As Children’s Hope Alliance prepares to say goodbye to the historic Quad cottages, alumni like Frank Lentz remember them not simply as buildings, but as places of refuge, stability, and growth. Frank arrived at Barium Springs Home for Children in August 1948, just six months after the death of his mother. Entering ninth grade, he lived in Quad One throughout his four years on campus, sharing a room with the same roommate until graduation. At the time, the four cottages were still relatively new, and housed many of the older boys at the Home. Frank recalls that life in the Quads revolved less around the buildings themselves and more around the daily rhythm of school, work, sports, and friendships. “We were busy all the time,” he remembered. “The Quads actually were just the place where we showered and slept and hung out on the weekends.” Yet those simple cottages provided a safe and orderly home where boys learned responsibility, faith, and resilience.
The transition to Barium Springs was not easy. Frank, then 14 years old, arrived on campus with his younger brothers after their mother died. Looking back nearly eight decades later, however, he remembers the Home not for its hardships but for the care and opportunities it provided. He speaks warmly of the house parents who guided the boys, of working in the print shop, playing football, receiving a good education, and being surrounded by a community that helped them heal. As he reflects the impending demolition of the Quads, Frank’s strongest memories are not tied to bricks and mortar but to the people and purpose that filled those spaces. “It turned out to be a very positive experience,” he said. “We were forever and eternally grateful for Barium Springs.”
Perhaps the most powerful reflection came when Frank and his brother, Lacy, spoke about the decision their mother made before her death. Knowing her children would need care, she arranged for them to come to Barium Springs. Nearly 80 years later, both brothers remain convinced it was the greatest gift she could have given them. “We were forever and eternally grateful that if death had to happen to our mother, that she was smart enough to arrange for us to be cared for in such a special, spiritual, loving way,” he said. “That was absolutely the best decision our mother made for us.”
“An experience like that is uniquely different and you just don’t know what to think. Overtime, as you get older, you realize how special it really was because you can reflect on what it could have been. And you are grateful that you don’t have any negative thoughts about an experience that was so unique. That’s why we look back on it so fondly,” shared Frank Lentz.
