The organization’s foremost goal was to find a suitable receiving home but finding a location and funding such a large project proved very challenging. About this time, Mrs. Chase learned that the Hurlbut mansion on 18th Avenue was for sale for $14,000. The brick house was a real showplace with four Corinthian columns supporting a huge portico and 16 smaller pillars holding up the balcony that surrounded the house. Best of all, there were many bedrooms.
On Feb. 12, 1912, the Children’s Home governing board voted to buy the property. The state pledged $7,000 toward the purchase and the remaining $7,000 was raised in pledges from individuals, organizations, and most of Idaho’s 10 northern counties.
Rev. Chase remained as superintendent of the home until 1918. Daisy T. Babb, the wife of a prominent Lewiston attorney was one of his key assistants. Mrs. Babb had attended the organizational meeting in 1909 and was a member of the first governing board. She was named president of the board in 1919 and served until 1942, one year prior to her death. As president, Mrs. Babb’s top priority was to expand the facility. By 1919, the Hurlbut property was seriously overcrowded and there was no place to isolate sick children, so a house across the street from the Hurlbut facility was purchased for $5,000. This facility was named Friendship Hall and it was sold in 1942 to pay for improvements to the Hurlbut house.
Funding in the early days was, in theory, the responsibility of the counties in northern Idaho. During the 1920s, the 10 northern counties contributed between $75 and $300 per month for operating expenses. The state appropriated $15,000 per year. This amount was increased to $17,500 per year after a legislative tour of the home. Various organizations contributed support, including canned goods, wild game, fresh produce, clothing, blankets, books and playground equipment. Grocers sold supplies at cost, doctors and dentists provided free medical care, and teams of barbers arrived once a month to give free haircuts. Every Saturday, the children went to the movies for free and organizations sponsored parties and outings. Gifts poured in at Christmas. The children were considered a vital part of Lewiston, attended public schools, local churches and were included in many community activities.
In 1929, Matilda Gray, affectionately known as Mother Gray, became the home matron and, during her 19 years on the job, cared for 1,500 children. During her tenure, life at the home was very stable compared to the outside world, which went through the Great Depression and World War II.
In 1935, the Lewiston home broke away from the Boise organization. It was an amicable parting caused by philosophical differences, distance and communication difficulties. The new Lewiston organization was incorporated as the Children’s Home Finding and Aid Society of North Idaho, but continued to be known in northern Idaho simply as The Children’s Home. In 1973, it was renamed North Idaho Children’s Home and, in 1989, the name was changed to the present Northwest Children’s Home (NCH).
During the receiving home years, some children stayed for a few months, some a few years and some virtually grew up there. Children who did not have parents often were adopted. The home advertised available children in its quarterly magazine. Infants and small children often found homes quickly, but some older ones were also placed. By 1974, when the last child reared at the home turned 18 and left, adoptions were winding down. Over the next decade, they slowed to a trickle before being discontinued.
Over the years, the children’s home changed to better serve the children. In the 1930s, a scientific approach to social work became common, resulting in the realization that some children had problems that ruled out successful adoptive or foster placement. Orphanages remained the basic child-care service. Kathryn C. Wolfe, home superintendent from 1930 to 1943 said, “The regularity, system, training and discipline which these children received in an institution are essential things for good development.”
In the 1950s, the superintendent, Clara Evans, was determined to de-institutionalize the children’s home. Large dormitories gave way to smaller groups living together with a housemother. Two to five children of the same sex shared a bedroom and siblings stayed together whenever possible. The children were encouraged to have contacts outside of the home and to participate in community activities.
Post-war prosperity brought inflation and huge increases in the cost of living that had a negative impact on institutions housing orphans and children who could not live with their families. There was a lot of belt tightening at these institutions. Fewer social workers, no follow-up care, and no one really knew what happened to a child after he or she left the home.
By the early 1960s, things had changed dramatically. In 1963, the Idaho Child Protection Act transferred responsibility for the care of dependent children to the state. The act mandated that children would be referred to foster homes in their own counties, rather than institutions. The children’s home was forced to change its traditional receiving mission to one of adoption and long-term care.
Spencer Wheatley arrived as superintendent in 1960. Even before passage of the Child Protection Act, he understood that there would be dramatic changes in the way the state cared for neglected children. He proposed and implemented changes that assured the home’s continued ability to care for children and serve the community. Wheatley recognized the need to move from basic custodial care to comprehensive multi-service treatment programs for children and families. In treatment, children were taught to develop necessary behavior patterns and attitudes. Moving children into foster care when possible, and establishing a “cottage” living environment for groups of 10 to 12 children were successes that paved the way for future changes.
By the mid 1960s, the aging Hurlbut House was at the end of its useful life and 
was inadequate for the children’s home’s new programs. In an incredible act of philanthropy, Mr. and Mrs. George F. Jewett and Potlatch Corporation stepped forward and donated the Jewett’s 22-acre personal residence for a new children’s home. The Jewett Foundation pledged $50,000 for remodeling and help build two new residences at the site. Today, this beautiful park-like setting located on a hill above Lewiston includes four homes, an administration building, swimming pool, recreation building and areas for outdoor sports.
In 1972, the children’s home launched a specialized educational program for its residents and day students referred by local school districts. In partnership with the school districts, the children’s home operates education centers in Lewiston, Nampa and Payette, Idaho. These centers also serve local children who are capable of doing well in school but are failing due to emotional, behavioral, attitudinal mental health and/or learning disability problems.
In 1987, the children’s home established a more prominent presence in southern Idaho with the opening of 
the Syringa House for girls in Nampa. Originally, up to 12 adolescent girls lived in the Syringa House where they participate in a specialized treatment program. In 2007, a larger facility was constructed in Nampa. It is designed specifically for its mission to be a residential treatment center for girls. This spacious and modern 14,000-square-foot facility provides the residents with a safe, comfortable, and home-like environment and has the capacity for 24 girls.
While the children’s home will continue to enhance its treatment programs for its residents, the organization’s board of directors wants to expand services to help them become functioning adults. “Once these young people reach 18, society says they are adults and are no longer eligible for state-financed programs. So we are sending them out into society, often without family support, to fend for themselves,” said Rod Wilson, executive director since 2005 and a 30-year veteran of the organization. “It would be difficult for any 18-year-old to be on his or her own at 18 so how hard is it for graduates of our programs who don’t have a support system?”
In 2008, NCH opened the Linden House in Boise as a residence for young women in need of a transition home from state care to living on their own. “This is a pilot program and one that will require financial support from private sources but we think it is necessary and a logical expansion of our commitment to young people in need,” said Wilson.
Today, as Northwest Children’s Home looks forward to its second century, it has come a long way from its original mission as an orphanage and home finder for abandoned children. The change from custodial care to treatment programs that had its genesis in the 1930s has resulted in a constant evolution in how the children’s home operates.
For Wilson, changes in society over the last 30 years have resulted in a different kind of child entering the home. “We are treating children with much more severe problems, more mental health problems, than we did even as late as the 1970s,” he said. “Many of these kids are suffering from depression, are suicidal or are involved in self- mutilation. Many are affected with in utero drug or alcohol syndrome and suffer from early childhood trauma.” Fortunately, the children suffering from these overwhelming problems are involved in proven treatment programs while living in the children’s home’s residential treatment centers. “Our residents receive ‘evidenced-based’ treatment,” said Wilson. “This means that research has demonstrated positive outcomes from these programs; that they have been effective for children in more than one setting.”
During the 100 years since those two boys arrived in Lewiston, there have been more advancements in areas such as in medicine, transportation and communication than were produced in all of the previous thousand years of human history. Unfortunately, this rush to progress has not stemmed the need for institutions that serve some the most vulnerable among us – children in need of a safety net.
The history of Northwest Children’s Home will not be completed until that safety net is no longer needed.