Eunice Frye Home records

Collection

Identifier: Coll. 4338

Staff Only

Scope and Content note

This collection documents the founding, operations, and history of the Eunice Frye Home. The bulk of the collection consists of records created over the course of the Home’s history, including ledgers, meeting minutes, annual reports, correspondence, news clippings, photographs, scrapbooks, and albums. The collection also includes compiled research notebooks by historian Vaun Born containing original documents and copies, interpretive historical writings, biographical sketches, and reference materials from external sources.

Dates

Creation: 1890 - 2011

Creator

Eunice Frye Home (Portland, Me.) (Organization)
Born, Vaun E. (Person)

Access

Unrestricted

Copyright

Access to collections at Maine Historical Society is not an authorization to publish. Rights and reproduction requests may be submitted in writing to the MHS Image Services Coordinator or Research & Administrative Librarian, subject to format.

Administrative note

The Eunice Frye Home operated as a home for women in Portland, Me., from 1894 to 2002. Founded to provide independent women in need of "rest and care" a place to recuperate, the Home eventually served as an assisted living facility.

Originally housed in the cottage of Mary J. Brown on Peaks Island, the Home moved to mainland Portland in 1895 and became known as the Wayside Rest Home for Worthy Women. A new building was constructed in 1903 at 37 Capisic Street, funded with a substantial donation from George Frye, husband of the Home's president, Eunice Frye. By this time, the institution was known as the Mary Brown Home; it was later renamed the Eunice Frye Home.

The Home closed in 2002, and the building was sold to the Sisters of Mercy for use as a residence for retired nuns. The Eunice Frye Home Foundation was established that same year to award grants to nonprofit organizations serving the people of Portland.

Extent

1 Linear Feet (3 boxes)

2 Volumes

Language of Materials

English

Additional Description

Provenance

Gift of Sister Kathleen Smith, Sisters of Mercy, January 21, 2025 (acc. no. 2025.023).

Processing note

Ledgers and album were housed in manuscript boxes, while oversize scrapbooks were given volume numbers. Materials in two binders compiled by Vaun Born were removed from sleeves and rehoused in archival folders; original order was maintained and folder titles were derived from original binder tabs. Photographs interfiled with mixed material were sleeved.