The matron of the facility, Ophelia L. Amigh, had 25 years of experience dealing with delinquent girls at the State Institution of Illinois before taking her post at East Lake.
The State Training School for Girls expanded to include four cottages to accommodate up to 25 girls each, a chapel, and outhouses for laundry, cooking, etc. The main house was used for school and dining purposes.
Unlike the girls, boys were more independent and were taught a number of business courses. Some of the trades taught to the boys included agriculture, dairying, shoemaking, printing, cooking, tailoring, woodwork, pipe fitting, machinery, carpentering, and laundry work. The state government was criticized for spending more money on the Boys Industrial School, and not giving the same consideration to the girls institution.
After much demand, the institution was moved to Chalkville, 15 miles outside of Birmingham, and built on the former country estate of General Louis V. His family moved to Mobile, Alabama, when he was an infant. After he returned from war, Francis Barnard Sr. Setting aside his plans to study medicine, Clark became the editor, manager, and part-owner of the Mountain Eagle newspaper in Jasper.
He soon moved to Birmingham and invested in real estate. Clark was also one of the founders of the Birmingham Little Theater in and helped develop their theater building across the street from his house at Caldwell Park.
