One address, two wildly different stories

LIMA — The walls, if they could have spoken, would have surely told a story or two.

The structure at 213 E. Wayne St. is no longer there, but we know snippets of its history nonetheless — thanks to archived newspaper accounts.

The address first appears in old fire insurance maps of the community in 1887, located in what was known as McHenry’s Addition. It’s listed as a boarding house at that time.

By the turn of the century, the building apparently came available and was soon snapped up. A newspaper account from Feb. 22, 1909, reported that a home was “to be founded here for erring girls,” a place of refuge and “a place where the girls will be taught the duties of home keeping and domestic work of all kinds.”

The Door of Hope was in the works. 

“The object of this home is to aid an encouraged depraved and erring girls to a life of virtue and right. ... It is hoped it will be a storm center for Gospel and reform work in Lima and vicinity.”

Unwed mothers were a social problem in those days, and the Door of Hope wanted to help the girls who likely had nowhere else to go.

With a $600 down payment in April 1909, the Door of Hope came into existence. (The mortgage payment was but $30 per month, paid to the Lima Loan Association.) Pleas soon were printed for donated furniture to outfit the place.

It took off. A report at the end of 1910 said 14 girls were cared for, and workers came to the aid of any stranded girl. One teenager from Delphos who came to Lima for a date missed the last train home and was put up overnight at the Door of Hope. Another instance saw workers helping several girls who didn’t speak English. They were traveling through Lima and became confused at the train station. Policemen brought them to 213 E. Wayne St. for help. Another 17-year-old was taken out of a “house of shame” by juvenile court and came to live there.

The house was run with a strict eye toward reform.

“Our girls are taught housework and sewing and are not allowed to waste their time reading trashy novels,” a Dec. 29, 1910, story reported.

The Door of Hope, started by pastors in the community, was apparently a popular “cause” in the city — enough so that in 1911 a warning had to be published that there were fake solicitations being made on behalf of the organization.

That same year, a new mission appeared: a nursery. Day care was important even then.

“The women who must battle with the world are finding the Day Nursery a great convenience and help to them.”

By 1912, however, there were reports of mismanagement. The Rev. A.D. Welty of the Lima Rescue Home was named solicitor and started making monthly reports of the books in the newspapers. The Rescue Home shortly thereafter bought land at Wayne and Central for its operations, and there was talk of relocating the Door of Hope mission as well as the Day Nursery within those doors.

By 1918, the Lima Rescue Home was looking to sell the Door of Hope building. At some point, which is unclear, the address became a private residence. It found new life as a barbershop, restaurant and night club.

A man named Fred Harrison Sr. began his association with the place — and others like it. He was all over East Wayne Street at that time, with 117 E. Wayne St. known as the “old Fred Harrison place” getting raided in 1914. Officers scored big. The papers reported $1,000 in drugs including morphine and opium, whiskey and paraphernalia were seized. There was also illegal gambling. The cigar store in front was outfitted with a signal to the back room when a raid was imminent.

The scene is described in a July 31, 1914, story:

“Instantly there was a scramble for the money on the table. Some of the motley crowd of negroes and white men tried to dive through windows and were handed back by the coat tails. The house was searched and men were found hiding in all manner of places.”

Harrison appears to have escaped reform. He was arrested in 1924 for selling Jamaica Ginger — a patent medicine with high alcohol content, a way to get around Prohibition.

By the 1930s, 213 E. Wayne St. was called the Oriental Club. It featured live musical acts and food. An advertisement in 1936 calls it Palm Gardens. The name of the place would continue to flip flop between those two for years.

 In 1940, a 71-year-old Harrison was arrested for having five slot machines and selling beer without a permit. Ownership passed to Albert B. Stewart, a former Lima Police Department officer. After his death, Stewart’s wife, Margaret, ran the place — then called Stewart’s Palm Gardens. She was busted in 1946 for selling liquor to a minor, and things seem to continue on the path set.

It must have been a raucous good time. Acts from Dick Suel’s Orchestra to drummer Danny Taylor and his combo entertained while police watched. Reports of physical violence are sprinkled through the newspapers.

There was a raid in March 1950: “Numerous tip books were seized but no arrests were made at the time.”

In 1951, Harrison sold the property to Margaret Stewart. She died in 1954. Harrison died in 1964 at age 94.

Palm Gardens was mentioned in a card of thanks in a 1976 newspaper but had basically faded into obscurity as time slipped by. The building was razed sometime in 1987.

Now the address known as 213 E. Wayne St. is nothing but a vacant lot, leaving little clue to its once wild adventures.