The Florence Crittenton Home of Seattle (1899-1973) was a housing facility for single mothers located six miles south of Seattle in Dunlap, Washington. The Florence Crittenton Home of Seattle was opened on November 21, 1899, with two maternity wards and space for 50 women. It served mainly as a maternity home, where young women would live during the latter parts of their pregnancies and up to three months after giving birth. Children born in the Florence Crittenton Home were either placed for adoption or were kept with their birth mothers. A larger home, built on the same property, was opened in 1926. The home closed temporarily during World War II, when the city of Seattle leased the Florence Crittenton building and property for use as a venereal disease quick treatment center. In the late 1940s, the delivery of babies was moved out of the Home itself and into a local hospital; by 1951, all medical care was handled by staff doctors at Swedish hospital. A 1953 wing added residential and administrative space; in 1965, four cottages increased capacity from 40 to 90 residents. During the first half of the 20th century, the home's services were in high demand, and the facility was operating at a maximum capacity of 200 in 1963. During the late 1960s and early 1970s, as the social stigma surrounding single parenthood lessened, the demand for the home's services decreased. In 1973, United Way stopped funding the Florence Crittenton Home of Seattle because of lack of need. On March 15, 1973, the facility closed.
The facility was part of a chain of Florence Crittenton Homes, which were located in 50 cities across the U.S. The homes were founded by Charles Crittenton, a wealthy New York druggist who was part of a reform movement to end prosititution and moral vice. Originally, the Florence Crittenton Homes provided assistance to prostitutes, but later it expanded its mission to include a wide variety of concerns, including homelessness, women's health, domestic abuse and assisting single, pregnant women and mothers.
