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9
<br /> NPS Form 10-900-a OMB Approval No.1024-0018
<br /> (8-86)
<br /> United States Department of the Interior
<br /> National Park Service
<br /> National Register of Historic Places
<br /> Continuation Sheet
<br /> Section number 8 Page 11 North Carolina Industrial Home for Colored Girls
<br /> Orange County,NC
<br /> wheat, cotton, and Irish potatoes. No livestock are listed, but within a year pigs, chickens, and dairy
<br /> cows provided meat, eggs, milk, butter, and cheese.16
<br /> North Carolina's juvenile court system had placed twelve young women at the reformatory by 1926.
<br /> Under matron Mary E. Hill's direction, the NCIHCG served thirty juveniles between July 1, 1926, and
<br /> June 30, 1928. During that time, one youth was released to a"working home,"two to hospitals,three
<br /> to relatives, and seven ran away, leaving seventeen on site. Occupancy typically exceeded the
<br /> reformatory's fifteen-person capacity. Residency remained about the same over the course of 1928-
<br /> 1929, when fifteen girls were paroled and eleven discharged to working homes. Hill was well-
<br /> qualified for her position, as she had previously held a relief matron position at the Virginia Industrial
<br /> Home for Colored Girls. However,budget limitations and minimal staffing hampered her efforts.17
<br /> During the 1928-1929 reporting period,the girls attended classes led by assistant matron Margaret
<br /> Cromwell,who was not a professionally trained teacher. She earned forty dollars per month.
<br /> Residents cultivated ten acres and twenty-four fruit trees and tended a mule,two cows,two pigs, four
<br /> hogs, and one hundred chickens. The farm's production reduced the reformatory's operational cost,
<br /> which was estimated to be approximately$598.60 per child in 1928 but dropped to $182.50 per
<br /> resident in 1929. Recreational activities included playing basketball, croquet, and jumping rope. The
<br /> girls and staff attended Sunday worship services and prayer meetings at a local church. Mebane
<br /> physician Thomas David Tyson made house calls as needed.'$
<br /> NCFCWC continued to pursue state financing and management, but was not successful. However,the
<br /> organization secured a$2,000 appropriation from the state in 1927. Thereafter,yearly subsidies
<br /> fluctuated from $1,375 to $2,000 between 1928 and early 1939. Annual operating expenses ranged
<br /> from about$3,600 to $8,000.'9
<br /> NCIHCG was one of only ten comparable institutions for African American girls throughout the
<br /> United States in 1930. Most had been founded in the twentieth century's first decades and served as
<br /> models for Charlotte Hawkins Brown and other NCFCWC leaders as they planned NCIHCG. Private
<br /> entities operated the Dorcas Home (1914) in Houston, Texas; Fairwold Industrial School for Colored
<br /> Girls (1919) in Columbia, South Carolina; Girls' Rescue Home (1921) in Mt. Meigs,Alabama; and
<br /> Florida Industrial Home for Colored Girls (1921) in Ocala. The Industrial Home for Colored Girls
<br /> 16 North Carolina Department of Agriculture,Statistics Division,Farm Census Reports, 1925,Box 24(Onslow-
<br /> Pasquotank Counties),North Carolina State Archives,Raleigh.
<br /> 17 NCSBCPW,Biennial Report of the NCSBCPW, 1925-1926, 120-121;"Annual Reports,NCIHCG, 1928 and
<br /> 1929,"NCSBPWI,Box 163;Virginia Industrial Home for Colored Girls,Fifth Annual Report of the Industrial Home for
<br /> Colored Girls, 1920.
<br /> 18"Annual Reports,NCIHCG, 1928 and 1929,"NCSBPWI,Box 163.
<br /> 19 Ibid.
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