Large red brick houses with high-ceilinged rooms were my father’s penchant for his adult life, and it’s no wonder: The Paul Clark Home in Butte was his home from the ages of 9 to 17.
My father, Daniel John Clancy, did not speak often of his experiences in the home. In a matter-of-fact tone, he said he and his youngest sister, Adeline, lived in the home together. Children in the Paul Clark Home were placed there usually as a temporary solution for serious family emergencies. Soon after the fifth Clancy child was born, their mother died. Their mining father, Daniel Clancy, had silicosis from the copper mines, and he could not care for five children. After uncles, aunts and a grandmother took in the children for two years, it was decided that the two youngest would be better cared for at the Paul Clark Home.
When I began to piece together my family history, I spent two days in what is now the Paul Clark Home/McDonald’s Family Place to understand my father’s commitment to St. Joseph’s Orphanage in our hometown of Helena. As children, my two brothers and I frequently accompanied our father on Saturday visits to St. Joseph’s. As Adeline later reflected in a letter to me “Your father never received, nor sought recognition for his support for St. Joseph’s.”
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From its inception, the Paul Clark Home was a memorial to W.A. Clark’s son Paul. In Butte, helping the community became critical with the boom-and-bust cycle that is the reality in mining towns. Butte residents concerned about the hungry, less fortunate children formed the Associated Charities in 1897 with the motto: “To help the worthy poor to help themselves.”
From minutes from the meetings of the Associated Charities found in the Butte Archives, the purposes for the agency included caring for young children, providing training to improve work opportunities, and children’s day care while mothers worked. For these goals, a large residence was needed. The house on the corner of Excelsior and West Mercury Street was remodeled and the Paul Clark Home opened Dec. 17, 1899, managed by the Associated Charities. One stipulation was there were no religious or ethnic restrictions for admittance.
In The Daily Intermountain of Nov. 17, 1900, W.A. Clark was quoted as saying, “The project of the establishment of the home was inspired by the premature demise of a noble boy, whose name it bears. A more unselfish child never lived than he.” Clark shared the memory of his son, Paul, who gave all of his savings to the poor from his earliest years: “He kept a small bank, which he would empty from time to time and donate the contents to the ‘fresh air fund’ to provide an outing for the indigent and sick children of New York.” Paul Clark had died in 1896 at age 16 from a bacterial infection that caused the painful rash called St. Anthony’s Fire, according to the Verdigris Project of Butte.
In 1900, the Paul Clark Home was as attractive as it was functional. The brickwork was Flemish style. It had a large children’s dining room on the north side of the building, and a hospital with a sunroom on the south side. The hospital may have been used for quarantine; that would explain why my father came down with the measles and mumps at the same time that the three of us eldest children did.
In their annual report of Jan. 4, 1901, the two living Copper Kings donated to a soup kitchen at the Paul Clark Home on Excelsior.
As I wrote in my book, Destination: Butte, Montana: “Senator Clark donated $150.00 per month for the first four months of 1901 to open a soup kitchen. Another Copper King, F. Augustus Heinze, donated 150 tons of coal at Thanksgiving. Merchants and Butte residents were generous in contributions that provided transportation for 120 persons, furnished clothing for 718 persons, provisions for 150 families and coal to 65 families; at the Home 41 persons have been cared for, and meals served to the number of 2,071. The floral mission made 815 bouquets from July to August. A cork leg was received for a worthy young boy.”
In 1905, donations to the Associated Charities cause included a contribution by a convict at Deer Lodge. He sent a letter about his gift of a bridle: “I saw in the Butte Miner of recent date that you had through your president, Mrs. Alice Roach, appealed to the public of Butte for financial aid for your good cause. There were mentioned so many pitiful cases that it reminds me of the saying, ‘that a person can never be so unfortunately situated but what there are others worse.’
“I have a bridle that I have made during my leisure hours, of which I have many, that I will cheerfully send you to be sold, the proceeds to be used as you think best in caring for those unfortunate beings. Please let me know if you think you can use the bridle in any way, and if so, I will send it first shipping day after hearing from you. It is a nice one to say the least. Wishing you and your charges a Merry Christmas, I am respectfully yours, etc.” The letter was quoted in the Associated Charities’ annual report of Feb. 3, 1905.
By 1907, the need for expansion at the Paul Clark Home led to adding a third floor, and manual training opportunities were added in the basement at a $50,000 cost. In July 1908, residents of Butte were invited to a a large reception to view the expanded facility. W.A. Clark’s brother J. Ross Clark and his wife attended the reception.
The newly built third floor included a hall with numbered lockers. The even numbered lockers were for girls, the odd for boys. Children could keep their combs and accessories in the lockers. Below the lockers were benches of oak that today still look warm today with windows flanking each staircase. The lavatories had a row of 30 sinks, three toilets and two bathtubs. The dormitories were light-filled rooms with space and metal beds to accommodate up to 100 children. In 1908, 36 children from 4 to 15 were living in the home.
My father’s years at the Paul Clark Home were from 1926-1935. His sister, Adeline, lived there until 1942. By the time Adeline left the home, my father was serving in the U.S. Army in Italy, France and Africa during World War II. They appreciate the Paul Clark Home for providing them education and opportunites for life.
The Paul Clark Home’s mission changed in 1971 when the state of Montana began placing former students from the Montana School for Developmentally Disabled at Boulder in the 201 Excelsior residence. Disabled women lived at the home until 1988 when a new purpose was found for the Paul Clark Home: a comfortable home for families with members facing treatment in Butte hospitals. The Paul Clark Home/McDonald Family Place opened in 1992.