until his death in 1945 1913: SCI opens the doors of its 12-story building at 25 South Street in lower Manhattan with room to house up to 580 seafarers in dormitory style rooms. The headquarters also housed a shipping bureau, a restaurant, a postal service and a chapel. 1917: SCI begins training merchant marines for World War I 1920: Janet Lord Roper begins running the Missing Seamen's Bureau 1924: SCI opens an emergency homeless shelter for seafarers affected by the shipping industry’s economic downturn 1942: SCI's Merchant Marine School expands all the way through the 13th-story roof at 25 South Street to provide rooftop instruction and pilothouse training to meet increasing wartime demand for qualified seafarers 1961: SCI dedicates its International Seafarers’ Center in Port Newark, NJ 1968: SCI's New York City headquarters moves to an 18-story building at 15 State Street. Services include a chapel, hotel rooms, restaurant and bar, reading room, post office and credit bureau 1978: SCI hosts its first Silver Bell Awards Dinner, an annual event to honor an individual or group for outstanding leadership in the maritime community, significant commitment to merchant mariners and engagement with issues facing the maritime industry 1982: The Center for Seafarers’ Rights is established 1991: SCI's New York City headquarters moves to 241 Water Street. The building housed a chapel, meeting rooms, legal aid offices, classrooms for maritime education and training, an art gallery, a cafeteria, and internet access and phones for mariners' use. 1997: The Institute opens CME–Paducah in Kentucky, the first training facility of its kind for America's inland river mariners 1998: Ministry on the River begins, the only full-time pastoral care service available to mariners working on America's inland river systems 2001: SCI dedicates CME–Houston, a facility for maritime training in the Port of Houston 2001: SCI's NYC headquarters is transformed into an emergency relief station for 9/11 rescue workers, providing thousands of meals and distributing truckloads of donated supplies to aid Ground Zero workers 2005: SCI raises and distributes over $155,000 for mariners affected by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita 2009: SCI launches a groundbreaking study on the psychological effects of piracy on merchant mariners 2009: SCI assumes administrative responsibilities for the Life Saving Benevolent Association of New York (LSBA), an organization founded in 1849 to "“recognize and reward courage, skill and seamanship in the rescue of human life on the sea or any navigable waters..." 2010: