100 years later, Paisley House stands firm on commitment

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Paisley House Executive Director Audean Patterson is on hand for the 100th celebration. Photo/Mark Stahl

By Elise Mckeown Skolnick

A group of women started a citywide fundraiser and got the money for the home.

YOUNGSTOWN — The year was 1909. Women moved from their father’s home to their husband’s home. They had few rights, and they couldn’t vote.

But that didn’t stop a group of Mahoning Valley women from completing a project they saw as a necessity.

Led by Mary Paisley, a small group of women that eventually became hundreds worked for more than a year to make the nonprofit Home for Aged Women a reality.

“This was a state-of-the art idea,” said Ruth Loar, president of Paisley House’s board of trustees. “It was a vision that they thought, ‘This is what we need.’”

The idea first took shape in March 1908, and a year later, the group of women formed a board of trustees and incorporated as the Home of Aged Women.

But they had no land or building and little money for either.

They soon purchased a 150-foot section of land on Mahoning Avenue from the Powers estate at $20 a foot. Then they began raising money in earnest, so they could build the home they imagined.

The group raised money in various creative ways. They formed chapters such as West Side, South Side and Boardman to help raise funds. The members of these chapters had bake sales, cake sales and dinners. Donations of 10 cents and 25 cents at a time weren’t uncommon.

A fundraiser that brought $10, $15 or $25 was a huge success.

The Vindicator Co. printed paper bricks to symbolize the bricks that would form the building, and the women sold them for 10 cents.

In a unique fundraiser, they had a 10-foot rubber ball made and rolled it down Federal Street while a band played.

“They were soliciting businesses and people just out and about walking in the city,” Loar said. “And their theme was ‘keep the ball rolling.’”

In a year, they had the $15,000 needed to build the home. The first residents moved in Dec. 1, 1910. An early photo indicates 18 women lived there at that time.

For the first year, residents paid $300 for lifetime care and funeral costs. If they were at least 65 and lived in Mahoning County, that $300 and a year’s supply of clothes, including a black burial dress, got them a room in the Home for Aged Women. Nonresidents paid an additional $5-a-month fee for two years. A year later, the price was raised to $600, but it wasn’t until the 1950s that the fee structure changed again.

The name was changed to Paisley House in 1966 to honor the first board president and woman who spearheaded the project, Mary Paisley, Loar said.

Now, 100 years later, the brick building still stands at 1408 Mahoning Ave. Male residents are accepted as well as female. Men occupy the third floor, women the lower two. It can accommodate 21. There is a waiting list for a room. A staff of 30 maintains the home and cares for the residents. The fee is $1,550 per month for women and $1,850 for men. The fee includes room and board.

However, endowments, grants and donations enable the board of trustees to provide $4,000 worth of monthly care to residents, Loar said.

A 100th-anniversary celebration is planned for Sunday. The event is open to the public. Refreshments and tours of the building will be offered.