Guide to the Papers of Mary Flinn Lawrence, 1903-1963, MSS 185
- Repository
- Heinz History Center
- Title
- Papers of Mary Flinn Lawrence
- Creator
- Lawrence, Mary Flinn, 1887-1974
- Collection Number
- MSS 185
- Extent
- 2.75 cubic feet (6 boxes)
- Date
- 1903-1963
- Abstract
- Mary Flinn Lawrence, former owner and creator of Hartwood Acres, was an active politician and benefactor. The papers include correspondence, diaries, news clippings, and other materials providing thorough documentation of Lawrence's personal and public life from 1910 until 1963.
- Language
- The material in this collection is in English.
- Publisher
- Heinz History Center
- Address
- 1212 Smallman St.
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 15222
library@heinzhistorycenter.org
URL: https://www.heinzhistorycenter.org
Biographical Sketch of Mary Flinn Lawrence (1887-1974)
Mary Flinn Lawrence, former owner and creator of Hartwood Acres, was active in political and civic initiatives throughout most of her life. Lawrence was born to Nancy and William Flinn in 1887. William Flinn, owner of the Booth and Flinn construction firm and a longtime Pennsylvania state senator, was regarded as Pittsburgh's political boss during the late 1800s. Through an alliance with Christopher Magee, he wielded enormous political power in Pittsburgh. Like her father, Lawrence looked to political action to further her causes and was an influence in the Republican Party, both locally and nationally. She championed such issues as women's suffrage, humane working conditions, proper hygiene, and sex education.
Lawrence was raised in Braemar, the family estate at the corner of Highland Avenue and Bunkerhill Street, directly across from the entrance to Highland Park. She attended the Winchester School (today known as Winchester Thurston School), Farmington School and Briarcliff College.
Her charitable work was an integral part of her life and she spent considerable time at meetings, fundraisers, speaking engagements or other volunteer tasks. She was a successful fundraiser who raised millions of dollars for both war efforts and charities. She sat on the Board of the Home for Crippled Children most of her adult life, and was also active in the Red Cross, Equal Franchise Federation of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania Woman Suffrage Association, Home for Convalescent Mothers and Babies (now Harmarville Rehabilitation Center), Moral Efficiency Commission of Pittsburgh, Pleasant Hill Farm Association, Farmington Committee, Family Society of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh Symphony Society, Young Women's Christian Association, Fox Chapel Garden Club, Twentieth Century Club, and the Civic Club. Because of her influence, notable political figures sought her support, such as Pennsylvania Governor Gifford Pinchot.
After a four-year courtship, she married John Wheeler Lawrence (1891–1945) in 1914. Prior to their marriage, John Lawrence lived in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania where he was a student at Haverford School. In 1911, after one year of school, he went to work in one of his father's coal mines in Bentleyville, Pennsylvania to prepare himself for the brokerage end of the mining business. In November of that same year, the London and Liverpool Globe Insurance Company hired him as their Pittsburgh agent to pursue Booth and Flinn's contract surety bonds. He served in both world wars, as an aerial gunner in the U.S. Navy during World War I and in the Army Air Corps during World War II.
William Flinn died on February 19, 1924 at the Hotel Soreno in St. Petersburg, Fla. Mary Flinn Lawrence's inheritance from him enabled her to buy the property known as Hartwood in 1928 and to build a Tudor mansion on the grounds. A lifelong member of the Rolling Rock Club, Lawrence also built stables on the property.
In 1937, the Lawrence family adopted a three-year old who they named John Wheeler Lawrence, Jr. (1934-2011). Three years later they adopted a second son, William Flinn Lawrence (1937-2003), when he also was three. John W. Lawrence Sr., Mary's husband, died on January 26, 1945. In her later years, Mary Flinn Lawrence lived full-time at Hartwood and curtailed her social and benevolent activities. In 1962, she was severely injured in an automobile accident. In 1969, Hartwood was sold to Allegheny County, with the condition that she be permitted to reside there until her death. She died on October 29, 1974 and was buried in Homewood Cemetery. Allegheny County made Lawrence's mansion and grounds a regional park, named Hartwood Acres, which opened to the public in 1976.
Scope and Content Notes
The Mary Flinn Lawrence Papers are housed in six archival boxes and are arranged alphabetically by folder title. The papers include correspondence, diaries, news clippings, and other materials providing thorough documentation of Lawrence's personal and public life from 1910 until 1963. The bulk of the correspondence is outgoing letters to friend Joseph Brown Connally and incoming letters from John W. Lawrence, with additional correspondence from William Lyles Black, Loraine Cooney, Louis de V. Douseman, Ewing Rafferty, and the Connally and Flinn families. Her letters detail involvement in many benevolent and progressive activities, social conditions, current events, and daily life.
Her correspondence with Connally during and shortly after World War I is a particularly rich source of information regarding her activities during this time period. She wrote frequently about her friends, family, meetings, and charitable activities. The correspondence during the war shows a preoccupation with casualties among family and friends, selling of bonds, and other war-related topics. In a January 22, 1918 letter, Mary bemoans the United States' unpreparedness for war, the inefficiency and incompetency of the government, and discusses the participation of her brothers and husband. In addition, she discusses her frequent Red Cross work, which she interrupted to go to Washington, D. C. for the passage of the Woman Suffrage Bill in December 1918. She also mentions a Liberty Loan Parade in Pittsburgh in which 40,000 women marched (April 23, 1918), as well as the over-subscription of the Liberty Loan Drive by four billion dollars (May 5, 1918). The correspondence also documents her involvement with the women's suffrage movement, although it does not offer much in-depth information beyond the dates and sites of meetings. Also, of note is an October 13, 1918 letter from Mary telling of the influenza epidemic in Pittsburgh, causing many events to be cancelled.
Although infrequent, Connally's letters provide a first-hand account of the warfront. On April 15, 1918, Connally writes of his eleven-day voyage to France, and on May 26, 1918, he writes of bombings and the hardships endured by soldiers. He frequently recounts the conditions in France and episodes of heavy bombing. In October 1918, Connally writes about the Battle of the Argonne Forest, where the shelling lasted non-stop for eighteen days and he was shell-shocked and gassed (October 26, 1918). The post-war correspondence focuses on more general issues, including woman suffrage, politics, and Mary's social activities and travels. She also discusses racial issues, particularly the attempts of African-American soldiers to enjoy equal rights with white soldiers, following their service to the country. As Connally's health worsened, Mary's letters focused more on his health and her concerns for his well-being.
The correspondence with John Lawrence is exclusively incoming letters written primarily prior to their marriage. The bulk of the correspondence was written between 1910 and 1913. The 1911 and 1912 correspondence provides excellent accounts of coal mining and conditions in the company towns. On August 12, 1911, Lawrence describes a typical day underground in a coal mine in the Bentleyville-Cokesbury area. In addition to discussing his work activities, he also relates his evening and weekend plans, which most often included visits to Pittsburgh. His later correspondence focuses on his business and financial concerns and their upcoming wedding.
Her other major correspondents included Ewing Rafferty, Loraine Cooney, and Lyles Black. Letters from Lyles Black written during the war tell of his activities in France, including acting as mayor for three small towns (August 1918) and running the Hotel de Crillon, where President Wilson was in residence during peace negotiations (December 1918). The correspondence with Loraine Cooney is all incoming letters, written primarily during the time of Connally's serious illness, when Cooney would visit him at the hospital and report on his condition to Lawrence. The Flinn family correspondence includes a few letters from William Flinn, a letter from William Flinn to his wife, and one letter from Lawrence's brother. Of note is a letter from William Flinn, February 16, 1919, in which he expresses his concern about the economy of both Europe and the United States and perceives the beginning of a worldwide depression. Miscellaneous correspondents include Nils McClintock and Pennsylvania Governor Gifford Pinchot.
Lawrence's diaries cover most of her adult life and document Lawrence's meetings, speaking engagements, social engagements, performing arts attendances, interactions with friends and family, and other incidents of her domestic life. Lawrence's interests included the welfare of children, women's rights, mental health, fair labor laws, disabled veterans, gardening, politics, horses, temperance, music, the arts, sports, medicine, and sex education.
Arrangement
The Mary Flinn Lawrence Papers are housed in six archival boxes and are arranged alphabetically by folder title.
Conditions Governing Access
This collection is open for research.
Immediate Source of Acquisition
These materials came in one accession in 1988.
Acc# 1988.52 Gift of William F. Lawrence, (Papers. William F. Lawrence is the son of Mary Flinn Lawrence.)
Preferred Citation
Papers of Mary Flinn Lawrence, 1903-1963, MSS #185, Historical Society of Western Pennsylvania
Processing Information
This collection was processed by Marion Karl and Susan J.E. Illis on October 5, 1995.
Revision and rearrangement for the encoded version of the finding aid provided by Doug MacGregor on August 17, 2001. Finding aid revised by Library & Archives staff in 2013.
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.
Subjects
- Red Cross
- United States. Army. 82nd Division
- Lawrence, Mary Flinn, 1887-1974
- Black, William Lyles
- Connally, Joseph B., d. 1920.
- Cooney, Lorraine
- Lawrence, John W.
- Pinchot, Gifford, 1865-1946
- Rafferty, Ewing
- Wilson, Woodrow, 1856-1924
- Pittsburgh (Pa.) -- Medicine
- Pittsburgh (Pa.) -- Politics and government
- Pittsburgh (Pa.) -- Social Life and Customs
- Washington County (Pa.) -- Industry.
- Hartwood Acres (Park: Allegheny County, Pa.)
- Afro-Americans -- Pennsylvania -- Pittsburgh
- Argonne, Battle of the, 1918
- Charities -- Pennsylvania -- Pittsburgh
- Coal mines and mining -- Pennsylvania -- Washington County
- Horsemanship -- Pennsylvania -- Pittsburgh
- Hunting -- Pennsylvania -- Pittsburgh
- Soldiers -- Pennsylvania -- Pittsburgh
- Voyages and travels
- Women -- Pennsylvania -- Pittsburgh
- Women -- Suffrage -- Pennsylvania -- Pittsburgh
- Women -- Societies and Clubs
- Women in charitable work -- Pennsylvania -- Pittsburgh
- World War, 1914-1918 -- Aerial operations
- World War, 1914-1918 -- Public opinion
- World War, 1914-1918 -- War work -- Pennsylvania -- Pittsburgh