PART III

A HILL BECOMES A HOME

1945 - 1955

What changes were in store, as the Home moved to its new location . . .

No longer was South 33rd Street, with its sidewalks to the outer world, important to the boys - except in memory; now North 52nd Street was their link with the community.

Windsor Grade School and Tech High were replaced by Monroe Grade School and Benson High School.

There were different churches to attend.

Dormitory life gave way to the brand new brick cottages, each containing 4 living units for 4 boys each - under the watchful eye of a housemother.

And the move "to the country" allowed for a permanent, daily change of lifestyle for the boys - with all the advantages and opportunities which went with it.

"Felix Carpenter taught me how to plow with the team of horses we had . . . I remember cutting hay and baling it, going out in the country to dig up small trees to transplant them here (many of them still standing), and we also milked our cows, fed our pigs and raised chickens in the old farm buildings. When I left after graduation from Benson, I went to the University of Nebraska on an athletic scholarship . . . ".

- WES FULNER, a resident from 1945-1950

As the boys were taken to the 3 cottages atop the hill, they were assigned to their new living quarters on the spot - the youngest to the Buck Cottage, the middle boys to the Neef Cottage, and the oldest to the Shrine Cottage.

The Shrine Cottage . . . it deserves special mention in the history of the Home.

Due to its central location, it was the most public of our buildings.

Just to the right, inside the front entrance, is a very small room . . . which for several years held the Home's switchboard, a small desk and chair for the secretary, a glass top desk and swivel chair for the Superintendent, a chair for a visitor and 2 file cabinets.

Just around the corner another small room served as the medical room, where an intern from Immanuel Hospital came 2 or 3 times a week to care for the boys' minor ailments.

At the north end of the first floor was the Home's library, and a place for the tutor who helped with the schoolwork.

The Board of Directors held its meetings in the lounge of the Shrine Cottage . . . and downstairs, in a room not much bigger than today's foyer, was the dining hall. It is hard to imagine so many boys eating so many meals in such a small place.

In the early years, then, the Shrine Cottage did its part and more - a residential cottage - administrative offices - library - medical room - meeting place - and dining hall.

Another need was met in the Shrine - the Superintendent and his family lived there for a few years as well.

Growth continued, as A.C. Scott and Carl A. Anderson each sponsored residential cottages, slightly down the hill around the traffic circle, and those buildings were opened in 1946.

Then, the High Twelve Club of Sioux City, IA, an association of Masons dedicated to service to the fraternity, announced its desire to sponsor construction of private living quarters for the Superintendent.

Construction started in 1947, and the building was dedicated June, 1948.

There were changes on other fronts, as well. A Boy Scout troop involving 35 youngsters was organized, and late in 1947 the Earl Buck Athletic Field, a large concrete court for tennis, skating, hockey and basketball was completed.

The littlest boys had their playground of Megeath House carryovers . . . now expanded recreational opportunities for all were possible.
"Our Scout group met in the basement of the Neef Cottage, and there were Friday and Saturday (?) night movies there as well. I remember being called on often to carry the very heavy cans of film for the projectionist . . . My foot froze on the accelerator as Mr. Reichart gave me my first driving lesson across the lower alfalfa field . . . but what great Sunday afternoon rides he took us on to brighten our days . . . ".

- MAX GREEN, a resident from 1944-1952

The Home was approached by a movie producer in 1948, with the idea of making a promotional film which could be shown to interested groups - and even mailed out over the country, a very novel idea for that time.

Harold F. Chenoweth had been making movies in Omaha since 1920, and his studio in the 1940's was not far from the new campus.

"TAD", a full color 27 minute production, was the result, and it proved to be a tremendous public relations asset for the Masonic Home in club meetings and offices far and near.

(Sadly, and for unknown reasons, no copies of "TAD" can still be found - and this look at life in our Home nearly half a century ago, may be lost forever.)

General Superintendent Jesse Arnold led the Home's business and fundraising functions from offices in Downtown Omaha, for there was not yet room at the new site.

Jesse Arnold passed away in early 1949, and the man chosen to succeed him was William Harrison Bruner.

It was a choice well made, for Harry Bruner was to be the Home's guiding force for 27 years.
"I started at the office downtown - 612 Omaha National Bank Building, as a secretary, taking dictation from Mr. Bruner, and working in the mailing department. We sent out large mailings at Christmas and Easter time, with the boys living at the Home stuffing the small envelopes, letter and whatever else to go in the mailing. I then would meet Mr. Bruner at 40th and Ames - as far as I could get by bus - and he would take me on out to the Home where I would run the stuffed envelopes through the mailing machine . . .".

- HELEN RUHSER, an employee from 1951-1963

The growing fundraising operation on site at the Home took place in the basement of the Buck Cottage, and then in a portion of the High Twelve Building.

Countless boys recall stuffing fundraising appeals for the Home. Over 40 years later, Ed Young - then Chairman of Home Real Estate, Omaha's largest residential real estate company - chuckled about his "first job", stuffing envelopes at a penny apiece.

"I was good at it, too" he recalled fondly.

Another boy got directly involved in fundraising, too, when the High Twelve Club of Clinton, IA, started a yearly tradition of filling large ceramic pig savings banks with coins and bills for the Masonic Home.

The first "Hammy" bank was presented in the dead of winter and Harry Bruner took young Mickey Davis with him, clear across Iowa on the train, to accept the gift for the boys.

On a visit to the campus 4 decades later, Mickey quoted his thank you speech to the Club in its entirety - "It's better to give than to receive".

A very important friend of the Home, indeed, was Mr. Bob Cooper. A prominent cattleman, on his first visit in 1948 he offered to help start a 4-H calf program.

Shortly after, several calves appeared - they were housed originally in some old rabbit hutches on the property.

A colorful start for a program of such lasting consequence to so many . . . Gazing at the beauty of the view to the east from the lounge of the Shrine Cottage, 4 people came up with a name for a new 4-H Club - "Valley View" - a name still in use.

But rabbit hutches and other outbuildings weren't enough for what Bob Cooper had in mind, and in 1950 he donated his 72 acre stock farm - 3 miles north - to the Home.

The newly acquired farm, about to enter a new phase in its history, already had a storied past. It had been in 1846 part of the site for Cutler's Park, an encampment of several thousand Mormon pioneers heading west. Wagon ruts were visible in the pasture a century later.

Frank Simpson, a mule trader in the days before mechanization when mules were of great military value over rough terrain, ran the Simpson Mule Farm here.

Each year officers of the British Army would come to Omaha to select mules for shipment to India. Tea was held every afternoon on the screened porch, and the mules were branded in the corrals on top of the hill.

LIFE magazine was so impressed with this operation that it devoted a page of its December 13, 1937, issue to the Simpson Mule Farm.

Guards patrolled the farm during World War II, for the mules were still of military value - but the weapons of war changed during that monumental conflict.

The days of shipping mules to India were over. Frank Simpson died in 1945, to be buried in the northwest corner of Forect Lawn Cemetery overlooking the land he loved so well.

Bob Cooper purchased the farm in 1948 . . . and shortly after his 1950 donation to the Home, plans began for the new use of this historic land.

An annual practice - a fall trip to the ranches of central and western Nebraska to pick up calves donated for the boys' use - began in 1950.

The Denver stock show was attended in February, 1951. Meanwhile the farm house was being converted into a residential cottage for boys and houseparents, and a farm manager's residence was built with donated materials and labor in 1952.

The 1930's farm north of Elkhorn had contained a picnic area for use by groups, and it was decided to continue this tradition in the new location.

In 1953 a picnic pavilion was built atop the hill, where mule corrals once stood.

The Cooper Memorial Farm, named after this generous friend of boys, was off and running . . .
"What memories . . . We had a buff colored Collie dog who was a friend to everyone. You could set your watch by Sandy - each afternoon at 3:15 he would walk down the path and wait for the boys to come home from school. One housemother always wrapped a quarter and a dime in saran wrap and then put them between the layers of birthday cake - great fun to be the lucky one to find the money . . . One of 'my favorites' fell through the ceiling when he was in the attic hiding feathers from a pillow fight - onto a boy who was sleeping in his room below. The housemother heard the commotion, and of course several boys were in trouble then . . .".

- MARGARET STASKA, employee from 1949-1984

Memories indeed . . . Mr. McMullen, the tutor hired in 1950 . . . visits by Sky King and Penny, and on another occasion the Mills Brothers . . . silent filmstar Harold Lloyd, a Nebraska native, coming to the Home and being greeted by 4-H calves wearing large black glasses - his trademark . . . and actor Pat O'Brien who brightened St. Patrick's Day in 1952 . . . the dinner bell . . . Dobby the quarter horse . . . dirt clod fights behind Mr. Reichart's back . . . and the banquet where tainted Boston Creme pie sent 80 boys back to the Home violently ill, "giving new meaning to the term 'bucket brigade'" in the words of Mickey Davis decades later.

Thanks to a provision in the Will of Ida Gallagher Smith, who passed away in 1951, construction started on the Robert L. and Ida G. Smith Administration Building in 1952.

Administrative offices were finally moved from the Shrine Cottage, rented offices downtown and the High Twelve Building - a long sought goal.

And the basement of the new Smith Building contained recreation rooms for supervised play and a stage area for plays and movies.

Under the leadership of John Changstrom, a member of the Board of Trustees, the administrative functions of the Home were divided into departments and there were staffing and budgetary changes.

The Home was growing . . . and changing. More boys than ever . . . two large campuses . . . a growing 4-H program . . . many beautiful brick buildings to maintain, and plans for more to come.

No longer could the help of friends in Omaha, and particularly the Masons with their heartfelt and steadfast support, raise the funds necessary.

It was time to "nationalize" the Home, with an expanded mailing system - nationwide in scope.

Because funds cannot be solicited Masonically across state lines, the name of the Home was changed to "The Omaha Home for Boys" on June 24, 1952.

And later that year, using rented lists of names, 500,000 Christmas appeal letters were mailed nationwide for the first time.
"I was Mr. Bruner's Secretary. He and I first proposed putting 'The' in the new name for the Home as it was a way to make it more formal, and to distinguish it from other children's homes . . . John Changstrom was the one who came up with the wonderful name 'Inspiration Hill' . . . I took the streetcar from my home to 52nd and Maple, the end of the line, and Cal Reichart would pick me up there and bring me to the Home . . . I couldn't have found a better 'Boss' to work for than Harry Bruner."

- ANNE SWANSON, an employee from 1951-1967

In the memory of Edgar Franklin Howe, a crafts building was built in 1954 - also to include a small apartment for staff, the Home's laundry and a garage.

That same year was to see the Home enter teams in citywide softball play, starting decades of ball games on the diamond behind the Administration Building . . . and boys proudly entered a float in the City of Omaha's Centennial parade.

As Christmas approached in 1955, Harry Bruner announced that the Home would be mailing nearly a million letters for the first time - and maybe with something new, too.

It had been a memorable 10 years . . . a new location . . . cottage life . . . a second campus . . . a 4-H program . . . staff and procedure changes . . . more boys and greater recreational and educational opportunities for them . . . the Home got a new identity - and became a national organization . . .

Many milestones had been passed, and, indeed, "a hill had become a Home".

 

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