The children had three big meals a day and as much milk as they could drink. The girls waited tables in the dining room, washed laundry and learned to sew.īut the Depression that brought so many Kentucky families to their knees barely registered within those walls. And some worked the farm - with pigs and cattle and every vegetable a kid could name. They worked in the print shop or the shoe shop. Johnson.īy seventh grade, boys started vocational training. A house mother lived in each cottage to watch over them. Orphans had two sets of clothes, one to wear and one to wash, with their names sewn inside. A job for even the smallest child: Dry mop a dormitory, clean the washroom bowls. A steamboat whistle attached to the boiler room for morning wake-up call. Fourteen identical beds and chairs in the dormitory. They’d welcomed even more during World War I and the influenza epidemic of 1918.įor Staten, life at the Home was regimented. “I just went to join my brothers.”īy the time the youngest Statens arrived, hundreds of children had already found a haven there - dating back to the earliest days of Reconstruction when Kentucky Masons envisioned a place that could care for the widows and orphans of the Civil War. It was the Great Depression when the country was pockmarked with bread lines, closed factories and “Hoovervilles” - makeshift encampments so named for President Herbert Hoover - where homeless families sought shelter. She had no skills and certainly no money. Mary Staten could read, but she only finished eighth grade. She just didn't want us to see it, maybe." "I think she put on a brave face because her life was very hard," he said. But she must have felt incredible heartbreak. Mary Staten didn't show much emotion and wasn't an affectionate woman. Timeline: History of the Masonic Homes of Kentucky Photo gallery: Masonic Homes of Kentucky through the years So in 1931, when Joe turned 4 and his older brother Bill was 5, Mary Staten left the last of her children at the Home. The Home had a rule: Children had to be 4 years old before they could enroll. With no Social Security or other public safety nets, it was their only chance. With eight children, his mother, Mary Frederick Staten, had no choice but to send the older ones to the Masonic Widows and Orphans Home. You know what I’m sayin’? But nobody really knows.” “I kind of, at times, have suggested - and I don’t like to say this: He just had his eighth kid and no job, no money,” he said. His sister said he went to a union meetin’ that night and never came back.” “He was kind of a loud-mouthed rabble-rouser.
“One old aunt said the union probably killed him,” Staten, who’s now 90, said of his father.
Jim Staten was an iron worker and a Mason. The family lived in a shotgun house on 28th Street back in 1928. Joe Staten was a year old when his father drowned in the Portland Canal. Their stories are ones of heartbreaking loss, learned self-reliance and limitless love. This summer, 62 orphans who once lived on the Frankfort Avenue campus came back to reminisce and celebrate the impact that “the Home,” as they call it, had on their lives. The staff at Sam Swope Care Center prides themselves on providing the highest quality of care.Watch Video: Masonic Homes of Kentucky: Through the yearsįor 150 years, the Masonic Homes of Kentucky have looked after the community’s most vulnerable - first for widows and orphans of Masons during the nation’s greatest tragedies, and now, for people of all ages. Louisville’s Sam Swope Care Center offers customized therapies for your outpatient, short- or long-term inpatient rehabilitation needs. Sproutlings takes a groundbreaking approach to caring for both traditional and medically fragile kids.Īt Pillars Assisted Care Center, you’ll enjoy a comfortable and modern home with around-the-clock nursing care. Let the staff at Masonic Communities Louisville help you put comfort first. The support from Sally’s Garden and Sam Swope Care Center lets residents with Alzheimer’s or other dementia lead fulfilling lives in places that feel like home. Life Care at Meadow and Miralea helps you secure your financial future so you can enjoy life to its fullest today. Louisville’s three independent living options, Meadow, Miralea and Village, give you the freedom to retire to a place that truly suits you.
Let us provide your loved ones with everything-from company to help with daily tasks and hygiene-all in the comfort of home. Grove Pointe features 48 one- and two-bedroom suites for older adults who need assistance with daily living activities.Īt Sam Swope Care Center, you or your loved one can receive dialysis treatments in a relaxing environment with state-of-the-art technology.
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