Holly Hill Orphanage
By Jim Reis-reprinted here with his
permission from
Pieces of the Past-Volume 2
Photo submitted by Jeff
Weimer
Courtesy of the Campbell County Historical Society
Holly Hill Orphanage, which is located on Washington Trace Road in California, began back in 1884 because Northern Kentucky orphans had problems getting into Cincinnati's General Protestant Orphans home and the Cincinnati public school system.
The Newport based Kentucky State Journal ran several stories in February and March of 1884 about Campbell County's efforts to establish an orphanage. One in March said, "It is to be hoped that the Protestant Orphan Asylum will be built, and that it will be located in some pleasant location. One of the proposed sites in on the Covert Run Turnpike just east of Newport, which is a very desirable area. The principal movers in the matter are the ministers and congregations of the Lutheran churches, but all are interested in this charitable institution."
The breakthrough came April 3, 1884 when the legislature granted a charter to the Campbell County Protestant Children's Home. The next step was a building site.
A story that June said five sites were under consideration. They ranged from 2 to 26 acres, with price tags ranging from $4000 to $30,000. But the prime site was a 6 acre parcel owned by Joseph Wright. A story on September 6 described Wright's property as three miles south of Newport at the intersection of Alexandria Pike, Old State Road and Columbia Road. The V-shaped site is where the old Gulf station and Campbell County YMCA sit at U.S. 27 and South Ft. Thomas Avenue. The site was purchased for $2300 but complaints soon surfaced that it was too far out.
The board soon agreed after one of it members, trying to catch a ride to the site, had to sit on top of a crowded stagecoach during a rainstorm. George Fearons of Newport proposed to sell the board a rambling 20-room house in south Newport for $15,000 and to accept the Wright property as partial payment. The board decided not to make a quick decision and turned to fund raising. The property, on a "hill back of the head of York Street," was finally purchased by the board in July 1886 for $12,000. The site on 15th Street now houses the Newport Baptist Convalescent Home.
The Children's Home was dedicated on August 1 and patterned its operations after an orphans home in Cincinnati. As 1888 status report declared the children were "well and hearty" with the exception of Benny Burwell, who might have to have his right arm amputated to cure "bone trouble". On April 29, 1890 the board named the orphan's home Campbell County Protestant Orphans Home.
Campbell County's Catholic orphans, meanwhile went to St. Joseph's Orphanage on Alexandria Pike in Cold Spring. The Disabled American Veterans building now stands there.
Frank Peterson, Holly Hill's assistant administrator in 1984, said many of the home's children, even in those early years, weren't orphans. "Sometimes it was a case where the father or mother died or just moved away and the remaining parent couldn't handle the child. One of the home's children was Walter Koch, who entered the home in 1914 just before his seventh birthday. Koch spent eight years there, left, then returned as an adult with his wife, Zella, to serve as the home's superintendents from 1946 to 1973.
Koch, a younger brother and two younger sisters were placed in the home after their parents died. His two sisters were later placed with families who raised them He lost track of his youngest sister for several years. "It was a hard, regimented life," Koch said. "Our superintendent was a no-nonsense German, who I think had served in the German army with the Kaiser. You couldn't talk with anyone of the opposite sex, and visiting hours were limited to two Sundays a month."
Koch said it was common practice for the boys over 10 years old to be sent out to work for families. Koch worked for a farm family in Batavia, Ohio, and later for a bicycle shop owner in Erlanger.
The 1940s saw two major changes. The first came in 1945 when the Campbell County Ministerial Association finally won its battle to eliminate the annual fund-raising festival. The ministers thought selling drinks and playing games of chance weren't very "Christian." The second change came in 1947 when the home's directors realized a new building was needed. Crowded conditions and fire hazards made the Newport building obsolete. The Highland Nursery property, a 25-acre site on East Alexandria Pike in Cold Spring was purchased for $15,000. Groundbreaking was August 13, 1950 and the cornerstone was laid the following June. Moving day was January 29, 1952.
In 65 years the home was in Newport 624 boys
and girls had lived at the orphanage. They ranged in age on admittance
from 3 to 12 and stayed an average of 11 years. The home's name was
altered in 1954 to Holly Hill Protestant Children's Home, and shortened to Holly
Hill Children's Home in 1971. Holly Hill moved to its current site on
Washington Trace Road in 1990.