Kalamazoo Infant Welfare Station No.1

“Keep the well babies well”

As you pass the intersection of Gull Road and East North Street today, you’ll likely notice a nicely groomed green space known as Harrison Park. A little over a century ago, that same triangle of land was occupied by a small but important piece of Kalamazoo’s wellbeing, the Kalamazoo Infant Welfare Station No.1.

Kalamazoo Child Welfare League

By 1913 there was concern in the Kalamazoo community over the growing problem of infant mortality. That’s when the Kalamazoo Child Welfare League was formed for the “betterment of the welfare of our children, our homes, our city and the conservation of our future citizens” (Gazette). Some one hundred fifty members came together each month to discuss the importance of children’s food, clothing, behavior, and other such challenges of childrearing. One of the group’s first major projects was to establish Kalamazoo’s first permanent Infant Welfare Station.

The Kalamazoo Infant Welfare Station No.1 was designed to provide educational resources for new and economically challenged parents and their families, especially during the strenuous times of war, through well baby visits. It was modeled after a similar program in Chicago with the chief goal of reducing the infant death rate in Kalamazoo. “Keep the well babies well” was their motto.

The station was located at the intersection of Gull Road and East North Street. The lot at the time was provided lease-free by the Michigan Railway Company, which made it unique among similar such stations in other cities by allowing it to function on a small budget. Scores of local companies and individuals donated time and materials to make the station a reality.

The building itself was small, a single room with a stucco exterior designed by Kalamazoo architect Rockwell A. LeRoy – a room “so comfortable and cozy that mothers [would] love to bring their babies there” (Gazette). Construction began in June 1916, and the station opened for service on August 29.

Eventually, at least three other such stations were opened elsewhere around the city. Infant Welfare Station No. 2 opened temporarily in a room at the Lake Street School in June 1917, then moved to a storefront at the corner of Lake and Portage streets when school opened in the fall. Susanne Bauer was the nurse in charge there. By the mid-1920s, the program had proven so successful that there were four Infant Welfare Stations in operation by then on North Westnedge, Gull Road, 3rd Street, and South Burdick.

“Keep the well babies well”

The station was not designed to provide medical care. Instead, parents received instruction on how to feed, clothe, bathe, and otherwise care for their infant children. The first nurse to oversee the station was Eva Louise Doniat, a nurse with considerable experience working with the Infant Welfare Society of Chicago.

Two mornings each week, typically Tuesdays and Saturdays, mothers were permitted to bring their infants to the station for examination and a conference with a local doctor. Other days, Doniat would conduct in-home visits to provide hands-on training about proper childcare. “There is nothing I have done that has brought me any more satisfaction than caring for these little ones,” Doniat told a Gazette reporter, “who in the two years I have had supervision over them grow to seem like my own. It is a very lovely work”

During the years that followed, the station served more than 200 families each year. The building also hosted events such as adult education classes, a weekly children’s story hour facilitated by the Kalamazoo Public Library, and it served for many years as a First Ward polling place for Kalamazoo’s city elections.

The Infant Welfare Station remained under the control of the Child Welfare League through the 1940s. In 1952, ownership was transferred to the City of Kalamazoo and extensive repairs were made, but its use as a clinic ceased soon after. During the 1960s and 1970s, the building was used as a church, then later by the City’s Community Relations Department. The building was demolished in 1979 to make way for the current city park.

Written by Keith Howard, Kalamazoo Public Library staff, September 2022. Revised September 2023.