Tag: Charleston Orphan House (Charleston SC)

160 Calhoun Street, Charleston, SC.

Wikipedia says: The Charleston Orphan House was established in 1790 by the city council as the first municipal orphanage in the United States. The orphanage primarily served poor white children and also formed one of South Carolina’s earliest educational systems.

In 1791, President George Washington would lay its cornerstone on the Boundary Street, which is now present day Calhoun Street. The site also occupied at one point Revolutionary-War-Era barracks. The council rented a house on Market Street from 1790 until construction on the orphan house building was complete in 1794. The orphanage was within Calhoun (Boundary), King, Vanderhorst, and St. Phillips Streets.

Before the Orphan House was established, St. Phillip’s and St. Michael’s parishes provided for destitute children. They ordered men who abandoned their families to pay child support and paid women to care for young children who did not have families. When Charleston was incorporated in 1783, the city had to take on the burden of caring for these children. The city hoped establishing an orphanage as a centralized site of care would save on expenses.

By 1861, the Orphan House was staffed by 39 employees who cared for 360 children. Residents of the Orphan House were often poor white children with living parents who could not afford to care for them. Orphan House children typically received a few years of school before being hired out as apprentices, farmers, or domestic servants.