HOME FOR THE ARMENIAN AGED (NO.5): THE FOUNDERS

Vahe H. Apelian

The Founders of the Home For The Armenian Aged

THE FOUNDERS

The signatories of the Certificat of Incorporation are the founders of the Home For The Armenian Aged. These women were related to each other not only in purpose but also socially. Most of the women, like the prelate Karekin Hovsepian, were Dikranagerdsi Armenians and were mostly affiliated with the Armenian Presbyterian Church.

Zorah (Turnamian) Bookrajian was born on 9/6/1905 in Union City, N.J. and married to Jack Bookrajian. They had one son, Jack Edward. She was a member of Holy Cross Armenian Church and was active with AGBU. She dies on 9/7/1975.

Helen (Hammalian) Gabbert was the daughter of Anna Hammalian. After graduating from high school she became a concert soprano and sang in concerts and operas. She was the Society Editor of “The Record” where she spent 18 years. She was active in the Institute for Cancer Research, Armenian General Benevolent Union, Armenian Presbyterian Church, and in the Hackensack community in general. she died on September 1988.

Aghavni Hammalian settled in New Jersy at the age of two having arrived from Dikranagerd with her parents. She married Paul Hammalian and the couple became one of the first members of the Armenian Presbyterian Church established in 1898. She was very active in the Armenian community and assisted the survivors of the 1915 Genocide. She was also a trustee of the Armenian Presbyterian Church. She was elected the church’s “mother of the year” in 1956 and was cited as “combining the best of the Armenian and American heritages”.

Anna Hammalianwas was Mrs. Aghavni Hammalian’s sister-in-law. She was born in Dikranagerd and came to America with her parents in 1888. She married Hacop Hammalian. They were members of the Armenian Presbyterian Church and had two daughters one of whom, Mrs. Helen Gabbert, was also a founding member of the Home. She died in January 1973 having lived in Hackensack for 74 years. Her obituary in “The Record” reads: “Mrs. Hammalian founded the Armenian Home in 1937 and served as its treasurer from 1937 to 1948.”

Ovsanna Kassabian was the widow of Mr. Hovsep Kassabian who is credited to have initiated the drive to found a residence for the Armenian age. She was born in Dikranagerd on July 3, 1882. and died on February 8, 1960. Her obituary in the Hyedoun reads: “until her last few days of life, she always visited the Home and was deeply interested in the welfare of the guests.”

Baitzar (Bertha) Tarzianwas born in Dikranagerd and taught there until she came to Boston in 1906 when she married Guiragos Tarzian. In 1922 the family moved to West New York in N.J. She was a long-standing member of the Women’s Guild of the Holy Cross Armenian Church in Union City and was active in the Armenian General Benevolent Union (AGBU) for over 53 years. After her husband’s death, she moved to the Home where she lived the last fifteen years of her life. She dies in 1881.

Zarman Turnamianwas the sister of Mrs. Aghavni Hammalian. Zarman Chankalian Turnamian was born on March 1, 1886, in Union City, N.J. She was a member of the Holy Cross Armenian Church. She married Charles C. Turnaamian. They had w children, Zorah and Levon. She was also a member of the Women’s Guild of Holy Cross Church. She dies on 10/10/1965.

Aroosiag Jerahian, there is no biographical information in the archives of the Home and information about her is sketchy. On the hallway wall of the Armenian Presbyterian Church in Paramus, photographs are dating back to the early 1930s where some of the founders of the Home are identified, including Aroosiag Jerahian. 

In her memoirs, she comes across as a woman of determination and conviction who is very meticulous about dates. She was undoubtedly endowed with leadership qualities. The women who initiated the efforts towards establishing a home for the Armenian aged went to her and asked her to assume the leadership of their group. In her memoir, she reveals that upon assuming the chair of the self-motivated group of women, she asked every one of the groups to take a solemn vow to work together for life, if need be, towards the realization of their mutual goal. 

She was elected the President when the Corporation was founded in 1938 and became a life member of the Board of Trustees. She witnessed the realization of their goal when they bough the Home grounds in 1943. In 1948 she moved to California with her husband but kept in touch with the Home and continued to support the Home by writing articles about the Home in Armenian newspapers. She also visited the Home and attended the Fathers’ Day picnic. 

The records of the United Armenian Congregational Church in North Hollywood indicate that she died on December 1965.

Mary Tfank– was the ninth founding member of the Home. 

GRASS ROOT SUPPORT

Board of Trustees

The Armenian community at large enthusiastically welcomed the founding of a home for the Armenian aged. Undoubtedly without this grass root community support, the Home could not have been realized.

After the founding chapters were organized in the tri-state area and words of encouragement came from community leaders as far as in California. Also, a “Junior Organization of the Home For The Armenian Aged Inc.” was organized in 1945, two years after the purchase. The purpose of these chapters was to support the Home.

It is impossible to narrate all the support the Home received from individuals, organizations, and the various chapters of the Home.  The extent of the community’s support can be best appreciated by examining the plaques placed near the door of every room bearing the names of the benefactors. However telling these plaques are, they only reflect the visible aspects of the community’s support. During the Home’s crucial formative years a host of individuals volunteered their services to the Home including physicians, lawyers, dentists, nurses, administrators, accountants, homemakers, carpenters, barbers, tailors; in short professionals and tradesmen from all walks of life brought their share to make the Home viable and survivable.

Various enterprises were also volunteered to raise money for the Home. The extent and the duration of the New York Chapter’s support may best reflect the prevailing attitude of the Armenian community towards the Home. The New York Chapter adopted an interesting and innovative way of raising money. These dedicated women met once a week and for a fee washed, dried wool and then sewed beautiful comforters. Along with washing and drying of wool, which the immigrant Armenian had most likely brought with them, these women also prepared delicacies and sold them. This unique endeavor was headed by Mrs. Gulmina Mardick, one of the very early supporters of the Home and vice-president for many years. The women started their support of the Home in this manner since 19343 and continued it for more than 16 years. In these years, they raised substantial sums of money. The records indicate that in 1958 these women had raised $5800 towards construction, an astronomical sum of money indeed. Wikipedia claims that adjusting to inflation it would be worth $51,308 today.

The Home For the Armenian Aged (presently Armenian Nursing and Rehabilitation Center) continues to enjoy the support of the community through Friends of the Armenian Home (FAH) group. Elbiz Baghdikian, who has been its treasurer for the past 18 years, informed that the FAH was formed by Bertha Vanishikian and Linda Aprahamian 21 years ago. The group is very active.  Thus far it has spent upwards of a quarter-million dollars towards upgrading the Home. Last year they broke grounds for a new addition that is expected to cost up to 30 million dollars.