The Fresh Air Branch of the Visiting Nurses Assocation

When we think of nurses and nursing, there is a direct correlation with the medical profession, which is based on preventing and treating disease. Nurses and doctors follow standards as far as treatment regimens and cleanliness procedures. Everything is conducted in a scientific way with specific doses of medicines and careful monitoring of heart rates. However, in Dayton, the Visiting Nurses Association began a project tailored to transforming the lives of city children and their families.

In 1907, the Flower and Fruit Mission (which later became the Visiting Nurses Association) was incorporated to provide nurses to the Dayton area to treat illnesses, teach cleanliness standards, and to provide fruit and flowers to the hospitals and poor in the city. In addition, the organization made it a priority to “send poor women and children needing change of air to the country.” This last goal became a separate branch of the organization known as the Fresh Air Branch. That same year, Waymire Farm on Beardshear Road was rented for this purpose. In 1908, the Rice Farm on the Cincinnati Pike was rented. By 1909 the organization found it necessary to find a permanent location. Mrs. Harries Gorman bought a forty acre piece of property and gave the Flower and Fruit Mission a perpetual lease to the farm. From then on, this farm was known as Bellbrook Farm. A dormitory was built there to house twenty-five children. With the help of the resident farmer, cows, chickens, pigs, and vegetables were grown to feed the children who came to stay. The goal of the Fresh Air Branch was to provide a refuge for sick children and overworked tired mothers. The belief was that the clean country air and nourishing fresh food would help heal the children and provide a place of rest for their mothers. In the summer, groups of twenty to twenty-five children were sent to the country for two week stays at Bellbrook Farm. The farm continued to operate after 1913 when the Fruit and Flower Mission became the Visiting Nurses Association. By 1918, more dormitories had been added to accommodate larger numbers of children each summer. However, in 1925 the organization stopped managing Bellbrook Farm.

Unlike the typical nursing activities we think of today, the Visiting Nurses Association started out as a way to treat illness in the community but continued to provide other services to aid poor families. Bellbrook Farm provided an opportunity to show city children a different freer way of life as compared to their cramped city quarters. Their parents were provided a reprieve to rest and recuperate while their children were well looked after. The farm shows how nursing has changed as it was professionalized and how the services provided were more focused on supporting the local community than simply offering medical treatments. 

Works Cited
[Articles of Incorporation, 1907, Box 1, File 4], FSC-31 Visiting Nurses Association, Special Collections and Archives, University Libraries, Wright State University, Dayton, Ohio.

[“Children Leave City for Outing at Fresh Air Farm,” Newspaper Clipping, 1911, Box 5, File 1], FSC-31 Visiting Nurses Association, Special Collections and Archives, University Libraries, Wright State University, Dayton, Ohio.

[The Flower and Fruit Mission and Visiting Nurses Association Booklet, 1911, Box 1, File 11], FSC-31 Visiting Nurses Association, Special Collections and Archives, University Libraries, Wright State University, Dayton, Ohio.

[Historical Highlights, Box 1, File 3], FSC-31 Visiting Nurses Association, Special Collections and Archives, University Libraries, Wright State University, Dayton, Ohio.

[“Joy for Children at Fresh Air Farm,” Newspaper Clipping, 1910, Box 5, File 1], FSC-31 Visiting Nurses Association, Special Collections and Archives, University Libraries, Wright State University, Dayton, Ohio.