As Joe Staten rode along in a shuttle bus across the Masonic Homes of Kentucky’s Louisville campus, sitting sideways to get a better look out the window, the memories could no longer be contained.
“All this on this side of the campus was the girls’ dormitories, and this was the school building right here … That big building you see right there? That was the main dining room … Right here on this end was the post office. The print shop was on the whole first floor, and the shoe shop was on the other end,” he said as he continued to point out buildings, landmarks and cherished spots occupied during his time at Masonic Homes.
Along with six of his siblings, Staten was brought to the St. Matthews campus when he was just a year old in 1931, after his father died. By then, Masonic Homes had already been around 64 years. It was established after the Civil War to care for the widows and orphans of Masons.
In 1867, the first home was built in a cornfield where DuPont Manual High School now stands. It moved in 1926 to its current location, which was designed by famed landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted. In just one year, 18 buildings were completed, and more than 400 children were transferred.
By then, the mission had evolved into caring for those affected by World War I, the Great Depression and any other hardships that befell the families of Masons.
“It was the greatest thing that ever happened to me,” Staten said. “It was during the Depression. My dad died, and nobody had work. My mother couldn’t afford insurance, so this was it. I don’t know where I would’ve been if it hadn’t been for this.”
Eleven-year-old Eugene Blanton would arrive at Masonic Homes from Harlan County 19 years after Staten had come to live there. Blanton’s father had died in an accident while driving a truck in southeastern Kentucky, leaving a wife and nine children. “We came by bus, and back in those years, it was the old road system, so you did just about as many miles sideways as you did forward,” Blanton said. “When we got to [Masonic Homes], we were taken straight to the dining hall, and they fed us. I thought I had died and gone to heaven. It was so beautiful.”
“Little City Beautiful” is, in fact, what many residents called their new home and is the name of a documentary produced for Masonic Homes’ 150th anniversary. Airing May 23 on KET, the documentary features Staten and Blanton, along with several other former residents who recall their life at a beloved institution that not only gave them food and shelter but also an education, vocation and life skills.
“Personally, I worked on the farm. I learned how to grow things, how to take care of them, how to get them to produce,” Blanton said. “They showed you how to do something and would correct you where you needed it, and you learned pretty quickly. We learned a lot, and we learned how to take care of ourselves. You didn’t have time to get overwhelmed, and in one way, it was a big adventure.”
While Blanton worked on the on-site farm, Staten spent his years in the print shop.
“It taught us to work,” Staten recalled. “We’d go to school until 2 o’clock, then we’d go to the vocation, and we couldn’t wait to get out and start playing ball. We always had somebody to play with.”
In addition to the documentary, Masonic Homes is marking its sesquicentennial with events scheduled throughout the year, including an alumni reunion in June and a “Home for the Holidays” campus light tour in December.
Those alumni who do come “home” will see a campus that has changed over the past decades.
After the final orphan left in 1989, Masonic Homes saw a period of deterioration over the next 10 years—so much so that Staten said he couldn’t bear to come back to visit.
“I said, ‘Oh, what have they done to my home?’ ” Staten recalled.
But Nicole Candler, the communications and marketing vice president, said a renewed sense of service began to take shape in the early 2000s, when care became focused on senior citizens and other specialized services.
In addition to the St. Matthews campus, Masonic Homes also offers aging care and services at two other locations: Shelbyville and northern Kentucky.
With the three locations, Masonic Homes of Kentucky now provides short- and long-term rehabilitation, nursing care, dialysis, active lifestyle communities and in-home care, as well as Sproutlings Pediatric Day Care & Preschool, which offers care and education to children, including medically fragile youngsters.
Construction is underway at the St. Matthews location on The Meadow, which will expand the active lifestyle home offerings and also include a new 48-unit assisted-living facility.
“It’s been in the last 10 to 15 years that we have really started to focus on growing our services,” Candler said. “Boy, has it taken off from there.”
Despite the growth and changes, Staten can still relive his memories as he tours the area—especially when the shuttle bus stops in front of The Bistro and Club Olmsted, an entertainment and dining complex located at the heart of the campus.
“I brought a buddy of mine out, and we pulled up in front of the Olmstead, and I pointed down toward the flag and said, ‘You see that [imaginary] yellow line going down through there?’ We saw it, and we weren’t allowed to cross it. If you crossed it you were on the girls’ side,” Staten said.
Then there was the time he and his buddies stole corn from the nearby farm, or that time he sat next to Rosemary Clooney on the steps of the Olmsted when she was visiting a friend.
The memories, the education, the life skills—all cherished gifts that can never be taken from those who spent their formative years at Masonic Homes.
“It was the greatest thing in my life,” Staten said. “I always will say it. It’s the greatest thing that happened to my family.”
Blanton couldn’t agree more.
“It was quite an experience,” he said. “I didn’t appreciate it then, but I’m quite impressed when I think back on it. Most of the kids feel like I do: They have gratitude that what they experienced was special.”
For more information about Masonic Homes of Kentucky, visit masonichomesky.com, and for details on the 150th anniversary events and additional history about the storied location, visit mhky150.com.