Tau Beta Community House - Hamtramck, MI - American Guide Series on Waymarking.com

98. The TAU BETA COMMUNITY HOUSE (open by appointment, 9 A.M.-10 P.M. daily), 3056 Hanley Ave., opened in 1928 as the main unity of the Tau Beta Community Center, is a two-story half-timbered structure designed by Smith, Hinchman and Grylls. The building is headquarters for for the many activities of the center, chief of which are classes in music, fine and commercial art, dramatics, folk and modern dancing, homemaking, and general crafts, as well as such departmental services as social and athletic clubs, the operation of a day nursery, a summer camp, a summer pay-school, and a social service center. The scope of interests partly indicates the prominent role the center has performed in the Americanization of Hamtramck's large polyglot population.
The main section of the first floor in the community house is an auditorium equipped with a stage and. motion-picture apparatus. The second floor contains a model apartment, cooking and sewing rooms, two clubrooms, and a classroom for art and music study. In the basement are a gymnasium, a crafts room for pottery making, and the offices of the Visiting Nurses Association. The community house serves, incidentally, a s a teaching center of Wayne University.
When members of the Tau Beta Association became aware, in 1916, of the need for a settlement house in Hamtramck, they stationed a visiting housekeeper and traveling nurse in a five-room flat near the present center. The first house-staff consisted of a nurse and recreational director. In 1920, a two-story stucco structure was built across the street from the present community house. It served as headquarters for eight years and now houses the day nursery, the library-which in 1924 was taken over the the city and renamed the Hamtramck Public Library-the Council of Social Agencies offices, and classes in woodcraft and auto mechanics. Adjoining the main building is a cottage of complementary design, built in 1923 to house the staff, which now includes 7 full-time paid social workers and 13 part-time paid workers, in addition to 20 Tau Beta members and 12 nonmembers who donate their services.
Most of Tau Beta's activities are supported by the Detroit Community Fund. The summer camp, Hamtramck-Tau Beta Camp, at Columbiaville, Michigan, where children are kept for two-week periods either for a small fee or entirely free, is supported by funds supplied by other Hamtramck service groups, members of the Tau Beta Association, and private citizens. The summer play-school--conducted on the playfield, the community-house roof-garden, and in the house proper--accommodates 100 children between 5 and 10 years of age, and is maintained by a board member of the Tau Beta Association. The city of Hamtramck pays the deficit in the operation of the day nursery. Although the association began by attending only to the needs of the younger populace, its activities have proved of equal interest to adults. In 1938, the center had a combined attendance of 186,452. - Michigan: A Guide to the Wolverine State 1941

From the State of Michigan Historical Marker at the site:

"In 1901, four young women between the ages of fifteen and sixteen founded Tau Beta as a social club for girls. Within a few years, the club members became volunteers for the Visiting Nurse Association, delivering meals to shut-ins in Detroit and establishing a tuberculosis clinic. By 1916, Tau Beta had become a service organization and established a settlement house on Hanley Street to serve the influx of Polish immigrants who had come to work at the Dodge Main auto factory. Hamtramck residents visited the first Tau Beta settlement house for legal aid and medical services. The organization moved to a larger building just down the street in 1920. There it provided a daycare center, a playground, laundry services and Hamtramck’s first public library. Tau Beta hired the Detroit architectural firm Smith, Hinchman and Grylls to design this 1928 building. The much larger space allowed for full-time doctors at medical and dental clinics, a gymnasium, an auditorium and a full-sized kitchen. By the 1950s, an increase in Hamtramck social service providers had reduced the need for Tau Beta’s services. In 1958, the women focused their efforts on charity work outside of the community house and sold the building to the Immaculate Conception Ukrainian Catholic Church for use as a school. Various businesses occupied the house until 2017, when Hamtramck Public Schools purchased the property. The front entrance and modern exterior are not original to the 1928 structure, but the interior remains largely unchanged."

Book: Michigan Page Number(s) of Excerpt: 287-288 Year Originally Published: 1941

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