Last children's home operated by Missouri county shuts its door

POPLAR BLUFF, Mo. -- The children are gone.

For six decades the Edgewood Children's Home at 409 Center St. took in on a temporary basis battered and abandoned children who were wards of the juvenile court. Members of the Woman's Citizenship Club and its offshoot, the Junior Citizenship Club, took care of the home and played with and cared for the children staying there. Some years 400 or more children stayed at the center, some for a few days, some for a few weeks.

"We had one little boy with his head split down the side. His mother's boyfriend had split it with an ax," said Evelyn Whitworth, a charter member of the Junior Citizenship Club. "This child certainly needed a safe haven. That's what Edgewood Children's Home has always been. A temporary home, yes, hopefully when they left they went to a better place."

The closing of Edgewood marks the end of an era for Missouri.

"It was the last one in the state still going," said Doug Beevers, Butler County juvenile officer, speaking about temporary children's homes run by a county.

Children who were previously directed to Edgewood, are now being sent to the state's Division of Family Services, which assigns them to foster homes under their emergency care program.

'One-day deals'

Beevers said the closing of Edgewood was due to declining numbers of children being taken out of their homes. Only 37 went through the home in 2002.

"Most of them were one-day deals," Beevers said. "There wasn't enough kids to justify the cost."

According to County Clerk John Dunivan, the county budgeted $9,200 for the Edgewood Home in 2001 and $7,200 in 2002, and another $5,000 to $8,000 is spent on utilities and maintenance per year.

According to Beevers, the reason numbers have dropped is because the federal government now requires that agencies do all they can to keep the children at home with their parents.

County Commissioner Joe Humphrey said the home's caretaker, Charlie Pruitt, has until the end of June to move. He said the commissioners would decide by the end of July what to do with the building. They are considering selling it and using the proceeds for some sort of youth project. The furniture in the home has been sold at auction and proceeds of the sale has been turned over to the two women's clubs.

Originally called Butler County Detention Home, the Edgewood home was established before 1920. The home took its present name when the Women's Citizenship Club organized the Junior Citizenship Club in 1949 to aid in maintaining the home. For a while the Edgewood Seminary building at the location was used as the children's home.