Vintage examples of Alabama’s orphanages, maternity homes and reform schools 13 Jan 2019 includes images
“Very few of the institutions make any attempt to supply the children with individual toilet articles – soap, towels, comb and brush. Tooth brushes are very rare.”
“Alabama Childhood: The Official Bulletin of the State Child Welfare Department of Alabama, Volume 1.”
“The institutions have grasped the need for regular and frequent bathing and have either installed tubs or shower baths to meet the requirements or are planning to do so. However, one institution has only two bath tubs and no showers for ninety children.”
Alabama Childhood: The Official Bulletin of the State Child Welfare Department of Alabama, Volume 1.
Alabama Baptist Children’s Home
- Newspaper Article – Memories on the Hill
Alabama Boys Industrial School (Reformatory) East Lake area of Birmingham (1909-1975)
Alabama Masonic Home in Montgomery (1912) – Grand Lodge, A. F. & A.M. for “indigent master masons in good standing, and widows and orphans of deceased master masons” (M/F)
- Newspaper article NEWSPAPERS.COM
- History of Alabama and Dictionary of Alabama Biography, Volume 1
Alabama Maternity and Infant Home in the Providence Infirmary on Broad and St. Anthony Streets – Sister Cephas of the Little Sisters of the Poor. Now located in the former Martin de Porres Hospital at Washington and Virginia streets (before 1921) (M/F) (0-7)
Alabama Maternity and Infants Home, Mobile.
Alabama Methodist Orphanage Summerfield – Alabama Methodist Episcopal Church, (1890) moved to Selma in 1911. Currently the United Methodist Children’s Home. (M/F)
Alabama Odd Fellows Home, Cullman (1910) – Rebekah Assembly, International Order Odd Fellows, Now known as Childhaven.
Alabama Orphans Home of the Synod, Talledega – (1868).
- 1921 report “Alabama Childhood.”
Allen Memorial Home in Mobile (unwed mothers and orphans) – The Daughters of Charity (1911) Alabama Maternity and Infant Home on Broad and St. Anthony Streets in the Providence Infirmary. Now located in the former Martin de Porres Hospital at Washington and Virginia streets. (M/F) (0-7)
Athenaeum Orphans Home, East Lake – originally a boarding school for girls (1890) became St Thomas Home-on-Hill orphanage in 1900.
Brantwood Children’s Home (1917) 1309 Upper Wetumpka Road, Montgomery, Alabama 36107, 334.265.0784 Email
Catholic Boys’ Home, Mobile (M)
Central Masonic Institute, school for orphans, Mason (1847)
Childhaven The Rebekah Assembly, I.O.O.F. (International Order Odd Fellows)
Children’s Home, Montgomery – Knights of Pythia
Children’s Protective Home (before 1935)
Church Home for Orphans, 204 S. Warren St., Mobile – Protestant Episcopal Dioceses of Alabama (1861 or 1864) (M/F)
Colored Detention Home (before 1935)
Eastlake Orphans’ Home, Eastlake – Sisters of Charity (1903 or 1908) (M/F) image
Eliza Pollock Lipe Boys Home, Boaz
Episcopal Church Home for Orphans in Mobile (before 1935)
Florence Crittenton Home, Mobile (unwed mothers) (before 1921)
Girls’ Home for the Friendless, East Lake (1911) later became Alabama Home of Refuge (orphaned, daughters of alcoholics or prostitutes who had been arrested, prostitutes vagrants) (1915) the name was changed to the Alabama State Training School for Girls and moved to Pinson (1918-1973) (F)
Home for Friendless Girls in Montgomery. (before 1921) (F)
Industrial School for Catholic Orphan Boys, 3 Lafayette Street, Mobile – Brothers of the Sacred Heart (1838 or 1847) (M)
Knights of Pythias Children’s Home, Montgomery (about 1920?)
Lady Mary Maternity Home Birmingham (before 1935)
Louise Short Baptist Widows and Orphans Home, Evergreen – Baptist Church of Alabama. Operated on Main Street from (1891- 1923) (M/F) (Age 2-14) moved to Troy and called The Alabama Baptist Children’s Home.
Lula Foster Home, Birmingham (before 1935)
Mercy Home, 11th Avenue and 22nd Street North, Birmingham – Women’s Christian Temperance Union (1891) (refuge to unwed mothers and their babies, to abandoned babies and deserted or abused children, and to problem children)
Parental Home for Negro Children, Mobile (before 1921)
Parental School for Girls in Mobile (before 1921)
Presbyterian Children’s Home, Talladega – Presbyterian Synod of Alabama (1868) (Civil War widows and orphans) (M/F)
Presbyterian Home for Children, Tuscaloosa (Believed to be the same as the home in Talladega)
Protestant Children’s Home or Protestant Children’s Orphanage, 911 Dauphin Street, Mobile – Protestant Orphan Asylum Society (1840-1970) (orphans from the 1839 yellow fever)
Protestant Orphan Asylum, 859 Dauphin Way, Mobile – Protestant Orphan Asylum Society (1836 or 1839) (M/F)
Salvation Army Rescue Home for Women (unwed mothers) Birmingham (1903 or 1904)
St. Edward’s Atheneum Orphan Home, 8131 Berney Ave., Birmingham – Sisters of Charity (1903) (M/F)
St. Mary’s Female Orphan Asylum, Franklin Street, Mobile – Sisters of Charity (1838) (F)
St. Mary’s Female Orphan Asylum, 357 Conti Street, Mobile – Sisters of Charity (1838) (F)
St. Mary’s Industrial School and Orphanage for Boys, Mobile (before 1921) (M)
St Thomas Home-on-Hill, East Lake (1900) (F)
The Alabama Odd Fellows Home, Cullman – Rebekah Assembly, International Order Odd Fellows (1910)
Tuggle Institute, Birmingham – Founded by former slave Carrie Tuggle (1903) (colored)
United Methodist Children’s Home, 1712 Broad Street, Selma
Wilmer Hall Children’s Home, Mobile (1864) Episcopal Diocese of Alabama. (Civil War orphans) 3811 Old Shell Rd., Mobile – Tuscaloosa – moved to Spring Hill (early 1900s)
Zimmer Memorial Home, Mobile – Sisters of the Holy Family of Nazareth (colored) (M/F)
ONLINE BOOKS:
History of Alabama and dictionary of Alabama biography (Volume 1) online Thomas McAdory Owen. Contains historical information about many Alabama Orphanages
The home on Gorham Street and the voices of its children, Howard Goldstein (searchable digital content)
County Records
Alabama. Probate Court (Barbour County) Orphans’ records, 1835-1886