The Hamblin Community Center

For over four decades, the wooden frame house at 242 Hamblin Avenue served as a centerpoint for social activities in the Bottoms. Built in late 1942 by the Construction Division of the U.S. Army, the building at 242 Hamblin Avenue opened in January of 1943 as a U.S.O. clubhouse for African-American soldiers stationed at Fort Custer. Between 1943 and 1945, the Hamblin Avenue U.S.O. Club sponsored numerous social activities, including dances, skating parties, and musical performances, for both military personnel and civilians. In October of 1945, one month after the end of World War II, the community center ceased to operate as a U.S.O. club. During the next two years, with John Wood as its Director, the clubhouse operated on a membership basis as the Hamblin Community Center.

 

HCC Opening Ceremony program [Click on image for larger view]

In 1948, the Battle Creek Civic Recreation Department incorporated the Hamblin Community Center into a municipal recreation program. Under the leadership of Julia Milner, its second Director, and Clifton Woods, the Supervisor of Recreation and Social Activities, the Center quickly became a focal point of civic, social, and recreational activities in the Bottoms. In the mid 1950s, Don Sherrod joined the Hamblin Community Center staff as the Boys’ Work Executive and assumed responsibility for boys’ athletic programs. The Hamblin Community Center’s athletics program quickly expanded to include a wide range of sporting activities for both boys’ and girls, including boxing, ping pong, basketball, and volleyball. During the 1950s, various clubs, including the Coterian Club and the Senior Pioneer Interracial Club, operated out of the Hamblin Community Center. By the mid-1960s, the Cement River Project and urban renewal programs in Battle Creek had reduced the population of the Bottoms, and the membership of the Hamblin Community Center had correspondingly declined. In 1964, the Hamblin Community Center became the Senior Citizens’ Center, and for the next ten years, maintained only limited activities for youth.

In 1974, Julia Milner stepped down as the Director of the Hamblin Community Center, and the Hamblin Community Center closed. In that same year, activities held at the Senior Citizens’ Center were transferred to the Irving Park Recreation Building. In 1975, the Cereal City Golf Club purchased the wooden frame house at 242 Hamblin Avenue, relinquishing ownership of the building in 1980 as a result of high maintenance costs. While the wooden frame house at 242 Hamblin Avenue is no longer used as a recreational facility, former members of the Hamblin Community Center continue to organize annual reunions, the first of which was held in 1979.

Photos of the 1979 HCC Renunion [Click on image for larger view]

The Social Value of the Hamblin Community Center

For over 25 years, the Hamblin Community Center provided a focal point for Battle Creek’s African American community. It did so, significantly, at a time when urban renewal programs of the 1950s and 1960s were reshaping the physical, social, and cultural landscape of the Bottoms. Recounting life in the Bottoms during the 1940s and early 1950s, many have described powerful community ties created, in part, by the fact that extended families often lived on the same street. In the words of one former Bottoms resident, a marked emphasis on neighborliness meant that, even individuals and families not directly related by blood or marriage acted like “One Large Family.” As she stated about those who shared her street, “we were in and out each other’s homes, we had meals, we had sleepovers, [and] everyone looked out for everyone else. All the adults looked out for everyone’s children.” Community networks fostered a rich social and cultural life, especially for children. In a relatively safe environment, children could play street games such as stick ball and Kick the Can, frequent parks and playgrounds, visit each others’ houses, and if they belonged to one of many small ad hoc children’s “gangs” – whose worst “crimes” amounted to mischief – engage in “dumpster diving” and junkyard scavenging.

In the two decades following the 1947 flood, urban renewal programs and the Cement River Project gradually but steadily dispersed Bottoms residents, leading to what one former resident described as the “breakup of the family.” Throughout the 1950s and 1960s, the Center provided an anchor for a community in transition. As families relocated to Washington Heights and other areas, children and teenagers from the Bottoms often moved away from friends and resettled in new school districts. One woman recalled a difficult separation from her childhood friends, noting that, after she left the Bottoms, her “only connection” to friends remained the Hamblin Community Center. Given the forms of racial segregation and discrimination prevalent during these transitional years, the Center was often the only place where African American youth living in the Bottoms and the Heights could participate in sports, play music, or attend dances. The Center, simply, was “someplace safe” for “clean, structured activities.”

Julia Milner and Ellena Totten at Hamblin Community Center.

If the Hamblin Community Center provided an institutional setting that fostered and preserved community spirit, it also created a sense of extended family among those who participated in its activities. It did so, first, by providing a “home-like atmosphere” for individuals such as Reverend Rhan who often completed school homework at the Center because its library afforded him privacy. Julia Milner helped to create this “home-like atmosphere,” through the force of her personality and the clarity of her social vision. Described by those who knew her as a warm, compassionate, and loving person, Julia Milner was a “mother figure” and a “second mom” to many, partly because she was “always willing to talk” to anyone with a problem. “Everyone loved her,” many have said, fondly describing her as a “mother hen.” As any mother hen, Julia Milner had a watchful eye. According to one woman who frequented the Center, Julia Milner was equally “wonderful” and “stern” with children she sought to protect, encourage, and instruct.

Table tennis at Hamblin Community Center	One of the many dances at the Community Center	Boys building model airplanes at HCC

In some respects, Juila Milner’s firm guidance and close supervision of children allowed the Hamblin Community Center to fulfill important social functions. At the Center, Julia Milner “closely monitored” activities, so that even the strictest of parents “felt comfortable entrusting their children” with her. Sporting events, talent shows, and dances alike were closely chaperoned. Strict but reasonable rules determined the behavior of children and teens who were not allowed, for example, to wander outside the Center while activities were taking place. Such rules inspired the confidence and trust of many parents. One participant in the “Memories From Hamblin” project, a man who described himself as a “troublemaker” in the days of his youth, noted that his own mother was “elated” when he started going to the Center, where Julia Milner and Don Sherrod set him “on the right tracks.” As another participant recalled, Milner would “tan your behind” if you were “clowning around,” and then inform your mother so that “you got another one” when you got home. In enforcing her rules, Julia Milner most often relied on children’s desire to participate in the Center’s activities and an understanding that children who misbehaved would be sent home. Milner’s strategy of suspending the privileges of misbehaving children was, by all accounts, very effective. As Elder Marshall recalled,[] “It was a real treat to get to go down there…so you were always on your best behavior.”

Julia Milner promoted good behavior, not only by instilling a respect for the Center’s rules, but also through positive reinforcement and gentle encouragement. As Evelyn Atkinson observed, [] “We were encouraged to do whatever we felt like we wanted to do…as long as it was something that enhanced and benefited us.” Thelma Jones succinctly described Julia Milner’s balanced approach to teaching children: “She looked after us, and she complimented us when we were deserving, and she chastised us when we needed it.”

The activities available through the Center and the encouragement provided Julia Milner were particularly valuable to African American children, given the forms of racial segregation and discrimination that characterized life in much of Battle Creek. Whether barred, on certain days, from local roller rinks and bowling alleys, or taunted in school cafeterias, there were many places, one African American woman recalled, where “we knew we weren’t wanted” and felt “out of place.” Disguised forms of discrimination affected many African American students’ chances of success in high school sports programs. African Americans trying out for school baseball and basketball teams were routinely rejected. The few African Americans on sports teams, said Bob Bradley, often found themselves assigned to play the same position. As a result, there were never many African Americans on a field or court at any given time, and “not too many Blacks got recognition.” In the 1950s and 1960s, then, the Center was sometimes “the only place for Black young people” to comfortably participate in social activities or excel in sports. As importantly, activities at the Center provided unique opportunities for young women. Thelma Jones, frustrated as a teenager over the fact that many Battle Creek schools didn’t have basketball for girls, had a “saving moment” when she discovered that the Center had a girls’ team.

Hamblin Center Girls' Basketball Team, circa 1952

In 1974, the Hamblin Community Center closed. The loss of the Center, arguably, has been felt by successive generations. The Center was, among other things, a subsidized, affordable, and accessible facility that provided important resources for Battle Creek’s African American community. Since 1974, according to many former Bottoms residents, nothing has filled the void left by the Center’s disappearance. If blatant racial discrimination once prevented Battle Creek’s African Americans from entering certain recreational facilities, many African Americans are now prevented from using private recreational facilities, gyms, and amusement parks by prohibitive membership costs and admissions fees. Elderly people with fixed incomes and young children, in particular, are now experiencing the effects of social rather than racial segregation. As one former Bottoms resident phrased it, “if you haven’t got the money, you’re still segregated.”

Across the nation, reductions in state budgets have resulted in the elimination of physical education and after-school programs at many elementary and high schools. This, according to some participants in the “Memories of Hamblin” project, is all the more reason for public dialogue about community centers and youth programs. In the view of one woman who attended the Hamblin Community Center, the City “would have had better citizens” if something had emerged, in the 1970s, to take the place of the Center. As a Battle Creek grandmother similarly stated, many people “would like to see their grandchildren in a safe environment” such as that which existed at the Center. Lamenting the Center’s absence, other grandparents have suggested that, while growing up, their children and grandchildren “missed out” on the sorts of camaraderie and socializing experiences that build self-esteem, as well as respect for others. Of the Hamblin Community Center, Thelma Jones has stated, [] “There, everybody was important. And it gave you confidence, and children need that today.”