Douglas, 1930
1927 The “practice baby” was added to the Home Economics program to meet the new national standards for Home Economics education, which required students have experience caring for an infant. Leo was the first Cottage baby at Farmington State Normal School. He came from a local family and returned to his mother after his year-long stay at the Cottage.
1928 The second Cottage baby was Heather.
1929 Joyce was the third baby to be cared for in the Cottage.
1930 The Cottage was first used exclusively as a “Practice Home” in 1930 with 4 bedrooms and a nursery. Douglas was the fourth baby to join the procession of infants.
1931 Donald (“Donnie”) was cottage baby.
1932 Six week old Beth became the Cottage baby.
Donnie, 1931
1933 Norman was nine months old when he came to live at the Cottage. He went to an adoptive family in February 1934.
1934 Baby Everett had to leave the Cottage early because he got chicken pox. He was also adopted. The second baby in 1934 was Judith. She also was adopted and went to a home in Boston.
1935 The Cottage baby was Michelle.
1936 Students’ duties in the Cottage changed. Four students spent only 4 weeks managing the house and caring for the infant, Glennis, until she was sent home to her parents. Marion arrived from Temple and was the second Cottage baby for 1936-37.
1937 Ann was the Cottage baby from September 1937 to March 1938, when she was adopted.
1938 Baby Shirley arrived in September at age three months and weighing 9 pounds.
1939 Five month old Mike stayed at the Cottage for six months, then went home to new parents.
1940 Sandra (“Sandy”), age two months, came to stay at the Cottage.
Mike, 1940
1941 The Cottage baby was Shirley.
1942 Jimmy was the Cottage baby.
1943 The Cottage baby was Terry.
1944 There was no baby because there was no practice house director. A replacement director was hired the following year
1945 Mrs. Marion Stover Leighton became the practice house advisor. Her husband was away at war, so she and her young son and daughter moved into the Cottage. Her son, Terry, was the Cottage baby that year.
1945 The baby was Noreen.
1946 The Cottage baby was Brenda.
1947 Dorothy Margaret (“Peggy”) was the baby.
1948 The Cottage baby was Peter.
1949 Miss Evelyn Benjamin took charge of the Cottage. She cared for baby Joy while the students doing their Cottage rotation were in classes. When not in class, the students took care of the baby in turns.
Trudy and Linda, 1953
1950 Two month old John arrived from the state children’s home in Bangor with Miss Hastie and Miss Benjamin.
1951 Baby Peter lived in the Cottage.
1952 Four week old Gail was brought to the Cottage from Bangor by Miss Hastie and Miss Benjamin. The first night she slept through the night as Nov 4, the day the fall group of Cottage students moved out!
1952 Baby Linda lived in the Cottage.
1953 Deborah Marie ("Debbie") was the baby.
1954 The Cottage baby was Donna Jean.
1955 Baby Edmund (“Eddie”) lived in the Cottage.
1956 The baby was Terry.
1957 Judy was the baby.
Brent, 1959
1958 Brent was the Cottage baby.
1960 The three children -- Lou Ann age 5, Joe age 2 ½ and Diane age 1 ½ -- lived in the Cottage with their mother, Arline Hamilton.
1961 Sharon (“Trinket”), the 6 month old daughter of a Farmington couple, was the “practice baby.” She was delivered to the Cottage every morning at 8:00 am so the Junior Home Economics students could “observe her behavior and development during the coming year.” She was the first of the “day babies” – infants who were cared for by students during weekdays and returned home to their families in the evenings.
1962 The Cottage was renamed the Home Management House and Home Economics students cared for a 9 week old female baby.
1963 In the summer, the Cottage was torn down. Ricker Hall opened in the fall as the new facility for teaching Home Economics. Baby Michelle was cared for in the new “Home Management House” by students.
1964 Julianne was born in January and began her days at the Home Management house in February.
1965 Michael was the baby in residence between 7:30am and 5:00pm.
1972 There was no longer a baby being cared for full time by the Home Economics students. The students did do 9 weeks of rotating duties in the Home Management House -- prepare menus, housekeeping, pay bills -- and there was daycare in the basement of Mallett Hall.
1975 Betsy Ann Cook was the "day baby" cared for by Home Economics students during the work week and returned to her parents at the end of each day during fall semester. The practice of having students care for the child of a university employee during the workday took the place of a live-in child from a state orphanage during the 1970s.
There are no records to indicate when all childcare was provided exclusively by the campus nursery school/day care.
Sources: Home Economics Department records and scrapbooks; The F.S.N.S Mirror; The F.S.T.C. Mirror; Effesseness