National Orphans' Home, Junior Order United American Mechanics

Overlooking the Sandusky River on the northern and eastern edge of Tiffin, Ohio, this 648-acre complex began in 1896 as the national orphanage of the Junior Order United American Mechanics. The campus follows the cottage plan, with brick residence cottages sponsored by state councils of the order and built between 1897 and 1925. Surviving cottages show Craftsman, four-square and Italian Renaissance designs. Other buildings include a gray limestone chapel, a collegiate Gothic high school, a gymnasium, a dining hall, a hospital, a library, a greenhouse begun in 1913 and a working farm with a fireproof tile barn built after a 1936 fire. At its 1935 peak the home housed 1,204 children. Ohio took over the site in 1945, and later state-era buildings are counted as non-contributing. The district is listed for its role as a self-sufficient residential institution, a type that has largely disappeared, and for its distinctive architecture.