North Star volunteers recently discovered an untold chapter of Julia Morgan's career during the World War I years. It was found in the 1,500 pages of digitized microfiche minutes and reports from three different YWCA committees.
When Congress declared war in 1917, 32 camps for multiple segregated divisions of 17,000 men were quickly build across the nation. Ultimately over four million men were drafted. They were immediately followed by sweethearts, wives and mothers who wanted one last chance to say goodbye. The War Department was overwhelmed and turned to the YWCA for help. The YWCA suggested Hostess Houses and brought in three female architects, including Julia Morgan.
Within a short time period, Morgan was put in charge of the design standards, overseeing and approving each design, the construction and any design updates the War Department needed -- the last was primarily sanitary changes due to a pandemic that was also raging at the time.
Over the course of the war, 127 Hostess Houses were built at camps throughout the United States and Puerto Rico. Four additional houses were built in France. This was not a small operation. To put this in context, one of the Hostess Houses tallied the number of guests in a two-week period of time: 25,503 guests. Some of the larger houses hosted over 1,700 visitors a day.
The houses were to be designed and quickly constructed with a limited budget on military bases that had requested the YWCA’s help. Setting a standard plan – living room, dining room, kitchen with bedrooms upstairs or in a separate wing – seemed easy enough, but there were complex programmatic needs coupled with the desire for a welcoming, safe environment. First and foremost, traffic patterns for large numbers of guests had to be integrated with seating areas designed for private conversations. While the multi-functional component was critical, so was the requirement for expediency.
While Morgan’s notes on the Hostess Houses have not been found, scholars and architects with a knowledge of Julia Morgan’s work can identify her signature design components found in both the Hostess Houses and North Star House. The components of her design for North Star House were in response to the same challenges presented by the Hostess Houses, just on a much smaller scale of need.
The one unique and critical feature that ties the Hostess Houses to North Star House is the multi-functional element. North Star House was Morgan's first commission under her own license that had that multi-functional feature. Morgan had a rare ability to effectively integrate large group needs with private conversations. It is an attribute that is rarely found except in the most experienced architects.
When you visit North Star House, you will see the covered porch, the trusses and beams that are encased, the decorative fireplaces, the paneling, the large windows, and a warm inviting interior -- the same elements you would have seen in the Hostess Houses. Some of the houses only had a few cots for sleeping and a room for babies needed; others could accommodate 150 women spending the night.
Morgan was not only a progressive but often a catalyst for change in a very quiet, low-keyed approach. Those convictions surfaced in the Hostess Houses. Seventeen black commanding officers requested Hostess Houses at their camps for their servicemen and loved ones, given strict segregation laws that were in effect at the time. Morgan oversaw the design and construction of the Hostess Houses for black servicemen and their families, and the houses were identical to those for the white servicemen and their families. In 1918, identical was a very bold statement.
The Houses were utilized well into 1919 to handle influenza patients, the relatives of the injured and deceased, and, finally, the returning servicemen. Most of the houses were destroyed when the military camps were taken down.
