City Directories and History: The massive Charleston Orphanage building faced Calhoun St., at the corner of Calhoun and Saint Phillip Streets.
1790: The Charleston Orphan House is founded as the nation’s first municipal orphanage. It served poor white children and also created one of South Carolina’s earliest educational systems.
1791: President George Washington would lay its cornerstone on the Boundary Street site (later renamed Calhoun Street) that once had a Revolutionary-War-era barracks.
1850s: Architects Jones & and Lee remodel the building, creating the grand structure that survives only in old photographs.
1951: The commissioners buy 37 acres of property known as Oak Grove Plantation in North Charleston to relocate the children to a more home-like setting.
1956: The grand Charleston Orphan House building at St. Philip and Coming streets is torn down to build a Sears.
1978: The Orphan House ceases to be a city agency and becomes a nonprofit called the Carolina Youth Development Center.
*** Brief history provided courtesy of the Charleston Post and Courier’s website.
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Frank Meacher says
Sure remember some happy times here in the 50’s. (cottage 115).