Father Flanagan establishes Boys Town
In Omaha Nebraska Father Edward J.Flanagan a 31-year-old Irish priest opens the doors to a home for troubled and neglected children and six boys enter to seek a better life.Flanagan who previously ran the Workingmens Hotel a haven for down-and-out workers in Omaha understood that mistreated or orphaned children were at high risk of turning to delinquency and crime in later years.The location of what would become known as Boys Town rapidly filled up with the arrival of additional children.
Many were sent by local courts others were referred to the home by citizens and some wandered off the streets and through the homes unlocked doors on their own accord.In the spring of 1918 no space was left in the drafty Victorian mansion at 106 North 25th Street so Father Flanagan assisted by sympathetic citizens moved Boys Town to a building 10 times the size on the other side of town.The vacant building was the German-American Home which with the U.S.
declaration of war against Germany in April 1917 had become the most despised building in the city.Within months enrollment at Boys Town had soared to more than 100 boys and a school was established that later grew into an institution with a grade school a high school and a career vocational center.Before the new building was four years old more than 1300 neglected boys from 17 states had passed through Boys Town.In 1921 Boys Town expanded again with the financial assistance of the people of Omaha this time to a farm 10 miles west of Omaha.
The institution remains at this site today and has changed its name to Girls and Boys Town to reflect its co-ed enrollment.
