LINCOLN HEIGHTS : Center for Women Marks 100th Year

Inside the old, expansive building that houses the Crittenton Center for Young Women and Infants, teen-agers grouse about school assignments and read stories to their children that they never heard from their parents.

Outside, the 77-year-old building that has been home to thousands of girls and their children undergoes noisy construction work that will replace its foundation and bind its bricks so it can withstand a major earthquake.

The daily routine does not stop as the center celebrates its 100th year of giving shelter, education and support to troubled girls. A reunion of former residents and staff members has been planned for Oct. 18.

“We have records that go back to 1892,” said executive director Sharrell Blakeley. “They have on there ‘name of seducer’ and ‘plans for repentance.’ They were the sweet things that went astray. No longer today.”

The center is one of several opened throughout the country by Charles N. Crittenton in memory of his 4-year-old daughter, Florence, who died of scarlet fever. The original Los Angeles site was at 1632 Santee St. The larger, four-story building that annually assists 150 girls--half of whom have babies--was dedicated in 1915.

Through the years, the center has adapted to changes in society, Blakeley said. In the “hush-hush” 1940s and ‘50s, the girls changed their names when they came into the program and grabbed wedding bands from a basket near the front door to wear when they went on outings. Most of the babies born at the center then went to adoptive families, she said.

Now, more girls keep their babies and face different problems in the outside world, such as drug abuse, Blakeley said. Abortion, access to contraceptives and other social changes emptied the beds of the Crittenton Center, so in 1969 its directors decided to accept girls from the juvenile court system.

“Some of the staff became my family. They were there when I gave birth,” said former resident Angelica Urias, now 27. She was a pregnant 15-year-old when she entered Crittenton with her sister, who, like one-third of the girls who enter, left without permission.

Urias, who is now married with four sons and works at the post office as a machine clerk, has returned to help organize the reunion.

The construction work, funded through a $691,000 low-interest loan from the city’s Community Redevelopment Agency, will be finished by January.