Advancing the Kingdom

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of Kingdom House in 1928:
The first impression of the casual visitor
to the Kingdom House, 1033 South Eighth,
is the atmosphere of informality and youth
that pervades the place. The battered old
brick buildings in which the institution is
housed have a homey air.
One feels that here people and
particularly children have lived and made
merry. From the shattered wooden fence in
front to the place on the wall of the reception
room where a basket-ball has knocked off
some of the plaster, everything shrieks of
childhood’s pleasures and pains.
Who has never slid down banisters and
loved it? The railings of the big substantial
stairways inside show scars of many a slide.
What boy has never carved his initials with
a precious pocket-knife on a handy piece of
wood-work? The entrance carries marks of
a score of pocket-knives.
It is essentially a place to be lived in.
There is no finery there: but a great deal of
happiness and a sense of space to move and
to breathe. There are two buildings, ancient
time-worn mansions with big rooms and
high ceilings reminiscent of a by-gone day.
And around and about it, children – children
here, children there, children inside, children
outside, children singing and banging
away on the piano. It is a veritable house
of children. Here youth
comes into its own; here
it is free to enjoy itself. ‘A
boy’s will is the wind’s
will’, and Kingdom
House shows scars of
innumerable boyish
tornadoes.
The visitor enters
the office, a business-
like place, but the
surroundings are
anything but business-
like. In an adjoining
room a girls’ sewing class
is going on, with screams
of laughter punctuating a
constant flow of chatter.
Across the hall a
story hour is in progress
and Cinderella and
Red Riding Hood are
holding forth as they
always have and always
will where children
foregather. Upstairs is
the day nursery, where a
large number of children
of working mothers are
cared for.
That is not all!
Of course in a place so
popular
with the younger set, one
would naturally expect good
things to eat. One is not
disappointed.
Every Thursday morning the
women of the neighborhood
gather to make doughnuts.
And such doughnuts! Jove
himself never tasted anything
half so toothsome. The
women have tried selling
them to the workers in the
neighboring factories. The
experiment proved a success,
and the advent of the doughnut-makers is
hailed with delight. There is no difficulty in
disposing of the doughnuts; the difficulty is
to make enough.
Who would suspect that there was any
romance in a lowly doughnut? Luscious they
may be, romantic never! But these Kingdom
House doughnuts are not the common
garden variety. One of the neighborhood
girls came one morning, all unsuspecting,
to sell doughnuts in the factories. Now
surely Dan Cupid was lurking in that pan
of doughnuts, for she came – sold – and
conquered. In plainer language she was
25
Chapter Two: ‘Forgetting One’s Self in Service to Humanity’ (1928 – 1955)
P hotos:
A: Children lining up in the
Kingdom House yard for the
nurse, circa 1928
B: Children on the front
steps of Kingdom House,
circa 1928
C: Kingdom House children,
circa early 1930s
A
B
C
And such doughnuts!
Jove himself never
tasted anything half
so toothsome.