Presbyterian Orphans Home

Presbyterian Orphans Home is a 166-acre campus on Linden Avenue in Lynchburg, Virginia, begun in 1911. Its core is a horseshoe of two-and-a-half-story brick Georgian Revival buildings with slate roofs, arranged around a green of about two acres. The large Administration Building anchors the group, and Scruggs, Shelton, Terry, Caskie, Paxton and Noble cottages follow a shared design drawn by the architects Lewis & Burnham. A Greek Revival gymnasium from 1939, a brick power plant, farmhouses and agricultural outbuildings complete the grounds, which also include ponds, pastures and two streams. The property is significant as an example of the cottage plan of orphanage design. Its board adopted the approach in 1905, housing children in small clusters under a cottage mother to imitate family life instead of the large dormitories of older institutions. The nomination describes the plan as uncommon in Virginia at the time. The campus remains in active use.