Dover Children's Home

MC 153

17 boxes (5.33 cubic ft.)

About the Dover Children’s Home

In March 1892 thirteen members of the Women’s Christian Temperance Union concerned for the welfare of Dover’s neglected, abused, and unwanted children collectively pledged to be responsible for the rent and other expenses of a home for needy children. They rented half of a duplex on Atkinson Street and accepted 13 children for admission. One year later (May 10, 1893) the Dover Children’s Home (DCH) was incorporated. Thirty-three members of the Dover Children’s Home Society signed the Articles of Incorporation and thereby made it their object “to provide for the reception, care and education of destitute children.” (Act of Incorporation and By-Laws, 1893) The Home, which had grown to 28 children, moved to a larger house at 11 Spring Street in 1894. Then in 1897 the DCH Society decided to purchase land and build a new house at 207 Locust Street. On October 9, 1897, the Society laid the cornerstone of the building. It was completed and furnished in 1898, and 38 children moved in. A generous bequest in 1916 added land to the original DCH property. Additions to the Home in the early 1920s and in 1962 greatly increased its size, and several renovations have helped maintain the facility.

Over the years the Dover Children’s Home has reflected many of the changes in the character and condition of Dover’s (and New Hampshire’s) society and culture. Organized to ease the plight of children and families who suffered due to the recessions of the 1890s, the Home has continued to serve the needs of under-privileged children “without regard to creed or nationality” (Report of the DCH, 1923) for more than 100 years. During the depression of the 1920s more than 60 children resided in the Home. In 1939 the state of New Hampshire requested that the Home limit its number of children to 50. This number was subsequently cut to 45 after World War II. Staff problems and other difficulties eventually caused the Home to cut its number of children to about a dozen in 1952. Today the Home provides residential, case management, and therapeutic services for teenagers, and acts as an intermediate group home for abused and neglected youth.

About the Dover Children’s Home Collection

The Dover Children’s Home collection contains business, financial, and personnel records, correspondence, registers and files pertaining to the admission of children, communication logs, weekly reports, overnight charts that record the day-to-day activities and behavior of the children, photographs, and a scrapbook that documents benefactor Edward Warren Rollins and the DCH children’s summers at Parker Mountain Camp in Strafford, NH from 1927-1932.

Note:

For materials in the collection that are less than one hundred years old, written permission must be obtained from the Dover Children’s Home’s executive officer or administrator. Contact Donna Coraluzzo, Executive Director at (603) 742-4298 x12 or via e-mail: dcoraluzzo@doverchildrenshome.org.