Mary Scribner Weddle – born in 1919. In 1930, after her mother was diagnosed with tuberculosis and was sent to Olive View treatment center, the Health Department visited the family – her father and a brother and 4 sisters. All except Mary were found to be in good health. Although she didn’t have TB, she was felt to be “undernourished” and at age 11 (6th grade) was admitted to Rockhaven House – a Preventorium for girls ages 4-16 who were ill or under nourished and unable to attend school. She was there until late summer of the following year when she was released and return to public school to begin Junior High.
Rockhaven was Soroptimist International of Long Beach’s first service project, which began in 1925. They wasted no time becoming involved with helping women and girls, having only been chartered one year as the eighth club chartered in the world. There were 48 club members who met at the old Virginia Hotel. The club partnered with two other service clubs at first, but later when the Depression deepened they dropped out and Soroptimist of Long Beach carried on with supporting the home and the girls.
The house was located at Orange and 7th Street – a large stone Craftsman style home which housed an estimated dozen young girls until 1933 when the Long Beach earthquake damaged the building to the point it was uninhabitable. Of the remaining girls, three were sent to a San Diego Sanitarium and others girls were released to their families. It had been in service for eight years, housed 114 children and cost approximately $45,000.
A group photo on the porch steps shows a dozen girls smiling at the camera. The back row are all girls in their bloomer sun suits. All are smiling and none look particularly “undernourished,” though Mary appears to be one of the smaller girls.
Mary remembers one friend from that experience, Eva Lamphir. There is a photo of them in their bloomer suits at the beach, and later pictured together approximately 60 years later together at when Mary visited eva at Leisure World. A teacher was provided to teach all the girls in one class – it was a short day. Once the teacher invited Mary and Eva to her apartment to have lunch and visit the nearby beach. There were two nurses on staff who tended to the children’s health. Mary vividly remembers “Each day we were dosed with a tablespoon of maltine Cod Liver Oil.”
There was a cook at Rockhaven who made all their meals. On Easter, Mary remembers they got lots of chocolate rabbits and the cook melted them and made them a special treat.
It didn’t seem like a hospital and the girls were not unhappy or suffering. Mary accepted the fact of being there, as children often do when change occurs. But, when she had her one visit home on Mother’s Day she cried and cried at having to return. Mary remembers being “sad, sad, sad.”
Mary became an RN and worked in various hospitals, later at a local convalescent hospital. Mary is now almost 91 years old and lives with her husband of 54 years, John, a retired worker for Shell Oil. They live in their tidy Long Beach home. She bought the two-year old home in 1954 from the builder, local developer Mr. Whaley. He had built it for his brother and it has several special features that the other homes in the tract do not have. They are both spry and cheerful and truly charming to meet.
- Louise Cunningham
