In 1909, Tennessee Orphan Home began in Columbia, Tennessee, to meet the needs of the three Scotten children who were tragically orphaned. In 1935, the Home purchased the campus of the Branham and Hughes Military Academy and moved to Spring Hill, Tennessee.

Since 1909, over ten thousand children have been cared for at the Home. As with many of the old orphanages, the Home was designed as an institutional facility with central dining, central laundry, dormitory living and a small farming operation. The approach to child care was to provide the basic physical needs of children and to offer Christian instruction.

The 1980’s were a period of stable growth. We made many improvements in both programs and services offered. The number of children served grew throughout the decade. In late 1982, the name of the Home was changed to Tennessee Children’s Home. The institutional approach was replaced with family oriented group homes for the children. Dormitories were remodeled into single family homes, with a maximum of eight children in each home. Central dining was replaced with family meals in the group homes. The family groups now individually carry on most activities like home devotionals, church attendance, housekeeping, laundry, cooking and cleanup.

In 1988, the Home increased the number of children served under it’s direction merging with West Tennessee Children’s Home. Continued growth in our service area occurred again in 2000 and 2001 through mergers with Happy Hills Youth Ranch near Ashland City and East Tennessee Christian Services in Knoxville.

We have seen a change in the type of child needing our help in the past few years. In addition to orphaned children, we now receive abused and neglected youth that are struggling with their values and their relationships with other people. These problems may be emotional, social, behavioral, educational or even psychological. We have made a commitment to provide whatever our children may need, just like we would with our own children.

The results of these changes have been very encouraging! The children now feel more like members of a “real family’. Every child needs this. Consequently, they feel better about themselves, and as their self-esteem improves, behavioral problems have also declined.

The services we now offer are designed to be flexible so each child is treated as an individual with unique needs. These professional services coupled with loving staff and a Christian environment make Tennessee Children’s Home one of the finest programs in the state. We are anticipating that the beginning of the 21^st Century will continue to be a period of both stability and progress.