The JONES HOME OF APPLEWOOD CENTERS opened 15 Dec. 1887 as the Jones School & Home for Friendless Children, one of several Cleveland ORPHANAGES. CARLOS L. JONES and his third wife, Mary B. Jones founded the home, motivated by the untimely deaths of Jones' first wife and his only son. Jones applied for a charter on 5 Nov. 1886 and on 22 Dec. 1886 organized a corporation whose officers included Rutherford B. Hayes, James M. Coffinberry, Isaac P. Lamson, and Samuel W. Sessions.
Located in the Jones' cottage on Pearl Rd. at the corner of Library Ave., the facility first accommodated only 9 children but was soon enlarged with dormitories for 50. A 3-story brick building at 3518 W. 25th St., designed by SIDNEY R. BADGLEY, opened in Oct. 1903 with a capacity for 75 residents. This building, renovated in 1971, became an official Cleveland Landmark in 1984 and is the signature structure of the Jones Home Historic District on the National Register of Historic Places.
The Jones Home joined the Community Chest in 1920. It still adhered to the founders' policies at its 50th anniversary, admitting only healthy, white, Protestant children (2,900 by 1937) without unfavorable hereditary traits, giving a Bible to each child leaving the home, and placing adoptive children with rural families only. The home shortened its title, and because it needed public funds, dropped first, the religious and later, the racial requirement over the next 25 years. In 1966, the institution merged with Children's Services to strengthen its counseling and casework. In the 1980s, the Jones Home served as a residential treatment facility for emotionally disturbed children, ages 6-16. UNITED WAY SERVICES, an endowment, government dollars, and private donations supported the home. In the 1990s, the Jones Home received a $274,000 grant from the CLEVELAND FOUNDATION for the renovation of the Astrup, Case, and Kerns cottages. In 1997, Jones Home/Children's Services and the Child Guidance Center merged to become Applewood Centers, which in 2021, operated the residential treatment program at the former orphanage.
Updated by Marian J. Morton
Finding aid for the Jones Home Records, WRHS.
Finding aid for the Jones Home Photographs, WRHS.
See also ORPHANAGES.