The Red Rose Girls: Henrietta Cozens

"I Love the Cat" by Jessie Willcox Smith

"By the time Violet Oakley, Jessie Willcox Smith and Elizabeth Shippen Green were ready to relocate to the Red Rose Inn, the household had expanded to include their friend Henrietta Cozens. Although not an artist, Henrietta had agreed to shoulder the responsibility of managing the property and overseeing all domestic chores. Her compelling interest was in gardening. She had no career ambitions other than to fulfill the traditional expectations of a proper Victorian housewife, since she had no intention to marry (although she had, at one point, been engaged), and had decided to commit her time and energy to managing the household for her three friends. 

Henrietta was senior member of the group, forty-three years old. She was a small, sharp-featured, reclusive woman with a strong will and a dedication to proper decorum that made her an ideal companion for the thirty-nine-year-old Jessie. Effervescent Elizabeth and intense Violet were almost a generation younger. Jessie must have welcomed the presence of another mature woman who shared her sense of propriety. In the many letters written over the course of her lifetime there was not one hint of criticism but rather effusive compliments of her capabilities as a homemaker. Her presence at the inn made the collaboration function like a family and enabled the women to enjoy a gentrified life while maintaining a punishing work schedule.

Even with Henrietta's assistance the women needed household servants: a cook, a maid and workers to help in the extensive gardens. The rent at the Red Rose was $125 a month, household expenses - not counting the money they paid to have their washing done or the maid's wages - typically came to over $500 a month, plus each had agreed to subsidize a portion of Henrietta's rent, and each had the burden of her own business expenses. In addition, Violet planned to invite her mother to come and live at the inn, and Elizabeth had similar plans for both her aging parents. The women were savvy enough to anticipate the seriousness of these increased financial obligations. So just before the move they made a vow, a solemn agreement to stay together for life."

To be continued

(Excerpts from "The Red Rose Girls: Art and Love on Philadelphia's Main Line" by Alice A. Carter.)