Lucy Webb Hayes National Training School was a religious training school, now a hospital, in Washington, D.C. So named in memory of Lucy Webb Hayes, the wife of former President Rutherford B. Hayes. It was founded in 1891 and was the authorized training school of the Woman's Foreign Missionary Society of the Methodist Episcopal Church, which owned the property of the school, exercised supervision and jurisdiction over its management, and looked to it to supply the trained workers employed by the society in its widely diversified fields of labor. The privileges of the school were not, however, confined to those connected with the Woman's Home Missionary Society. It opened its doors to all who wanted to prepare themselves for any department of Christian activity. In 1894, the school was chartered by act of Congress in conjunction with the Deaconess Home and Sibley Memorial Hospital, and formed with them one corporation. The unified administration and guaranteed the training of Christian workers.
Currently doing business as Sibley Memorial Hospital, the full legal name for the hospital is "Lucy Webb Hayes National Training School for Deaconesses and Missionaries".
History
Lucy Webb Hayes National Training School had its origin in a thought which was expressed at Spiegel Grove when the thousands were gathered there for the funeral services of Mrs. Hayes, who, as the wife of a president of the United States, and as the president of the Woman's Home Missionary Society of the Methodist Episcopal Church, had endeared herself to US women. The remembrance of the deep interest which Mrs. Hayes had manifested in the training of women as missionaries suggested the founding of a school to carry out this purpose as a suitable monument to her memory.
At the meeting of the board of managers, the following was introduced by Elizabeth Lownes Rust, the corresponding secretary, and adopted: "Resolved further, That we invite the auxiliaries, circles, bands, and friends of the society to contribute offerings as precious memorials, to be forwarded to the general executive board of managers to meet in Indianapolis the last of October, to be consecrated to the erection of a building which shall hear her name, and serve as a reminder of her deep interest in behalf of missions in our land."
At the annual meeting of the general executive board in Indianapolis, the establishment of an institution for the training of young women for Christian work, to be a memorial of Mrs. Hayes, was determined upon, and in answer to circulars sent out, the sum of US$4,000 was gathered. In the winter of 1889-90, Jane Bancroft Robinson, the author of Deaconesses in Europe and America, and the secretary of the bureau for deaconess work, visited Washington, and by her presentation of the subject in the leading churches, and at the residences of Bishop Hurst, Postmaster-General Wanamaker, Senator Blair, and Mrs. E. J. Somers, so aroused public interest that the rental of a house was offered by Susan J. Wheeler for the beginning of the work in Washington. Rev. I. N. Dalby, M. D., was elected the first president of the institution. Upon his resignation, September 1, 1894, Rev. A. H. Ames, M. D., D. D. was selected as his successor, entering upon his duties December 1, 1894. In May, 1892, Christine B. Dickinson was elected preceptress.
Within three years from the time of the opening of the National Training-school the enlargement of its accommodations became an obvious necessity. More candidates were applying for admission than could be received, and meanwhile the demand for deaconess workers all over the Church was constantly increasing as their value and usefulness became better understood. Rooms were rented in an adjoining building, and the next year others were added, until in 1899 it was said that parts of six houses were being utilized.
In 1897, at the 17th Annual Meeting at Baltimore, it was resolved to enlarge the Training school plant by the erection of a new building, in the same block with the Lucy Webb Hayes Training school, to be named "Rust Hall" as a tribute to Mrs. E. L. Rust for her many years of service to the Woman's Home Missionary Society. Through the kindness of George O. Robinson, of Detroit, money was advanced, first, to purchase land, and then, this having been secured, to erect the edifice. A site was secured, and ground was formally broken November 16, 1899. The building was begun in 1901, the first brick being placed November 6, and the cornerstone laid on the 14th.