MARY ROCKWELL HOOK Correspondence 1920

Pine Mountain Settlement School
Series 05: GOVERNANCE – Board of Trustees
Series 09: BIOGRAPHY – Board of Trustees, Staff
Series 10: BUILT ENVIRONMENT
Mary Rockwell Hook, Architect
Correspondence 1920

Boy’s House. Facade view of central section, upper & lower porch. [II_08_boys_house_318.jpg]

MARY ROCKWELL HOOK Correspondence 1920

January 21, 1920 – July 29, 1920
Letters from PMSS Co-Directors and Staff

Mary Rockwell Hook (1877 – 1978)
School Architect and Consultant 1913 through c. 1968
Member, PMSS Board of Trustees

TAGS: Mary Rockwell Hook Correspondence 1920, Mary Rockwell, architecture, architects, Ethel de Long Zande, Luigi Zande, Berto Zande, fundraising, donations, Line Fork Settlement, Bertha Rockwell, Katherine Pettit, Marguerite Butler, Angela Melville, PMSS teaching methods, Medical Settlement at Big Laurel

Mary Rockwell Hook was the primary architect for Pine Mountain Settlement School and served on the School’s Board of Trustees. For many years, she maintained a correspondence with workers at the School, with community members, and with other Board members. Her many roles and correspondents have led to a scattered body of material. However, the bulk of her correspondence is filed under “Board of Trustees Correspondence” in BOXES 17-19 and is organized by year.

Note that the formal Board of Trustees’ (BOT) correspondence does not begin until 1924. Prior years are included in the Director’s Correspondence.

Additional correspondence may be included in planning documents for the two satellite settlements, the Medical Settlement at Big Laurel and the Line Fork Settlement, as well as under files for the individual buildings she designed. See Series 10: BUILT ENVIRONMENT and GUIDE to BUILT ENVIRONMENT.

Scattered correspondence may also be found under “Series 09 Staff Workers MARY ROCKWELL HOOK” in the filing cabinet in the Boy’s House Library/Archive annex room.

Scanning of individual documents is on-going.

BR = Refers to correspondence located in Burton Rogers files concerning Mary Rockwell Hook and associated correspondents.

CONTENTS: Mary Rockwell Hook Correspondence 1920

[Note: Letters from PMSS staff in the PMSS Collections are carbon copies, typewritten, unsigned, and meant for the Office files. The original signed copies were sent to the correspondents. The initials at the bottom left of most PMSS letters indicate the writer (along with initials of the secretary). In the letters on this page, “EZ” are the initials for Ethel de Long Zande and “KP” indicate Katherine Pettit. The following list of contents is in chronological order.]

January – March 1920

001-001a January 21, 1920. Two-page letter to Mary (Rockwell) from (unsigned, likely Ethel de Long Zande), who [001] encloses a letter possibly from a donor; provides updates about locating the Boys’ House:

…[We decided to build it back and to the right of the Slab House. I know there are things to regret about the location, but it seems the only one on the school grounds for the boys. I think it is rather a disappointment to Miss Pettit, and yet I feel sure the relief she feels in getting rid of the Slab House will make up to her for having such close neighbors. The building as we laid it out will be about 96’ long, a main part with two wings, one a play room open to the rafters and with a sawdust floor, the other, sleeping porches and dressing rooms for sixteen boys. The (?) will be housed in the main part of the building. …

Mary is invited to visit and “see the plans before the thing gets started.” The building is estimated to cost $8,000; Mr. [Joseph Smith] Duncan donated $5,000 and may be sending the remainder. She mentions that her mother, who had “kidney poisoning” at Christmas “was carried over the mountain just a week ago, and is now at Dr. Carroll’s sanitarium in Asheville.”
[001a] Tells about Luigi’s (Luigi Zande) improvements to the road, from the tool-house to the bottom; Angela’s (Angela Melville ) leaving for a speaking trip; and a mention of Berto (Ethel and Luigi Zande’s son).
Postscript: “…[W]e are in three upper rooms of the schoolhouse, and just delighted with it. The steamfitters are finishing up the rest as fast as they can. Water is connected, and coat-hooks are up, and steps and doors in place, so we feel very much finished.”

002 MISSING IMAGE

003 February 3, 1920. To Mary in Kansas City, Mo., from (unsigned, likely Zande). “The plans were good and Luigi is retained.” Tells about leaving for her campaigning trip to Chicago and Angela’s to New York; receiving a donation from Miss Bartstow’s school; PMSS’s need for money to buy an electric light plant and for the girls’ and nurse’s houses. Mentions that her mother has anemia; plans to visit her and Helen (Ethel’s sister). “Alice Andrews is coming to take care of Berto.”

004-004a March 20, 1920. Two-page letter to Mary from EZ (Zande), who is sending Outlook and Survey articles and some photos to help with her talk; enclosing a recent PMSS Notes article and financial statement. Zande provides ideas for her talk: annual subscribers, the Doctor, Marguerite Butler’s Extension work (at Line Fork Settlement), Miss Storer at Big Laurel (Medical Settlement), the need for $800 to build a one-room house for Extension workers. Zande hopes to raise money for a new project: “a plan for a home for tiny, motherless children, too small to take into our regular families.” Tells about turning away fathers who bring motherless children to the School and wonders how to get the right staff and cows for the “babes.” Mentions Miss (Celia) Cathcart, who is replacing Miss (Evelyn) Wells. Berto had his first birthday this week.

005 MISSING IMAGE

April – July 1920

006 April 21, 1920. To Mary from EZ (Zande). “I went to May and Leon Deschamps’s wedding at Viper and broke three ribs because [of] a new saddle….” Tells of Angela Melville’s interest in starting work under the D.A.R. in the Ozarks; Angela is currently at Neighborhood House in Louisville and doing fundraising for PMSS’s extension work and endowment. Hopes Mary’s sister Bertha will visit and stay at Open House; encourages Mary to visit in the summer. “I want you to see the ‘Med. Set’ (Medical Settlement) now that it is a fairly finished product.”

007 May 13, 1920. To Mary from EZ (Zande), who agrees to write a testimonial for Mary; hopes Mary can go to France. She will try to arrange for a cottage for Guiliana and hopes she will play with Berto. Mentions Bertha at Open House, Mrs. Paiste’s upcoming visit.

008 June 25, 1920. To “My dear Mary” (Miss Mary Rockwell) from (unsigned, possibly Katherine Pettit), who missed Mary when her family (sister Bertha and Mrs. Ostertag?) were visiting the School and staying at Open House. An exhibition is planned for Bertha’s photos. Mentions Sue Huntingdon and asks about Miss Ruth Huntington. Asks help in supplying hot water for Big Log. “Ethel and Mr. Zande don’t seem to be able to help me out on this.”

BR 1920 July 9,1920. One-page memo to Mary Hook from Katherine Pettit commenting on the indoor baseball equipment sent from Mr. Hook for Boy’s House Playroom due for completion in September.

009-010 July 29, 1920. Two-page letter to “Miss (Mary) Rockwell” from KP (Katherine Pettit), who thanks Mary for her July 5th letter ‘telling me all about what your Susan had been doing in regard to Caney Creek.” Pettit expresses her wish that Mary could be at Line Fork, getting windows for the log house “where my niece and Miss (Isabel) McLennan are living.” Mrs. Fields, the trustee, still needs a teacher; she and Miss Butler took her a wagon-load of supplies. Mentions gifts that community folks, including Nance Holbrook and Bert Smith, brought for the school.

Don’t you think it is just our plan of work and play and supervision that makes our children different from the rest outside? We do very intensive work with the children and that is why we get these results. If people who are training children outside weren’t so interested in selfish pleasure, plays, high-heeled shoes, powdering their noses and so forth, maybe they could get more interested in development of children’s character and manners.

Pettit describes the “workings on Line Fork for the new house.” Mentions receiving wedding cards from former student Josiah Combs, now in France during the war. Pettit describes the work at PMSS that Marguerite Butler has been doing. Asks for Emily to forward Mary’s letters so PMSS staff can read them. Angela Melville raised $4,000 in four weeks for the endowment fund. Pettit sends her love to Mrs. Ostertag and Mary’s sister, whom she misses since their stay at Open House.