Happy Workers - Trinity Presbyterian

Happy Workers - Trinity Presbyterian. Faith, Family, and Education . 9th Avenue South Corridor. , Happy Workers Day Nursery and Kindergarten , Founded in conjunction with Trinity Presbyterian Church by its pastor, Reverend Oscar Monroe "O.M." McAdams, and his wife, Willie Lee. Happy Workers Day Nursery opened in 1929 with five children whose parents paid 25 cents a week for their care. Mrs. McAdams, who was the driving force behind the nursery, based the facility on the founding principle of child development in an environment of love, trust, and respect. The daycare started in a small church-owned building. In 1943, the nursery started offering infant care at a cost of $2 per week. In 1945, the school built a new building, expanding to accommodate 200 preschoolers each year. Happy Workers, a major cornerstone in the early education of thousands of children in St. Petersburg, remains a place where children learn to be peacemakers, where they are loved, and most of all where they are educated not only in the social graces, but also academically., Rev. Oscar Monroe “O.M.” McAdams , (1887-1976) , Rev. O.M. McAdams, a scholar fluent in five languages, taught mathematics at Gibbs High School and Sixteenth Street Junior High for approximately 28 years. Born and raised in South Carolina, he graduated from Johnson C. Smith University in 1915 and from Auburn Theological Seminary in Auburn, New York in 1918. At his first pastorate in Greenville, South Carolina, he met and married Willie Lee, who was a member of his staff. In St. Petersburg, he pastored Trinity Presbyterian Church from 1929 to 1965. He also served as president of St. Petersburg's Interdenominational Ministerial Alliance and as president of the St. Petersburg branch of the NAACP for five years., Trinity Presbyterian Church , Founded in, 1928, Trinity Presbyterian, Church, thrived after Rev. O.M. and Willie Lee McAdams came to St. Petersburg in 1929. After meeting for a year at Jordan Elementary, the congregation remodeled a residence at the corner of 19th Street and 9th Avenue S. into a church and moved the daycare into another building on the property. Under the McAdamses, the church established the first Vacation Bible School in the area, which grew so popular that the 500 students had to be accommodated at Jordan Elementary School. In 1947, the congregation sold their church building to the St. Petersburg Metropolitan Council of Negro Women, who moved the building across 9th Avenue to serve as their clubhouse. The congregation, with the assistance of architect Henry Kohler and African-American contractor Peter P. Perkins, dedicated their new facility on August 1, 1948. After Mrs. McAdams passed away in 1956, Rev. McAdams continued to pastor the church until 1965. The church shared the property with Happy Workers until 1967, when the congregation moved to 22nd Avenue S., Willie Lee McAdams , (1895-1956) , When she witnessed young African-American Children playing unsupervised in the street while their parents worked, Willie Lee McAdams and her husband decided to open Happy Workers Day Nursery and Kindergarten in 1929. She earned a teaching degree trom Haines Normal Institute of Augusta, Georgia, in 1924, and received a diploma from the Board of Christian Education of the Presbyterian Church USA. As the wife of Presbyterian minister Reverend O.M. McAdams, she used her contacts with other churches and the white community to raise funds, buy property, and open the day care. The facility she started continues to provide a safe, educational environment for children while meeting the rising standards for day care facilities., (captions) , Photo courtesy of the St. Petersburg Museum of History. , Photo courtesy of Jacob Fuller , The Tom Thumb wedding pageant, like the one shown here from 1956, was Happy Worker's premier fundraising event. Photo courtesy of the St. Petersburg Museum of History , Rev. O.M. McAdams Photo courtesy of the St. Petersburg Museum of History , Trinity Presbyterian Parsonage and Church, ca. 1940 , Willie Lee McAdams. Photo courtesy St. Petersburg Museum of History