Salvation Army Hostel - Wrightstown - 1918
The largest building in Wrightstown is the Salvation Army Hotel, officially the Salvation Army Military Hostel, opened November 21 by Secretary of War Baker. The good work of the Salvation Army “Over There” is praised in many of the letters sent back by the boys.
In their Camp work plans the Salvation Army were somewhat delayed, as their first War Work Drive closed in the United States about September 1.
This Colonial-style building is four stories high, 80 by 142 feet. The two upper floors contain more than 100 bedrooms, with hot and cold water and electric lights, to take care of visiting relatives and friends of the soldiers.
The second floor is a mezzanine gallery for visitors, furnished with cushioned wicker furniture, and will contain a library and writing section. The first floor is intended as an assembly hall, using folding chairs, allowing the floor to be used also for other purposes.
There will be a canteen with kitchen and bakery, lunch counter and table service, a soda fountain, laundering facilities for the guests, piano and victrolas, and probably stenographer service for the boys in the hospital.
The Institution will be in charge of Major and Mrs. McGee, with Mrs. George W. Reed as chief hostess. It will be conducted solely in the interest of the soldiers and the service will be rendered at cost.
The Opening of the Salvation Army Hotel - 1918
In the Salvation Army Hotel, Listening to Dedication Exercises
Photo by Philadelphia Press
Distinguished Officials Help Open Salvation Army Hotel
Honored by the presence of Secretary of War, Newton D. Baker; General. Peyton C. March, Chief of the General Staff; Major General Hugh L. Scott, and Evangeline Booth, Commander of the Salvation Army, the new $100,000 Salvation Army Hotel was formally opened and dedicated September 21.
This is now the most portentous building at Wrightstown and Camp Dix. A view of the exterior together with a description of its facilities and the service to be rendered is given on another page.
Addressing the soldier audience, shown on another page, Secretary Baker said:
“The biggest thing that has come to you is the aggregate growth of character and manhood; and this character and manhood will be re-reflected, through you, upon the Government of the next generation.
Our future Government will gain from the plain, simple virtues the men themselves have absorbed in the training camps and at the front. We have whipped into the kennel that old fraudulent idea that States have no morals.
We have vindicated to the world that States, to endure, must be just to their own citizens and just in their dealings with others.
“We have invested too much in costly lives in this war to ever permit the gains made to escape.
“No other Army in history has ever been surrounded by such agencies as our seven welfare organizations; the YMCA, the YWCA, Knights of Columbus, Young Men’s Hebrew Association, the War Camo Community Service, the American Library Association, the Salvation Army.
These, together with the Red Cross, have given the soldiers what is normally required and have taken away all the obstacles in the oath of youth Under the leadership of these organizations our two million men sent overseas, not only fought like heroes but like gentlemen.
In the front line trenches, you will find the Salvation Army lassie with her doughnut and apple pie.”
Left to right: Major General Hugh L. Scott; Salvation Army Commander Evangeline Booth; Secretary of War, Newton D. Baker; General Peyton C. March, Chief of General Staff, U.S. A.
