St. Mary’s Orphanage
Used with Permission

In 1863 Rev. Joseph A. Kelly, O.P. acknowledged the need for an orphanage when three small homeless children appeared at the door of the cathedral residence. A suitable building was acquired, children seeking a secure environment were registered, and Dominicans from Somerset, Ohio were placed in charge. Within the first three months fourteen children were received.

In December of 1864 a Union soldier, in the words of Sr. Miriam Walsh, “hurriedly galloped up to the gates of the asylum and informed the sisters at the orphanage that they must leave the premises without delay, and seek for themselves and the orphans a place of greater safety, as the one they were occupying was liable at any moment to be riddled by shot and shell.” The two armies were about to converge. Sr. Rose Marie writes, “Having no place to go, nor any conveyance, the sisters and children, terrified, watched as the Union army planted its guns between the orphanage and the city. At about midnight Father Kelly and Father John McDonald, a U.S. cavalry chaplain, drove up with an ambulance and some army wagons. By dawn the inhabitants of the orphanage and some of their belongings were at the cathedral. They were given the basement for a temporary home. As it turned out, however, the basement home was not so temporary, because the asylum was destroyed in the Battle of Nashville. After four weeks another home was found for them near Fort Negley.

In May of 1864 St. Mary’s Orphan Asylum became the charge of the Dominican Sisters. The numbers of orphans increased dramatically after the Yellow Fever Epidemic of 1878. (Sixty orphans were relocated to St. Mary’s from Memphis.)

In 1903 a larger stone structure was built on Harding Road with every “modern” convenience. Included was a working farm and playground.