Title	Administration Building, Thompson Orphanage, Charlotte, NC
Subject	Historic buildings--North Carolina--Charlotte Orphanages--North Carolina--Charlotte Thompson Children's Home (Charlotte, N.C.)--History Thompson Child & Family Focus--History Thompson Orphanage and Training Institution--History
Description	Photo of very young children assembled in front of the Administration Building at Thompson Orphanage and Training Institution in Charlotte, NC [black & white; divided back; good] Thompson's was the first orphanage established by a religious body in N.C. and is the third oldest orphanage in the state. In 1887, the congregation of St. Peter's Episcopal Church in Charlotte founded the orphanage. The site previously was home of a private school, the land having been purchased with funds donated by Lewis Thomson. The school, founded by the rector of St. Peter's church, was unsuccessful and upon its failure, he donated the church's 80 acre property on the edge of town for an orphanage. Forty acres of the grounds were used for pasture land and a farm where the children and teachers milked and cared for the cows. Later, the farm area was leased out and became a shopping center. The orphanage sheltered and educated children ages two through eighteen. It consisted of residential cottages, a chapel (built in 1892), and the farm. The orphanage relocated in 1970 after nurturing children at this location for more than 75 years. Thompson moved to its current 40-acre location just outside the Charlotte city limits. The name was changed to Thompson Children's Home in the 1970s, and the agency began evolving to provide full service clinical and behavioral care for children. In 2005, the name was changed to Thompson Child & Family Focus to better reflect the wide range of services provided. Only The Memorial Chapel of St. Mary the Virgin remains at the original location near Central Piedmont Community College between Third Street and Fourth Street just south of the main business district of the city.
Object Type	Still Image
Subject - Location	Charlotte (N.C.) Mecklenburg County (N.C.)
Date of material	1899-1979
Publisher	Charlotte, N.C.: J. Murrey Atkins Library University of North Carolina at Charlotte
Genre	Picture postcards
Format	image/tiff
Identifier	mb121_3_10_81f
Source	Mary Boyer Collection. J. Murrey Atkins Library University of North Carolina at Charlotte
Relation	Forms part of: Mary Boyer Collection, 1899 - 1979
Language	eng
Contact	J. Murrey Atkins Library Special Collections, University of North Carolina at Charlotte: http://specialcollections.uncc.edu
Rights	Materials in the Digital Collections at Atkins Library are provided free for educational use under fair use as outlined by current U.S. Copyright law and accompanying guidelines. Written permission from the J. Murrey Atkins Library or the rights holder must be obtained before using an item for publishing or commercial purposes.
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Category	Schools
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Administration Building, Thompson Orphanage, Charlotte, NC

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