The Willows Maternity Sanitarium

The Willows Maternity Sanitarium

2929 Main Street Kansas City, Missouri 1924

"A seclusion maternity sanitarium operated exclusively for the care and protection of the better class of unfortunate young women."

   Over half of the states in the union contributed patients each year to The Willows Maternity Sanitarium. Many people felt that since it was located in Kansas City, Missouri that it was purely a Kansas City institution.
   On the contrary, it got almost no Kansas City patients. The patients were almost all from distant cities.
   The total number of states that had patients in The Willows in the calendar year of 1924 was 24 states.

Is it well worth noting that the train station was within walking distance of The Willows, and that Missouri was a central point of the united States and that young, unwed mothers came from all areas.

In the year of 1924 there were mothers from the following states:

MISSOURI - KANSAS - IOWA - ILLINOIS - NEBRASKA - OKLAHOMA - MINNESOTA - WISCONSIN - TEXAS - SOUTH DAKOTA - COLORADO - ARKANSAS - WEST VIRGINIA - NEW MEXICO - INDIANA - NORTH DAKOTA - OHIO - KENTUCKY - PENNSYLVANIA - NEW JERSEY - NEW YORK - LOUISIANA - VIRGINIA - TENNESSEE - WASHINGTON - ARIZONA.

It was noted that The Willows housed mothers as young as 12 (though certainly not the norm) and 20 % of the patients were in the age range of 15, 16 and 17. 90 % of all the patients were 15-27 years old.
At one time as many as 102 young women occupied the facility and as many as 125 babies were in the nursery, awaiting adoption. Some of the original staff included Dr. John W. Kepner, obstetrician from 1905 to 1931; Miss Hannah Dore, secretary; Miss Ada Jaggers, head nurse; Charles Laybourne, maintenance engineer, and Dr. Frank Neff, pediatrician.

At the closing and razing of the Willows in 1969, records of its 64 years of operation were piled in the back yard and burned. It was the end of an era.

The Willows 1905-1969

We gratefully acknowledge the following for their assistance and for the manuscript and pictures of The Willows Maternity Sanitarium: The Western Historical Manuscript Collection and University of Missouri/State Historical Society of Missouri

Please be patient as pictures load NEXT The Willows Maternity Sanitarium | Page 2-Pictures-Massage Room, Patients Room Page 3-Pictures- Confinement Chamber, Nurses Page 4-The Nursery, The Outside Nursery, The Children In Conclusion/Notes Back to the Black Market Adoptees Registry Address comments or questions to: prairiebaby@hotmail.com