Kingsley Association

It has also expanded to operate the Lillian Taylor Camp, an open air farm in Valencia, Pennsylvania, and the Morgan Memorial House in the Hill District of Pittsburgh.

The Kingsley Association seeks to create new and innovative neighborhood-based programs in accordance with the changing needs of residents, with particular attention to young people.

[1] The Kingsley Association was formed by the Reverend Dr. George Hodges (theologian) from Cambridge, Massachusetts as a Pittsburgh settlement house.

Thus, the Morgan Memorial House tended to concentrate its classes and activities more along the lines of adapting these children to city life.

The surrounding area consisted mostly of factory workers that was predominantly Irish American, but in time came to include German, Russian, and Austrian Poles.

A little farther were large settlements of Jewish and German immigrants with people of English and Scots-Irish descent present as well.

The businesses in major cities had been experiencing a labor shortage because of World War I and they looked to African Americans to fill the gap.

To create interest in the neighborhood, the Kingsley Association at first relied on word of mouth, but to increase their membership even further they soon moved to several media outlets, including radio, newspapers, magazines, and brochures.

Well the radio might have one tube or none at all, and there might be so many noisy younger children in the few rooms you called "home" that you couldn't hear you own thoughts... "What would I do?"

The activities offered by the Association were changed to accommodate the times, some of these new programs included Meet-the-Athlete, SAT Prep, Explorers, and Study Skills.

First located on Penn Avenue, in 1901 house operations were transferred to a mansion purchased by industrialist Henry Clay Frick.

A rapid growth of the African American population in 1919 led to the opening of the Morgan Memorial House in the Hill District.