Lynn home for young women celebrates 100 years

LYNN – It has been 100 years but the Washington Square Home for Young Women on Broad Street is just as relevant today as it was when it was founded in 1912, and it looks better than new.”I think it’s almost more relevant now,” said board member Loretta Cuffe O’Donnell. “A lot of residents are seeking an education.”O’Donnell attended a ribbon cutting at the square Thursday where city and state officials, board members, residents and community members celebrated a renovation of the century-old buildings at 136 and 144 Broad St., which make up the home.View photos of the ribbon cutting.”When I walked in my first thought was ‘wow,'” said Mary Ellen Jutras, vice president of Housing & Community Investment with Federal Home Loan Banks. “I was here for the groundbreaking and it was dark. I can only imagine how the people living here must feel. This is a beautiful spot.”Jeanne McNulty has only lived in Washington Square for two weeks but she will freely tell you how she feels.”I’m sleeping,” she said. “I feel freedom.”McNulty applied for housing at Washington Square a year ago on the heels of a relationship gone wrong. She said she was surprised when she received a call earlier this month telling her there was an opening.”I forgot I applied,” she said. “But when I received that call it was a time when I really needed it.”At age 43, McNulty said she feels her life is just starting and is grateful for the support she gets at Washington Square.The Home for Young Women actually has its roots in the Young Women’s Christian Temperance Union. In the late 1800s, when the city’s industrial center began to flourish, May B. Goudy and Gertrude Mayo became worried about the welfare of young women moving into the city for work.From that movement, The Lynn Home for Young Women opened at 144 Broad St. in the fall of 1912. Later it would acquire 136 Broad.”I had the best room in 136,” said Edith William. “It was in the front right next to the bathroom.”Dressed elegantly in black and white with snow white hair Williams, who still lives in Lynn, remembered her days at Washington Square fondly. She said she came to Lynn from Maine, after her sister, who was already working at GE, got her a job as well.”I lived here until one rainy day when I came out the front door wearing my wedding dress and walked across the street to get married,” she said. “My room looked out on green grass and I spent my weekends writing letters to 23 servicemen during the war.”O’Donnell said the home, which is made up of single occupancy rooms, is still very much a transitional spot for women who might find themselves alone due to death, divorce, a relationship gone bad, financial troubles or any other of a dozen reasons.”I knew this place because my mother had friends that were here,” she said. “It’s a great place and the board is the best I’ve ever seen, and I’ve been on a lot of boards.”Calantha Sears served on the Board of Directors in the mid 1960s when Washington Square underwent its first renovation.Sears pointed out a handful of Hitchcock chairs, hand stenciled, straight back wooden seats and a large mirror that hung over the couch. She said those items along with the elevator were from the last renovation. She described the home prior to the renovation the same as Jutras.”It was dark, but this is incredible,” she said.”You can hardly recognize it,” said Edie Hunnewell, also a former board member. “It’s absolutely magnificent. They are making much better use of the space, and I love that.”Chris Stevens can be reached at [email protected].