In spring 1929 the Home Economics School worked with Knoxville’s Juvenile Court to obtain the use of a baby to assist students in a practice house in learning infant care. A nine-month-old boy, suffering from severe malnutrition, was the first baby to join a Home Management House “family.” Men students of the university named the child Richard P. House after the practice house.
An American family living in the Philippines adopted Richard P. just before Christmas in 1929. In 1945 the local newspaper reported that he had enrolled at Stanford University.
After the success with the first baby, babies lived in the practice houses, and most were adopted after their stint with Home Management House families. In fall 1930 the first girl baby, Dorothy House came to live in the practice house for a year.