Mrs. Cleveland a Patroness

She Will Attend an Entertainment for the Colored Girls Home.
The Washington Post, Monday February 3, 1896

Washington, D.C. — Mrs. Cleveland has consented to be present at the Metropolitan African Methodist Episcopal Church, colored, on the evening of the 15th as a patroness of an entertainment to be given in aid of the Home for Friendless Colored Girls. This will be the first time that the Presidents wife has visited a colored church in this city since Mrs. Lucy Webb Hayes attended a concert by Mme. Selika, given in aid of the St. Lukes Protestant Episcopal Church.

The entertainment, which will be graced by Mrs. Clevelands presence, will be given under the auspices of the Womans Christian Union, which has the Home for Friendless Colored Girls under its management, and Mrs. Cleveland has for some time manifested a friendly interest in the institution, and has given to it cordial support, besides having it brought to the attention of her mother, Mrs. Perrine, Mrs. William Morrison, Mrs. Gen. Schofield, Mrs. Secretary Lamont, and others of her intimate friends.

The home has proved to be an institution for much good among the colored people here, and its officers include some of the best known colored citizens of the District. The institution was founded almost a decade ago by the Womans Christian Union, and has given shelter and aid to many colored girls who might otherwise have found their way to the work house or jail. The work of the institution is conducted by a board of directors, of which there are eleven members. The present officers are: Mrs. Caroline Taylor, 1152 Sixteenth street, President; Miss L. M. Watson, 1150 Twenty-first street, Secretary, and Mrs. William Syphax, Seventeenth and P streets, Treasurer.

The home was first opened in a six-room dwelling on O street, between Sixth and Seventh streets, where it remained for about eighteen months, when it was moved to its present quarters, in Erie street, on Meridian Hill. It has taken in and cared for, since its organization, more than a hundred inmates, some of whom have been provided with homes. Several have died, and others have been returned to their relatives. There are at present sixteen inmates of the home.

It was during last winter that the home was by accident brought to the notice of Mrs. Cleveland, and it immediately enlisted her sympathies.

By the death of Miss Maria T. Stoddard, who was a long friend of the home, the officials now come into possession of a building site, upon which they are desirous of erecting a spacious building. In order to secure in part the funds necessary for the commencement of the new home a series of entertainments is to be given in the colored churches of this city, the first to be at the Metropolitan A. M. E. Church, on M street, between Fifteenth and Sixteenth streets. Those who have volunteered their services are Mrs. Leiela Brooks, of St. Marys Mission; Miss Lulu Homer, of Plymouth Congregational Church; Messrs. Elkins and Harris, of St. Lukes and St. Marys, barytones [sic]; the mixed quartet of St. Lukes, the male quartet of the Berean Baptist Church, the Orphans and Amphion glee clubs, the Howard University Mandolin and Glee Club, the Metropolitan and other choirs.