‘It is his (Buchman's) and the Board's purpose’, record the Ministerium's minutes for June 1905, ‘to actualise as nearly as possible the Christian family life, with all its comforts, refinements and wholesome influences.’ Nor, at this stage, did either Buchman or the Ministerium consider economic self-sufficiency critical. Although it was hoped to make the hospice self-sustaining, the minutes went on, ‘its very purpose might be defeated were an effort made to make it altogether so ... The deficit... will have to be covered from the Treasury of the society.’ The Ministerium had rented premises for this first Luther Hospice for Young Men at 157 N 20th Street for $2,000 a year, a sum which, in fact, made breaking even virtually impossible.

That was the understanding on which Buchman took the job of ‘housefather’, at $600 a year, with ‘general charge of the house in material and spiritual things under the direction of the Board’.35 Unfortunately, the chairman of the Board, Dr J. F. Ohl, was determined that the hospice should make the balancing of its books a priority and, indeed, regarded fund-raising as one of the housefather's principal jobs. Although he had, as Superintendent, been the sole signatory of the original terms of reference as set out in the minutes, it soon became clear that, so far as he was concerned, they might never have existed. Ohl was a musician, a liturgical scholar and a student of social movements, and known as a prickly character.

The two men found themselves in disagreement even before the hospice opened. Buchman had rented a cottage at Northfield, where he was taking daily Bible studies, as he did each year, and had invited Mary Hemphill, her sons and some of the young men from the Overbrook Hospiz to attend the Student Conference there with him. He was appointed as from 1 September and, having told the Board that he planned to return to Philadelphia on 26 August in ample time for the opening on 15 September, he was astonished to get a letter from Ohl pressing him to return sooner. It was essential, Ohl wrote, that the hospice should be completely full on the day it opened. Did Buchman not realise the cost if it were not? ‘Furthermore,’ he added, ‘I must point out that the Board does not like the word "Hospice" spelt “Hospiz”.'36 Buchman replied that he could not leave Northfield before the 26th, to which Ohl sent a charitable acquiescence.

The new hospice flourished as the old one had done. Buchman chose as housemother an elderly New Englander called Sarah Ward, who was a close family friend of Dwight Moody and whom Buchman had first met at Northfield. Between them, Buchman and Miss Ward managed to create an atmosphere which was both homely and friendly.

‘I believe I was expected, but certainly not that night,’ wrote one college student who stayed there for a summer. ‘Practically everyone had gone to bed; Mr Buchman had, I know. He was up immediately, however, and welcomed me in his dressing-gown as warmly as an old friend. I had scarcely been an hour in the town before I felt as much at home as in any place outside my native city.’

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