Day care grows into 3-generation family business

Dawn Murphy was anticipating the day she would take over her family’s day care center long before she was actually ready.

“At 8 years of age, I told one of the teachers she better watch out because I was going to be her boss someday,” Murphy, the owner of West Street Toy Box, said. “I don’t remember this, but apparently it was because she wasn’t letting me have my way.”

Murphy’s grandparents, Jim and Naomi Morrison, started the center in 1974. Naomi was a former hair stylist before she opened the center. Jim, a handy sort who worked at Boeing, built the “rocket” and other playground equipment that’s still in use.

“It’s kind of a cool little story,” Murphy said. “Grandpa would help out when not working. When he retired, he did have more of a role. He called himself chief maintenance officer or something like that.”

Murphy’s mother, Deanna Murphy, bought the center from her parents in 1987.

“They were supposed to retire, enjoy the rest of their life,” Dawn Murphy said. “But they are both workaholics.”

Instead of retiring, the Morrisons bought the house next door on the south and started West Toy Box Two for preschool children.

Dawn Murphy bought both centers in 2002 and has operated them since, luring her mother back to work.

“She got out of it, but I tricked her into coming back,” said Murphy, whose center employs 12 people full or part time. The center is at capacity with 49 preschoolers and 21 infants and toddlers.

Murphy is proud of the center’s reputation and traditions, from handmade toys and homemade lunches to outings that students make to the nursing home across the street for Halloween, Christmas and Easter.

She said it has only closed once in its history, on a day when snow far outpaced the city’s efforts to remove it. “We're here rain, sleet, snow or shine.”

The center cares for children of several parents who grew up there themselves. Other former students stop by as well, always asking about Murphy’s grandmother and grandfather, who are 86 and 92, respectively.

“They call them Jimmy and Missy,” she said.

In 2007, Murphy bought a house to the north and expanded again. But Murphy said attendance is down from a few years ago due to preschool programs offered by regular schools. Her northern-most building had not been used for a couple of years. She recently sold it to QuikTrip, which intends to tear it down to build a new store at 13th and West.

The sale has allowed Murphy to renovate one of the two remaining buildings, with new windows, flooring and a fresh coat of paint. She plans an open house in April, delayed in part by the death of one of her teachers in a car wreck.

“We're dedicating a tree to her as well when we do the open house,” she said.

At one point, Murphy thought she might have to close the center. But “that was just not an option, especially while my grandparents were still alive,” she said.

The sale to QuikTrip helped her avoid that, for which she’s grateful.

“I can’t actually think of anything else I’d rather do.”

This story was originally published March 4, 2015 at 12:49 PM with the headline "Day care grows into 3-generation family business."