Resilience is what has kept St. Joe’s steady for the kids who need us most. In honor of our 175th anniversary, we are sharing some of the most monumental moments in St. Joe’s history.
“On the morning of May 15, 1935, at 6:15 a.m., fire was discovered in an empty attic above the older boys’ dormitory on the west side of the building. According to the Home’s records, ‘all left in order.’
The house fire alarm bell sounded and in less than two minutes the Sisters had led all the children outside the building. They were all dressed for morning Mass when the alarm bell sounded and their excellent training stood them in good stead. Sister Mary Berchman was superior of St. Joseph Children’s Home, which at the time housed 209 children with 16 Ursuline Sisters in charge of the Home and school.
The Herald Post of Louisville carried this editorial at the time of the fire: “Heroism is a big word, and we are accustomed to applying it to individuals only, to mark them and to celebrate them. There is, just the same, such a thing as collective heroism. It’s the precise opposite to mob panic, its contradiction, its reverse. That collective heroism saved more than 200 souls when, early Wednesday morning, fire swept the upper story of St. Joseph’s Orphans Home on Frankfort Ave.
Without hysteria, 208 children ranging in age from 2-15 years, and 16 nuns, evacuated the building in less than two minutes. When the test came, these children were ready. They were not shaken, not flustered by the frightening obstacle of a chute upon which they had relied – a fire escape – cut off by flames. Expertly captained, heartened by devoted Sisters who had joined them, they trooped down the main staircase in perfect order, older boys carrying the younger orphans.
On the lawn they waited chilled and trembling but unafraid. A major catastrophe had been averted. The community owes a vote of thanks to the discipline, the faith, the calm courage instilled into these youngsters by careful, loving teachers, protectors also in the fullest sense.”
– excerpt from Love’s Home: The Works and Wonders of St. Joseph Children’s Home 1849-2002, Glenn O. Rutherford
This post was supported by funds made available by the Kentucky Department for Public Health’s Office of Health Equity from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for STLT Public Health Infrastructure and Workforce, under RFA-OT21-2103.
The content of this post are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official position of or endorsement by the Kentucky Department for Public Health or the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
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