ST. CLARA'S ORPHANAGE

Mom attended Saint Clara's Orphanage in Denver.  Here are a couple of photographs of kids who attended the school in 1936.  Mom would have been 16, and the kids in those pictures look much younger.  I don't know the year that Mom left the orphanage.  Here is a 1940s picture of St. Clara's. 

Here is a collection of Getty Images of Saint Clara's Orphanage through the years.  The following picture is from a postcard but the listing does not provide the date.  Grrr.

The orphanage was located at 3800 West 29th Avenue in Denver in an area known as West Highland, located west of Federal Blvd. and, of course, west of Interstate 25.  The neighborhood was quite elegant.  Lots of brick style, turn-of-the-century homes still standing there and throughout the Denver area.  Loved that area.  




This is a terrific photo of an air force soldier visiting with boys from St. Clara's Orphanage.  And that makes perfect sense that an Air Force soldier would visit the kids in Denver, given the fact that the Air Force Academy is located in Colorado Springs, CO., 75 miles or 72 minutes south of Denver.

Below is another shot of St. Clara's Orphanage from Getty Images.  

The caption reads 

JUL 13 1967 St.Clara's Orphanage, which was founded and Built in 1890, will be shut down Jan 1 by Authorities. The 51 children now living in the building will be placed individually in new homes in the Denver area. Credit: Denver Post (Denver Post via Getty Images)

Here on Page 11, you'll find an interesting history of how St. Clara's Orphanage became so. 

SEP 22 1962, SEP 23 1962; Saint Clara's Orphanage; Denver -Boulder Orphans *****; In the driver's seat of a Lowry Field T-Bird--a T33 jet trainer plane--is John Weiss, 10, of St. Clara's Orphanage. Behind him, left to right, are Airman Second Class Homer Jackson, Danny Miller, 12, and Ansell Torrez, 10. 200 Denver-Boulder orphans got a tour. The youngsters watched a fire-fighting demonstration, saw an action-filled motion picture and enjoyed an especially elaborate luncheon with officers in the mess hall.;

Well, Mom was long gone from St. Clara's by 1954, but I thought that these photos from St. Regis nearby might be kind of interesting for nostalgia watchers.