Historical Marker Honoring St. Cloud Children’s Home To Be Dedicated, Blessed

(KNSI) – A historical marker honoring the former St. Cloud Children’s Home will be dedicated and blessed this week.

The dedication will be at 1:30 p.m. on Thursday along the Beaver Island Trail near the former Children’s Home site. The ceremony will include a dedication by St. Cloud Mayor Dave Kleis and a blessing by Bishop Donald Kettler.

According to officials, the Beaver Island Trail site was picked because it’s a public trail where the marker can be easily seen near the former Children’s Home. The marker will be placed on the path approximately 700 feet from the parking area near the Herb Brooks National Hockey Center. The marker was designed in collaboration with Mayor Kleis and the City of St. Cloud.

According to the Diocese of St. Cloud, several people talked with Bishop Kettler about placing a marker to commemorate the work and service offered to children dating back to the St. Cloud Children’s Home’s founding as an orphanage in 1924.

According to the Church, the Franciscan Sisters of Little Falls were involved with the care of orphaned children for more than 40 years. In the mid-1960s, the home transitioned to Catholic Charities of the Diocese of St. Cloud as a residential treatment center for youth until closing in 2017.

The diocese sold the Children’s Home property in the fall of 2020 to Minnesota Health Real Estate Holdings out of Irvine, California, and control was given to Newport Healthcare. Newport stated it intended to open a 60 adolescent residential treatment center for teens with mental health issues.

On April 7th, 2021, the former Children’s Home was being renovated when one of the main buildings started on fire. The fire caused extensive damage and left the building’s structure unsound. The cause of the fire remains under investigation. Lightning was ruled out as a possible cause.

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