Goodrich House was located on the corner of St. Clair and Bond streets, in the downtown district. This district, to outward appearances, was not so densely populated as some other parts of Cleveland. There was, however, much crowding of families into two or three rooms. It was also bad from a sanitary point of view. The population was, for the most part, English-speaking. The house itself was a substantial building of impervious brick and terra-cotta, with a frontage of 122 feet on St. Clair street and 97 feet on Bond street. The design was Gothic, ornamented with Spanish renaissance detail. Building was begun in April, 1896, and the building was completed, ready for occupancy, in June, 1897. The building consisted of basement, first, second and third stories. The interior was finished throughout in oak. The side walls and ceilings were painted in plain, harmonious colors. The general impression was one of cleanliness and roominess. Over the inner doorway, on the St. Clair street side, were two inscriptions. The words of the one were from
Abraham Lincoln: "With firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right"; the other from
John Hay: "He who would rule must first obey." On the first floor were the reading room and library, the gymnasium, the restaurant, the kitchen, the kindergarten and the
kitchen garden rooms. The reading room and library, large and well lighted, was fitted with reading tables, paper racks and book cases. An arrangement had been made with the public library whereby such books as were needed for circulation at Goodrich House were furnished by the library. The gymnasium had a floor space . The apparatus was so arranged that it could be easily removed to change the gymnasium into an audience room with a
seating capacity of about 300. A stage and two dressing rooms provided for entertainments. The restaurant was the corner room, lit from two sides by casement windows. It was used largely as a dining room for the residents and as a refreshment room for club meetings and entertainments. Opening out of the restaurant was the kitchen, conveniently arranged and with ample shelf and cupboard space. The kindergarten was a room . Cases fitted in the walls were large enough to contain all supplies. A number of pictures made the room attractive. The tiles about the fireplace depicted rural scenes in which domestic animals and children occupied a prominent place. The kitchen garden consisted of three rooms: kitchen, dining room and bedroom, affording an opportunity for practical instruction in housekeeping. In the basement were a locker room with 340 lockers, shower/bathroom, bowling alley, washroom, engine and boiler rooms. An open court with a concrete floor and flower beds on either side afforded a "basement garden." The other part of the basement, which was of special interest, was the laundry, open at a nominal price to the women of the neighborhood. This was fitted with sets of tubs, each supplied with hot and cold water and a steam coil for boiling. A steam drier provides for the quick drying. Women of the neighborhood were enabled to remove the unsanitary processes of washing and drying from already over-crowded home space and sleeping rooms. On the second floor were four class rooms, a game room, two club rooms, two office rooms, a parlor, a small reception room, a sitting room, and bath rooms. The bath rooms on this floor were fitted with porcelain lined tubs, and were designed for the use of women and girls. The finished part of the third floor was divided into rooms for residents. In 1897, twelve person could be accommodated. ==Activities==