Over 200 guests spent Thursday evening touring and learning the history of Hathaway-Sycamores Child and Family Services’ recently restored, eye-catching Craftsman home located at 840 N. Ave. 66 in Highland Park. The 110-year-old structure – which was designated Historic-Cultural Monument #411 in 1989 – today houses clinicians and program personnel for the agency’s Highland Park Family Resource Center which provides free educational, therapeutic and other support services to area children, teens and families.
The well-attended event showcased the results of a yearlong renovation designed to make needed repairs as well as restore many of nearly 6,500-sq.-ft. structure’s original features, including: stained glass windows (created in 1905 by The Judson Studios, which also restored the windows); period-appropriate copper screens were added to the windows; stone fireplace (repairs and restoration of the fireplace – which features rocks from the Arroyo Seco River – were completed by Silverlake Conservation); kitchen (installation of new Marmoleum flooring); interior walls were painted in period-appropriate colors; original light fixtures were rewired, repaired, and restored; and pecan flooring was restored throughout the house.
In addition to a tour of the house – which was built alongside the Arroyo Seco River by prominent local architect Robert Edmund Williams – guests were given a tour of the Family Resource Center’s Learning Lab. The Learning Lab – which serves area students ages 6 to 18 – provides a safe place to study after school, including access to computers and printers. Open Monday through Thursday from 3 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. and on Saturdays from 10:30 a.m. to 4 p.m., Learning Lab personnel also provide tutoring, SAT prep, and assistance completing college applications. Nineteen local public schools refer students to the Family Resource Center, and it is the only free resource of its kind in the Northeast Los Angeles community. Currently there are over 500 kids on the waiting list to get into the after-school tutoring program.
Area high school students who have taken advantage of the Family Resource Center’s tutoring, SAT prep, and college-application assistance have earned acceptance – often accompanied by full-ride scholarships – at Ivy League and other top-rated universities. In 2013-2014, 24 high school seniors received $1.7 million in scholarships. In recent years these have included Harvard University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Stanford University, Brown University, University of California (Los Angeles, Irvine, Berkeley) and the University of Southern California. Additionally, teens who completed the Center’s SAT prep course boosted their SAT scores by more than 150 points, and students who received tutoring improved their grades by at least one letter grade and – in some instances – two letter grades.
The two-story, boulder-based home was acquired by Hathaway-Sycamores in 1928 and over the years has been used for several purposes, including as an orphanage, a residential-care facility, and most recently for clinical and program personnel for Family Resource Center staff. Attendees to the open house not only learned about the structure’s history, but also had the opportunity to bid on colorful, unique paintings created by area students who participated in an innovative art-instruction program offered at the Family Resource Center last spring.
