Marilyn Monroe spent some of her most important Hollywood nights in its safe embrace. So did about 20,000 others.
Now, though, the last young resident has packed his bags and moved. Los Angeles' original orphanage is shutting its cottage doors after 125 years of housing children whose families have all but given up on them.
Without fanfare, the venerable privately run Hollygrove children's residential treatment center has closed. It is a victim of a changing philosophy about the treatment for youngsters who are abused, addicted or abandoned.
Hollygrove programs -- A headline on Tuesday's Page A1 implied that the Hollygrove Children and Family Services organization was shutting down. Although the 125-year-old residential orphanage for young children has closed, Hollygrove is continuing to serve children in a number of programs operating from the same site in Hollywood. Those include therapeutic behavior services, family preservation, medical support, foster family care and outpatient counseling.
Orphanages have fallen out of fashion in Los Angeles and across the United States as social services organizations work to move kids from group facilities to foster homes or the homes of members of their extended families or family friends.
As recently as the mid-1990s, more than 3,500 children lived in group facilities in Los Angeles County. About 340 remain. That number is steadily declining as children are placed with relatives or friends. At least 70 group homes across the county have closed in the last decade.
"We don't think children ages 6 to 12 should be under institutional care," said Lisa Parrish, deputy director of the Los Angeles County Department of Children and Family Services.
But some supporters of Hollygrove contend that the quiet closure marks an inglorious end to a community service that began when two women commandeered a horse and buggy to rescue abandoned waifs from the dusty streets of 19th-century Los Angeles.
"Oh my goodness
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Founded in 1880 as the Los Angeles Orphans Home Society, the children's shelter stood in what is now Chinatown before relocating to Hollywood. Marilyn Monroe would eventually become its most famous alumna.
Norma Jean Baker was 9 in 1935 when she was brought to the orphanage by an aunt. She lived in a girls residence hall whose windows overlooked Paramount Studios and framed its landmark water tower.
"There are probably 40 books that talk about her time here, and each has a different story," said Judith Nelson, president and chief executive officer of Hollygrove. "One book says she cleaned 100 toilets here. Of course, there have never been 100 toilets here to clean."
Monroe's mother was mentally ill and unable to care for her. "She was like a lot of kids here at the time. They didn't want to be called orphans because they really weren't."
