Children’s laughter returns to famed Harlem charity after scandal 10 years ago
The late Mother Clara Hale would not recognize her fabled Harlem brownstone on W. 122nd St. anymore.
Gone are the babies and their cries, leaving behind nothing but a few musty offices.
But the revered founder of Hale House would no doubt take comfort in knowing that just 10 blocks away, there is a room of children’s laughter and love that still bears her name: The Mother Hale Learning Center, where 38 newborns and prechoolers find refuge every weekday.
That the daycare and preschool center exist at all is a tale of perseverance over adversity, much like Hale’s, the humble grandmother who became a national icon for taking in abandoned babies left on her doorstep.
Ten years ago this month, Hale House was rocked by revelations of financial corruption and child neglect uncovered by the Daily News.
Once a beacon of inspiration to New Yorkers and the nation, the Harlem institution was shamed by disclosures that Hale’s daughter and son-in-law, Lorraine and Jesse DeVore, kept the children cooped up behind closed doors and had embezzled millions in charitable donations after Mother Hale’s death in 1992.
It has taken years for the charity to shake off that legacy of shame, which profoundly impacted its ability to raise money. Once a favorite of everyone from President Ronald Reagan to Rosie O’Donnell, it became a pariah among charities.
But today Hale House – though hobbled financially – is still standing, and making a difference in the community.
“There isn’t a week that goes by I don’t think about just making payroll and meeting expenses,” said board Chairman Zachary Carter, a former U.S. attorney. “But every once in a while I have to remind myself of a very important bottom line: 10 years later we are still here and taking care of kids with a quality of programming that keeps getting better and better. I think we are turning the corner.”
Out of the ashes of scandal, Hale House opened a state-of-the-art preschool and daycare center in 2006. The nonprofit also offers supportive housing for 19 homeless families with children in the same building.
Hale House’s new executive director, Annie Murphy, said there are plans to open a second preschool on St. Nicholas Ave. and W. 127th St. next year, serving 70 more kids between the ages of 2 and 5.
Why keep going, given the millions it cost to run the preschools and transitional housing program?
“It’s the kids,” said Carter, who was tapped in 2001 by then-Attorney General Eliot Spitzer to oversee the fallen charity, and who has remained a devoted champion.
Mother Hale first started taking in abandoned drug-addicted babies in 1969. She walked the floors with them at night, cradling them in her arms, and nursed these children back to health as if they were her own.
Her selflessness often brought visitors to tears when they came through the five-story brownstone.
Within months of her death, Lorraine Hale and DeVore began a systematic looting of the institution.
What began as a few $5,000 checks that Lorraine Hale wrote to herself and her husband turned into a fulltime obsession, beginning a pattern of abuse that ultimately would sap the charity of more than $1.7 million over 10 years.
After prosecutors filed a 72-count indictment, Spitzer allowed the couple to plead guilty to one felony count with no jail time. They were ordered to pay back $769,687 to the charity.
Lorraine Hale and DeVore dropped out of public sight after their plea. People who know the couple say Lorraine Hale, now 86, has been frail for many years. DeVore, now 80, did not return several calls to their Scarsdale, Westchester County, home.
“I think he just wants to forget this ever happened,” said a prominent member of the Harlem community who did not want to be identified.hevans@nydailynews.com