Grandmother's House

Grandmother's House

Bedroom at Grandmother's House

Location: 188 Euston, Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island, Canada

Opened: 2004

Closed: Spring 2012

It's so ridiculous when men's rights activists (MRAs) complain that women's spaces are privileged over men's spaces. Get down and look at the real track record. It's not true. In fact, it's a total misrepresentation of the truth.

Grandmother's House was THE ONLY homeless shelter for aboriginal and non-aboriginal women on Prince Edward Island. And yet it closed last year for lack of money. This despite the fact that they were providing nearly 1,500 bednights a year.

We're told the Native Council "couldn't find" $80,000 to keep it open. The province claims they never received a funding request, which I find dubious. In fact, even the Native Council claims they're basically lying.

Meanwhile, the province had no problem finding (and coughing up) $50,000 to keep the men's shelter open. The Salvation Army (a notoriously homophobic/anti-woman organization) runs the men's shelter. Their representative makes noise here about opening something for women "some day" (never?). Meanwhile, the Native Council hopes to offer assistance to women like directing them to a food bank. Oh super. Handing out cans of beans should work out just great when the temperatures drop into the freezing range.

P.E.I.'s only women's shelter won't reopen

Grandmother's House in Charlottetown needs $80K to run
CBC News

Posted: Nov 30, 2012 8:10 AM AT
Last Updated: Nov 30, 2012 4:48 PM AT

Grandmother's House

P.E.I.'s only women's homeless shelter closed in the spring and won't reopen, because of a lack of money.

For eight years, Grandmother's House in Charlottetown was the province's only shelter for women .

Most nights it was full.

But in April, the Native Council of P.E.I. closed the facility because it couldn't find the $80,000 it needed to run the eight-bed facility, with one staff member. The Native Council of P.E.I., couldn't find the money it needed to run the shelter, says Jamie Locke. (CBC)

"We looked everywhere. If there was a proposal to be written, we wrote one. And unfortunately, you know, there's a lot of people that compete for money for different projects and we couldn't find that steady source of income," said Jamie Thomas, council chief.

The province didn't receive any requests for money to keep the shelter open, Community Services Minister Valerie Docherty said.

Council to offer other support

"I would like to see any interested group out there, non-profit organization, whatever interested party might be, if they feel there is a need for this, to come to us and partner with us just as we do with the Bedford MacDonald House," Docherty said.

However, in a statement sent to CBC News Friday, the Native Council of P.E.I. said it did meet with Docherty in January, but was told the province was unable to provide funds.

"Any discussion on submitting a proposald was ended," said Thomas. Community Services Minister Valerie Docherty says the province didn't receive requests to keep Grandmother's House open. (CBC)

She added the council would now like to accept the minister's offer to partner on the project.

Meanwhile, The province provided Bedford MacDonald House — Charlottetown's only men's homeless shelter — with close to $50,000.

The Salvation Army plans to reopen the seven-bed facility in two weeks.

Capt. Jamie Locke hopes, with enough money, they can help make a women's shelter a reality some day.

"We know that great things can happen in a short period of time. So we remain open to that conversation and the possibilities of how we might be able to assist in those areas of a shelter," said Locke.

Although the Native Council can't provide shelter, they said they will offer homeless women other support, such as helping them find the food bank or getting a job.

Robinson Female Seminary

Domestic Science Class at
Robinson Female Seminary (circa 1904)

Robinson Female Seminary

Located: Exeter, New Hampshire, USA

Opened: 1867

Closed: 1954

Robinson Female Seminary was one of those educational experiments for women that started with the best of intentions. At first it provided a great alternative for middle-class girls whose families could not afford the elite Exeter Female Academy, but were "deterred" by the "crowded classrooms" and "coed environment" (i.e. male domination) of the town high school. It emphasized academic rigor in safe, stimulating, female-only environent.

It was not to last. Within a short 25 years, academic rigor was sacrificed to a curriculum emphasizing the "domestic sciences"--i.e. skills that directly supported the care and feeding of men.

From Seacoastonline:
 

When Exeter's Robinson Female Seminary was created in 1867, it was intended to be an academic school similar to Phillips Exeter Academy. William Robinson's will, which funded the teachers, stated; "In my poor opinion there is altogether too much partaking of the fancy in the education that females obtain, and I would most respectfully suggest such a course of instruction as will tend to make female scholars equal to all the practical duties of life; such a course of education as will enable them to compete, and successfully too, with their brothers throughout the world, when they have to take their part in the actual of life."

 

Robinson Female Seminary

Schools for young women tended to focus on needlework and deportment. In Exeter, the girls were welcome to attend the town high school, but most did not stay long — the crowded classrooms and coed environment seemed to deter them. Wealthier families sent their daughters to the Exeter Female Academy, where they could obtain an education that included many of the same subjects the boys at Phillips Exeter studied, but not well enough to prepare them for college. And, of course, it had a needlework department.

 

For the first 25 years of the Robinson Seminary's existence, the directors were careful to avoid the finishing school model of "soft arts" for the students. Girls were taught academic subjects only, including arithmetic, mathematics, history, English grammar, botany, physiology, algebra, rhetoric, geometry, chemistry, philosophy and astronomy. Those working to prepare for college would add Greek and Latin to their studies.

Robinson Female Seminary Basketball Team (1923)

But by the late 1880s, it had become evident that the majority of girls attending school did not go on to college and that perhaps the school should also offer more of what Robinson referred to as "the practical duties of life." The curriculum was re-evaluate in 1890 and cooking and sewing — rechristened as "domestic science" — would be offered.

 

The new department was created at just the time when there was a revolution in the way homemaking was viewed by society. As more scientists began to endorse the germ theory, sanitary cooking and kitchen management was seen as a frontline defense against disease. The domestic science department at the Robinson Female Seminary was designed to teach girls this new method of clean, scientific cooking. It wasn't your mother's cooking with its inexact measurements and unsanitary food handling.

 

Principal George Cross wrote in his 1891 school report that domestic science would "help our young ladies in preparing for their future responsibility of home making, teaching them to apply the principles of chemistry, physics and physiology to the affairs of the household and giving them some manual practice in the household arts."

 

Teachers were hired from the prestigious Boston Cooking School, including the nationally renowned Anna Barrows. Born in Fryeburg, Maine, Barrows reached national audiences through her demonstration teaching methods and writing. She was the author, along with Mary J. Lincoln, of the "Home Science Cook Book" and editor of the American Kitchen Magazine. But before she began writing in earnest, she split her time teaching between Exeter's Robinson Female Seminary and Auburndale's Lasell Seminary.

 

In her classes, girls were taught to cook with gas burners, not on wood or coal stoves. Burrows enthusiasm for gas cooking was reflected in a pamphlet she drafted about the new technology: "You can arrange your cooking with mathematical precision if you use gas. The old way was certainly not conducive to comfort. Splitting kindling and carrying coal upstairs is wearying work for a woman, and a coal or wood fire often has a way of its own of refusing to burn." Food was treated with great care and the use of new cooking equipment — such as the double boiler, to avoid scorching and uneven heat — was used.

 

Classes stressed cleanliness and safety. The course was broken into 15 segments, beginning with a lesson on fire and progressing through water, canning fruit, milk, vegetables, cereals, fish, meats, bread, quick doughs, cake and pastry, invalid cookery, breakfast, luncheon and dinner. The final session was a reception for the trustees of the school, a sample menu for which might include cream of green peas, scalloped salmon, potato marbles and harlequin cream.

 

Barrows taught at the school through 1906, but the program she devised continued to be utilized with only a few changes until the school closed in 1954. Barrows spent her later years writing and teaching in New York and developing the Cooperative Extension domestic arts program. Her papers are now located in the Maine Women's Writers Collection at the University of New England in Portland, Maine. Her influence on the cooking techniques of Exeter's women still resonates in town.

 

Barbara Rimkunas is curator of the Exeter Historical Society.

Exhale Bar & Grill

Exhale Bar & Grill (photographer: Andrew Collins)

Exhale Bar & Grill

Location: 6132 4th Street, Northwest, Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA

Opened: 2004

Closed: 2012

This listing for Exhale is pretty straightforward, though there isn't a lot of descriptive detail:

Exhale, Albuquerque's Only woman-owned lesbian Bar

6132 4th Street Northwest, South of Osuna on the ast side of the street  342-0049.

Exhale is closed on Monday's. It is open Tuesday and Wednesday 4PM to midnight, Thursday through Saturday 4PM to 1:30AM and Sunday 4PM to midnight with food service 4PM to 10PM. This is the original Renea's location on 4th Street across from Smith's.

According to the Advocate, 

Exhale (formerly Renea’s) is the only lesbian bar between Dallas and Phoenix.

Andrew Collins at about.com tells us more:


Exhale interior

Gay bars in Albuquerque have come and gone in recent years, but Exhale (6132 4th St. NW, 505-342-0049) - an attractive, two-level bar and dance club north of downtown in the city's Los Ranchos neighborhood - has remained steadily popular since it opened in 2004, in a space previously occupied by a gay bar. Although it's Albuquerque's top hangout among lesbians, Exhale welcomes everybody and frequently draws a mixed crowd. The club also has a light food menu (burgers, Frito pies, burritos, etc.), and has popular karaoke nights a couple of times per week.

Acccording to alibi.com, Exhale was an award-winning place back in her day:

Best of Burque 2009 (Best Lesbian Bar): Exhale has live entertainment, a smokin' dance floor, naughty drinks and jalapeño poppers. Outside of a planet with pink clouds and rivers of chocolate, populated solely by lovely lesbian ladies, what more could a girl ask for?

Lots of customer feedback at GayCities--23 reviews in all. Far too many to quote in full. So here are a few excerpts:

From some of the loyal fans:

EXHALE IS A BAR U CAN GO TO AND BE YOURSELF. THE DJS ARE FRIENDLY THE BAR STAFF...HANK AND BARBACK MICHLLE ..ARE AWESOME. IF YOU WANT A BIG CIRTY BAR GO TO LA OR NYC...IF YOU WANT DOWN TO EARTH PEOPLE YOU CAN ACTUALLY TALK TO THEN I RECOMMEND EXHALE!!!

Exhale is pleasant enough because it doesn't try to be all things to everyone-- it's a lesbian bar with friends welcome. The decor may be a tad closer to cheesy than glamorous but Goddess bless them for trying. The crowd is lesbians of all varieties, their blue-balled straight male coworkers, and insipid Twinkie boys. The managers make a genuine effort to include entertainment, nightly themes, and welcoming staff.

Then there were the usual snobs:

'Albuquerque's Stylish lesbian dance club' is far from Stylish. Setting stylish and classy standards is something you won't find there. The Dance floor is small, the drinks are average. Once you can get a cocktail servers to wait on you, or you choose to stand in a long line at the bar pushing your way to the counter because the bartender is randomly taking orders from any one who catches their attention first; having little regard for customer service, time or satisfaction.

Describing this club as glamorous is ridiculous. Exhale has no real interior design, needs a new back

deck, the bar is too small and is certainly not stylish or sophisticated in any sense of that word, and the whole place smells like mold. The food is horrible, like a high school cafeteria menu, and the DJs seem to enjoy crappy, outdated music. I hope someone is planning to open a REAL upscale, not necessarily pricey, lesbian club, that caters to women who enjoy good food, good conversation and attractive, tasteful design.

Waste of $

If you like out of shape women in dirty wife beaters

Of course we always have the Embittered Boys contingent, who just didn't feel their egos were being coddled in a sufficient fashion: 

The men there were friendly and Ladies not so much but hey its a lesbian bar. I also like the fact knowing that my bartender is 100% gay and 98% of the people in the bar are 100% gay. If you want to see a cute straight bartender behind the bar then go to a straight bar and please take your fag hags with you.

NOt for guys

this is a lesbian bar and guys are not really made to feel welcome. It's just that simple!

 

Which is ironic given the complaints (starting in 2009) that the men were taking over the the place, and that Exhale wasn't even going through the motions of being a lesbian bar anymore:

 

I think this could be a good place........

I just don't think it is a Lesbian bar. The two times I have been there, it was young guys. The only Lesbians in the club were the staff, and I wouldn't call them friendly, even to me. I guess I might try it again.

Hoodrat ville

It used to be a nice place to go, but since ABQ lost all the other gay club except sidewinders, it really has become a haven for trouble makers and gay men, the music is horrible, the dancers are sub par and kinda scary, I know they can do better. For the more sophisticated lesbian, try the FireWomyn party's instead.

And then she was gone:

No longer a lesbian bar, now a multi-use rental venue

Some time during the summer of 2012 Exhale mutated into Evolution, a multi-use venue for anyone who could pay the rental fee, gay or otherwise. The space has potential which the owners never exploited when it was a gay bar. Evolution is as poorly promoted as Exhale was so many events I would have attended came and went unnoticed. At least it's easy to get to and has a reasonable amount of parking available so it's worth a visit to see what the venue has grown up to be.

 

According to a writer at Autostraddle, Exhale was gone even earlier than summer 2012, as it was reportedly closed when the column was published in March of that year. 

Wilkes-Barre Old Ladies Home



Old Ladies Home - Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania

Old Ladies Home

Location: 450 Carey Avenue, Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, USA

Opened: 1892

Closed: 1972

According to a book on Wilkes-Barre history, the Old Ladies Home was a charitable institution caring for aged and homeless women in the community. It had room to house up to 40 women either temporarily or permanently as needed.

The "home" was apparently torn down after the flood of 1972.

Judging by this 1910 news clipping, these "old ladies" weren't exactly laying about waiting for death. In fact, they were not afraid to express their opinions in direct, "non-lady-like",  and confrontational ways:

Members of Home Resent Billboard Pictures of Women Scantily Dressed

Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. — Opposite the Old Ladies' home in this city is a dead wall, which is used to advertise attractions at some of the local theaters. A bill poster put up a number of posters of ballet dancers clad in gaudy and scant attire. The inmates of the house, who saw them from their windows, were indignant.

They held a consultation and then resolved on action. They procured a number of newspapers, and with paste and pot made their way to the opposite side of the street and covered the lower limbs of the dancers, and were much pleased with their work. One of them remarked: "There now! I guess decency will not be outraged."

Of course the newspaper mocks these women as busybodies and prudes, but what else is new....

Yet another random find. Here is an interesting obituary for a woman physician (Dr. Sarah J. Coe) who volunteered at the Old Ladies Home until her death in 1905. 

The Palms Bar

The Palms Bar

The Palms Bar 

Location: 8572 Santa Monica Boulevard, West Hollywood, California, USA

Opened: Around 1968

Closed: 2013

The latest fatality in the great Lesbian Bar Die-Off: 

From Out in the 562:


West Hollywood lesbian bar The Palms to close

Posted on April 22, 2013 by Phillip Zonkel

The venerable lesbian bar – which has seen Melissa Etheridge, Ellen DeGeneres and even Jim Morrison walk through the front door – will be ending its more than 46 years on Santa Monica Boulevard, according to a Sunday post on its Facebook page. It’s last call for West Hollywood watering hole The Palms Bar.

“Dear Patrons, The Palms Bar located at 8572 Santa Monica Blvd in West Hollywood will be closing it’s doors within the next couple of months. For no other reason than the new property owners have decided to redevelop the property. We are currently in the process of looking for a new location to re-open and will keep you all informed of when and where that will be.”

The Palms is one of the few WeHo locales catering to lesbians, though several bars in recent years have started lesbian nights.

“We thank all those who have remained with us throughout the years. We are grateful to those who have become our friends, our family, lovers, confidants and even our ex’s. We think of the happiness through 46 plus years that the Palms has brought to people, the laughter and love. We will remember those we have lost,” the post said.

“Even though we are saddened by this closure we bear in mind that buildings are made from stone and wood and the true happiness and joy come from the lives of the people inside,” the post said.

The Palms will have an official closing party and share the details on its Facebook page.

Greenbrier College for Women

Greenbrier College for Women

Greenbrier College for Women

Location: Lewisburg, West Virginia, USA

Opened: 1812 as Lewisburg Academy

Closed: 1972

From the West Virginia Encylopedia:

The Greenbrier College for Women, which once operated in Lewisburg, descended from the Lewisburg Academy. Dr. John McElhenney, who was the third pastor of Old Stone Presbyterian Church, came to Lewisburg in 1808. He and his wife organized a board of directors and succeeded in having a two-story brick building constructed to house the academy. McElhenney was president of this board from 1812 to 1860. A succession of principals and presidents followed, with Philander Custer and Alex Mathews being two of the most successful.

Having closed because of the Civil War, the academy was reopened in 1875 and its name changed to Lewisburg Female Institute. Across town the boys’ division opened and by 1890 was known as the Greenbrier Military Academy, later Greenbrier Military School. Robert L. Telford was the last president to serve while the school was still known as Lewisburg Female Institute. Lewisburg Seminary was the third name, from 1911 to 1923. Then the school was named Greenbrier College for Women and continued as such until 1933.

Greenbrier College students (1959)

Since its founding in 1812, the school had been associated with the Presbyterian Church, first the Synod and then the Presbytery, not faring well under either. On October 16, 1929, the college assets were transferred to an independent corporation, and it was chartered in 1933 as just Greenbrier College. French W. Thompson was president for the major part of this time, and the college prospered as a women’s junior college. Greenbrier College closed in 1972, but its buildings remain Lewisburg landmarks. Its Greenbrier Hall, an impressive red brick structure, now serves as the Greenbrier Campus of the New River Community and Technical College. Carnegie Hall and North House, once part of the campus, also remain an active part of community cultural life.

This Article was written by Bettie S. Woodward

 

As we too often see in the history of women's institutions, there were (apparently) not a lot of women leaders who were prominently involved--and the few who are recognized in passing aren't even identified by name.

The Onondaga Hotel Ladies Restaurant

from the Syracuse Herald, November 25, 1911

The Onondaga Hotel Ladies Restaurant

Location: East Jefferson Street, Syracuse, New York, USA

Opened: Hotel opened August 1910

Closed: Officially closed April 1969; torn down in 1970

Back in the early years of the twentieth century, the Onondaga was one of the more prestigious hotels in upstate New York. And as we see from an advertisement from 1911, it was very much an old boys' place.

In fact, this ad beautifully illustrates how marginalized the women's space tends to be in the greater scheme of things. Specifically, how minor and compromised the so-called "ladies restaurant" is in contrast to the male-only spaces of an upper-class hotel.

First observe the clubby, confidential tone of the ad narrative, and how it's very much man-to-man. And also how the space at this hotel is carefully framed as a facility catering to wealthy men and their personal and economic interests:

Said a banker: "Many times of a forenoon do I try to reach a business man in his office, and fail. How often, however, do I find him and others at the lunch hour at The Onondaga. The advantage that one enjoys additional to a good meal, in finding the people you want to meet is a convenience not to be underrated."

The Onondaga Hotel - Syracuse, New York

Men are apparently synonymous with "people" and vice versa. To continue:

That's it--Saves time--Promotes friendly intercourse with the very men you might otherwise seldom see. The hotel is a rendezvous of the business man, the the man of affairs and the man about town. It may well be styled "The Down Town Club." If you fail to find the man you want in the lobby or Men's Cafe--try the Ratskeller.

Notice the prominent mention of male-only space (the Men's Cafe). Though you can almost bet the Ratskeller was also exclusively male. And that "unescorted" ladies were not welcome in the lobby area either, especially if they had the temerity to "linger." This was standard modus operandi for a hotel of this era.

So far no sign of women anywhere in this text. But notice how the ladies are suddenly introduced into the discussion:

Or tonight he may be in the the ladies' restaurant with his wife--for she likes to come as well as he--this is not a hotel for men alone--it's

HEADQUARTERS FOR EVERYBODY AND EVERYTHING WORTHWHILE.

This is a theme we have seen many times before. The men's areas are strictly that--bonding areas for ambitious businessmen. 

But in addition the so-called ladies areas are also thoroughly colonized for the same purpose. Not only are the men apparently present in the (so-called) ladies cafe in abundance, the men seemingly can't help but project and insert the same old male-oriented agenda.

And yet we see this hotel called--in a totally faux interpretation of equality--a "headquarters for everybody." Obviously, this is nothing but horse patootie.

The evidence we see here of men taking over a women's space, and making it there own is a theme we have seen many times in the history of turn-of-the-century ladies restaurants, cafes, and dining rooms.

As early as 1885 we see a New York woman complaining about male domination within so-called ladies restaurants:

True, almost every respectable restaurant bears the sign "ladies' restaurant up stairs" but upon entering we find the room filled with men, and we meekly subside into whatever vacant space we are allotted, running the gauntlet thereto between the domineering, quizzical or supercilious eyes of the nabobs, who glare at us as if we had invaded their domain instead of they ours, and for all this we are allowed to pay double the price charged in a regular business man's eating house.

A previous post on the ladies' cafe at Chicago's Hotel Bismarck provides the visual evidence. The postcards illustrate that the men's space are strictly that. By contrast, men are to found at nearly every table in the ladies' cafe.

Needless to say, remnants of this attitude live on as women's shelters, bars, and other institutions are roundly denounced (or even threatened) for attempting to even restrict the presence of men. While male-only institutions are vigilantly defended and enforced as off-limits.