The story of Hale House Center begins with one woman: Clara McBride Hale.

Clara Hale’s remarkable legacy of caring for children started nearly 70 years ago when at the age of 33, Mrs. Hale became a widow and was left to raise three children on her own. She started caring for other children in her home to make a living to provide a home and education for her own family.

After providing day care and respite care services, Mrs. Hale became a licensed foster parent in 1960 and took even more children into her home. It was during this time that she earned the affectionate title, “Mother Hale”.

Mother Hale considered retirement at the age of 64 until a young mother appeared on her doorstep for help in 1969. The mother was addicted to heroin and could not care for her newborn. Mother Hale took in the baby and renewed her extraordinary commitment to serving babies and families going through difficult times. Within six months, she was again caring for babies in her home – and Hale House was born.

A few years later, Mother Hale acquired a brownstone in Harlem with the support of local officials. Mother Hale and the children she cared for at the time moved into their new home on 122nd Street, still a Hale House site today.

With each decade, Hale House Center has responded to challenges that struggling families have had to endure due to the devastating effects of poverty.

During the 1970s, the scope of work initiated by Hale House expanded to include services for at-risk children and their families. In the 1980s, as the urban drug problem gave way to the AIDS crisis, Hale House responded by taking in children whose lives were affected. In the 1990s, America’s drug problem spawned a grim new reality throughout the nation – an increase in the number of incarcerated women who were unable to care for their children.

Although Mother Hale’s direct impact was felt locally, her influence spread far and wide. She received more than 375 awards and 15 honorary degrees in her lifetime.

In January 1985, President Ronald Reagan recognized Mother Hale as an “American Hero” in his State of the Union Address for her tremendous work in Harlem and her vision for social change.

Even when a full-time staff was in charge of the organization, Mother Hale continued to live with and care for the children at the brownstone until she passed away on December 18, 1992. More than 2000 people, including local and national leaders, attended her funeral to honor her life.

For 87 years, Mother Hale led a life filled with compassion, dedication and strength that characterize the powerful legacy of Hale House. The spirit of Mother Hale lives on through the children who thrived in her loving arms and through the child-centered, family-focused initiatives that Hale House Center continues to offer to the community.