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ORPHANAGE

 

Story

Founded in 1880 as the Los Angeles Orphans Home Society by Mrs Frank Gibson, a school teacher and Mrs Dan Stephens, a philantropist. The original site was a house of Fort Street, between 5th and 6th. 

The second site was an eight acre plot on Figueroa Street. It moved again to a two-story building on the northwest corner of Yale and Virgin street (later Alpine Street). 

In 1888, a new 3-story brick building designed by Keyser, Morgan and Wells replaced the existing building. 

In 1910 Mr Charles M. Stimson donated the 5 acres at 615 North El Centro for the orphanage's last reincarnation. The architects Parkinson & Bergstrom designed an orphanage based on cottages rather than a single institutional structure. 

In 1956 it was rebuilt and renamed the Hollygrove Children and Family Services in 1957

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Pictures at 615 North El Centro

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Link with Marilyn

Norma Jeane was placed there on September 13, 1935, under number 3463; Grace McKee took her there.

That was the process to follow so Grace could obtain Norma Jeane's guardianship, which became official on March 27, 1936.

After a year at the orphanage, Grace took Norma Jeane out in October 1936.

documents  ;

 

The different sources (including Marilyn's one) give very different descriptions of the orphanage, from an institution in the Dickens style where the horror reigned to an institution particularly well kept for the time. 
The building itself was a big red brick house, comfortable and spacious, which dated from the colonial era.

Behind the building, 2 hectares of land spread, where the children played each afternoons. There were swings, teeter-totters, parrallel bars, sandbox and a pool.
Inside, there was a big playroom with a radio, a gramophone, toys and games. There was also an auditorium with a stage. The children played in plays and musicals; there are no trace that Norma Jeane would have played in one of them.
 

Some of the boarders still had their parents : in the 20's, a well third of them were runaway children, or street children "forgotten" by poor people or immigrants unable to feed a descendance they hadn't always wanted.

In the 30's, the poor parents could ask for a temporary housing for their children. Those ones, as Norma Jeane, were "temporary" occupants or "students".

The girls and the boys occupied separate wings of the building. They lived in clean and tidy rooms they shared with 4, 5 or 6 of their comrades.

Norma Jeane's room overlooked the water tower of the RKO studios.

The boys and girls shared the scheduled activities, the meals and they all attended the public school, not far from the orphanage, the Vine Street School.

The day began at 6.00 AM and the children put their rooms away, before going down for the breakfast. 

Some employees crews took care of the meals and of the cleaning of the institute, but, to develop their sense of responsability, the children received 5 or 10 cents a week in exchange for housework, allocated according to the age and the physical condition of everyone.

The leaders of the orphanage, while encouraging the children to attend the Sunday Mass, didn't lay down any religious rule.

During her stay, she attended the Vine Street School, she had already attended when she lived with the Bolender. The "normal" pupils called Norma Jeane and her comrades the "kids from the orphanage". 
She learned swimming during her stay and belonged to the soft-ball team.

In her file, in 1935 appeared : "Girl healthy and normal, with good appetite and unifrom sleep. She seems happy, doesn't complain and even says she loves her classroom".

At the beginning of the year 1937, the head Mrs Dewey (,) wrote down in her file : "If she is not approached in a reassuring and patient way (..), she looks terrified. I recommend to place her in a protective family".
 

The biographers tell that Mrs Dewey went as far as adapting the orphanage rules to Norma Jeane needs. 
She allowed her to settle in her office to put some make-up on her, which Marilyn would later rememeber with emotion. She didn't tell her off when she came back late a Saturday evening, covered by a coating of cosmetics.

 

Marilyn told later that during her stay, she had found refuge in an imaginary world.

 

Ten years after her leaving, Mrs Dewey wrote down in her file : "Norma Jeane Baker wins a certain success in cinema and promises to become a star. She is so beautiful and has taken as actress name Marilyn Monroe".

 

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