{WINTER NEWSLETTER} 2008HOME
NEWS
THE NEWSLETTER OF EVANGELICAL CHILDREN’S HOME { W I N T E R N E W S L E T T E R } 2 0 0 8
1 Timeline
2 Protestants Orphans Home
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TIMELINE
• Evangelical Children’s Home was
founded 145 years ago in 1858 by
Reverend Louis Nollau and his congre-
gation, St. Peter’s Evangelical Church.
It was called the German Protestant
Orphan’s Home. The first child to come
was named Henry Sam. Many of the
children placed in the orphanage were
found roaming the streets and sleeping
in doorways due to the recurrent out-
breaks of cholera, a fatal disease at the
time.
•
In 1861, the German Protestant
Orphan’s Home was incorporated and a
Board of Directors was established.
• Until 1863, the children lived in the par-
sonage of St. Peter’s Evangelical Church.
These quarters soon became too small,
so the children moved to larger place on
Carr Street in St. Louis.
•
To help support the German
Protestant Orphan’s Home, the children
of the then flourishing parochial schools
brought a monthly offering of five cents
for the support for the orphans.
• On the evening July 8, 1863, a fire,
water and smoke damage destroyed
the home on Carr Street, leaving the 53
children and matron living there home-
less. The children moved into Good
Samaritan Hospital.
• Following the fire, Rev. Nollau and the
Board of Directors felt that the children
needed a place in the country where
they could live with clean air and learn a
trade in live. They purchased a 65-acre
farm on the St. Charles Rock Road
for $23,500. The farm was on one of
the highest points of St. Louis County
and provided a substantial mansion
and all the outbuildings, as well as
over 1,000 fruit bearing trees.
•
In the fall of 1866, 60 boys and
girls moved to the country. It was a
half-day’s ride from the city by