Mattie Rhodes Counseling and Art Center Clinical Director Anna Maria
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Past Dan Kelly | dkelly@kcstar.com
Born 150 years ago in what was still officially the City of Kansas, Mattie Rhodes lived a quiet life that ended before she could accomplish anything that grabbed headlines. Even so her name resonates today.
The Mattie Rhodes Center serves thousands of individuals and families every yr through social services, behavioral health counseling and the arts. Amidst other things, the eye offers programs on substance corruption and mental health, domestic-violence intervention, youth-development programs and art classes.
Reader Susan Pepperdine, no incertitude similar many others in the area, wondered who Mattie Rhodes was. Pepperdine asked "What's Your KCQ?", The Star's ongoing serial with the Kansas City Public Library that answers readers' queries virtually our region:
What's the true story behind the Mattie Rhodes Center? I heard it was founded later on its namesake was struck down by disease at a young historic period. With the current pandemic, it'south timely to ask how much good has come from her legacy.
In essence, the Mattie Rhodes Eye exists because of one final, generous act past Mattie Rhodes herself.
She and 9 other female friends had formed a church building group in 1890 dedicated to helping less-fortunate children. Calling themselves the Little Gleaners, they maintained a bed at Children's Hospital with funds they raised by selling aprons for 25 cents and potholders for 7 cents.
Mattie died of typhoid fever at the age of 19 on Oct. one, 1890, and was buried in Elmwood Cemetery. She left $500 for the Little Gleaners to farther their work assisting needy children.
They honored Mattie's wish past founding the Mattie Rhodes Memorial Society and starting the start gratis kindergarten in Kansas City. Over the by 125 years, it has evolved into i of the surface area's most wide-ranging nonprofit operations.
Clearly, there has been a big return on Mattie Rhodes' initial gift.
But where did the 19-twelvemonth-onetime get that $500, roughly equivalent to $14,000 today?
"Information technology's not very articulate," said Angela Cecena Brunner, the Mattie Rhodes Heart'south managing director of development and communications. "I heard information technology was her inheritance, considering the family unit was pretty well off. So this would take been where she wanted her inheritance to get."
Help From Chicago
The Mattie Rhodes Memorial Society, which by 1894 had grown to 17 females, also received early on help from two prominent women.
First they consulted Jane Addams, a social worker and reformer who was widely recognized for having founded Hull House in a poor Chicago neighborhood and who in 1931 would get the outset American adult female to win the Nobel Peace Prize. The gratuitous kindergarten was her thought.
And then the young women saw that the popular extra Julia Marlowe, known for her interpretations of Shakespeare, was bringing a show to the Coates Opera House. Marlowe, a typhoid survivor who would later appear in more than 70 Broadway productions, agreed to do a benefit performance of "The Belle's Stratagem."
"There were 1,460 or more women and peradventure a dozen men within the firm," said an article in The Star on Oct. xviii, 1894. "The tickets sold for fifty cents each." The net was another $600 for the Mattie Rhodes Memorial Society.
The entire effort was one of women helping women at a time when a male-dominated society considered them second-course citizens.
The society filed incorporation papers in 1896, with a charter stating that the Mattie Rhodes mission would exist "a home where the young children of working mothers may be cared and provided for, instructed and entertained, during the hours of the day when such mothers are at work."
The day nursery and kindergarten opened in the city'south West Side at 1818 Woodland Ave. in Jan 1896. The Star said the new operation cared for 506 children in just May of that year.
"The thought was anyone could come to this nursery, whether they could pay or not," Brunner said.
The center moved several times before settling at 1734 Jefferson St. in 1916. Fifty years later, a new building was built next door at 1740 Jefferson, which remained in employ until 2019.
Mattie Rhodes Today
Now the only bilingual/bicultural, nationally accredited and land-certified behavioral health care provider in the region, the Mattie Rhodes Eye has greatly expanded its services likewise as its facilities. In addition to headquarters in the Northeast at 148 N. Topping Ave., information technology operates an arts centre and fine art gallery on West 17th Street. Construction has recently begun on the Mattie Rhodes Cultural Center at 17th and Jarboe streets.
Throughout its long history, the goal has remained the aforementioned: providing assistance to people who need it.
When the center historic its centennial in 1994, The Star quoted several of those people.
"Mattie Rhodes was our refuge and please," said a woman who had attended dances and social activities at the center. "On reflection, it was a wonderful, safe place to be. And for most of u.s.a., information technology offered the just real stability in our lives."
A human wrote: "I credit Mattie Rhodes with keeping a tremendous number of youths on the straight and narrow."
Amongst them was Thomas Hayward, who spent many hours at the center during his youth. He went on to get a leading tenor for the Metropolitan Opera in New York during the 1940s and '50s, with leading roles in "Madama Butterfly," "La Traviata" and "Rigoletto." He also starred in a long-running NBC radio evidence, "Serenade to America."
Hayward, who died in 1995 at the historic period of 77, was known to drop by the Mattie Rhodes Center for visits when he returned to Kansas City.
Mattie Rhodes herself continues to play a part in the middle's activities. She was honored with an chantry at a Dia de los Muertos (Mean solar day of the Dead) celebration in contempo years, and Brunner said staff members share her story with the children.
"They comprise the spirit of giving and caring for others, because that was a large part of her life," Brunner said.
And an even bigger part of her death.
A Timeline
July 1, 1871: Mattie Florence Rhodes was born, the third child of John E. Rhodes and Catherine Dillman.
1890: The Petty Gleaners were formed. A grouping of 10 immature women from the Central Presbyterian Church, they volunteered to upkeep a bed at the Children'southward Infirmary on Broadway.
Oct. 1, 1890: Mattie Rhodes died of typhoid fever at age 19. She left $500 to the Lilliputian Gleaners.
1894: The Piffling Gleaners founded the Mattie Rhodes Memorial Gild with Mattie's $500.
January 1896: Mattie Rhodes Day Nursery (a twenty-four hour period nursery and kindergarten) opened at 1818 Woodland Ave.
1896: Later a few months, the Mattie Rhodes Day Nursery moved to 1809 Forest Ave.
1906: The Mattie Rhodes 24-hour interval Nursery moved to 2340 Prospect (now Jarboe).
1916:The Mattie Rhodes Day Nursery moved to 1734 Jefferson St. The Mattie Rhodes Memorial Society began to aid community members find jobs, food and shelter, and began to closely parallel social welfare programs.
1923: The kindergarten/day nursery closed considering of changes in the public school system and became the Mattie Rhodes Neighborhood Heart.
1950s:Mattie Rhodes hired a professional counseling staff. Activities such as crafts, cooking, dancing and games became common every bit well.
1966:Construction of a new edifice at 1740 Jefferson St. was completed.
1980s:In response to the growing Hispanic population in the West Side neighborhood, Mattie Rhodes began to offer programs in Spanish and English language, hiring bilingual therapists and case managers.
March 12, 1986: At the urging of the United Manner, the Mattie Rhodes Memorial Lodge merged with the Craft Learning Center. The proper name became the Mattie Rhodes Counseling and Art Centre. The Mattie Rhodes Fine art Center was established at 915 W. 17th St.
1999: The Mattie Rhodes Art Gallery was established next door at 919 W. 17th St.
2005: The bureau purchased a permanent facility in the Northeast at 148 North. Topping Ave.
2006: Mattie Rhodes Center moved into Kansas, providing therapeutic services in partnership with El Centro.
Baronial 2019: The 1740 Jefferson office in the West Side closed.
January 2021: Construction began on the Mattie Rhodes Cultural Center at 17th and Jarboe streets.
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