennsylvania, and serves the entire area of Pittsburgh, Allegheny County and other surrounding counties.
Zoar Home for Mothers, Babies and Convalescents was founded in 1912 by Ernst and Clara Schmitz. They opened it at their own house in Swissvale as a maternity home for single pregnant women. Schmitz' also took in residents' children and orphans. In 1916 a Board of Directors was elected. It made an application to the Courts for a Charter, which was granted on February 7, 1917. The present building in Allison Park was built in 1924. In 1932 Zoar Home became a participant in the Community Fund of Pittsburgh.
After the death of her husband in 1921, Mrs. Schmitz continued as the director of the Home and upon her death in 1941 their daughter, Miss Anne Smith, became the administrator of Zoar up to her retirement in 1966. At that moment as there was no other person in the family to carry on, the Board of Directors voted to give the Home to the Methodist Church Union.
Zoar Home for Mothers and Babies provided two separate services: residential maternity care for single mothers and shelter care for Child Welfare infants. Maternity care included prenatal care, meals, delivery and three days' hospital care at West Penn Hospital for mothers and babies. Although Zoar Home linked women to adoption agencies, it did not handle private adoptions. Among other services for residents were social counseling and high school classes. In 1979 The Zoar Home started to provide day care for children from two months to age five.
At present Zoar Home operates two programs. The Zoar Family Renewal Program serves substance abusing pregnant women and their children. The Zoar Child Development Center provides full-time day care service for preschool, pre-kindergarten and kindergarten-age children, as well as a full-time before and after school program for children through the third grade.
Scope and Content Notes
Records primarily include reports, correspondence, financial records, histories, publications and newspaper clippings about Zoar Home, construction records, plans of the buildings and other sundry materials. The materials document the organization and operation of the Zoar Home, changes in its services, financial operations and investments, renovations and repairs of the buildings. They illustrate day to day life of this unique social services agency taking care of women and children of Allegheny County and Pittsburgh area since 1912.
Arrangement
The four series have been designated for General Records, Financial Records, Building Services and Construction Records, and for Miscellaneous Materials.
The Zoar Home records are housed in six archival boxes.
Conditions Governing Access
This collection is open for research.
Immediate Source of Acquisition
These items came in one accession. Acc# 1994.0217 Gift of Zoar (Records. Gift made by Claudia Detwiler, Executive Director of the Zoar Home). 1994
Preferred Citation
Records of the Zoar Home, 1916-1993, MSS#244, Historical Society of Western Pennsylvania
Processing Information
This collection was processed by Tatyana Antsupova on August 1, 1996.
Revision and rearrangement for the encoded version of the finding aid provided by Janet Begnoche on November 29, 1999.
Conditions Governing Use
Property rights reside with the Historical Society of Western Pennsylvania. Literary rights are retained by the creators of the records and their heirs. For permissions to reproduce or publish, please contact the curator of the Archives.
