In 1880s Spokane, few sights stirred the heart of charitable Spokane citizens more than the plight of abandoned, neglected and abused children. Spokane responded to the need.
Spokane’s Ladies Benevolent Association, established in 1887, opened its “Home of the Friendless” orphanage a few years later in a large house on Boone near Calispel. The home operated until the group opened the much larger Spokane Children’s Home at Hemlock and Dalton in north Spokane in 1909. Spokane’s top businesspeople raised $75,000 for the building.
The Catholic church opened the St. Joseph’s orphanage, managed by the Sisters of St. Francis, around 1890. Catholic and Protestant agencies agreed to sort babies by
→ Continue reading at The Spokesman-Review