In 1892, women connected to the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union opened a home for orphans at 8 Atkinson Street. By 1893, the women formed a charitable corporation called the Dover Children’s Home. The Home first opened as an orphanage that cared for 50 to 60 children at a time. In 1897 the Children’s Home moved to the Locust Street location, a house that was specifically built for the purpose. It had dining and reception rooms, a nursery, boys’ and girls’ dormitory, matron’s room and boys’ and girls’ play rooms, bathrooms and several large sleeping rooms. On the third floor a room had been finished for contagious patients. During the Spanish flu epidemic 43 of the 47 children in the home were ill, one small boy died. It was a vast improvement over the previous location for needy children- the County Farm, which also housed “the mentally deficient and insane persons, culprits, old people and paupers”. In the 1940s and 1950s, the Dover Children’s Home began the transformation from orphanage to group home. The Home is still in use today, providing residential, case management, and therapeutic services for teenagers, and acts as an intermediate group home for abused and neglected youth.

We would love to hear from those who lived at the Dover Children's Home. Please share your stories.