Home of the Innocents

Services

The Home operates the only dedicated pediatric nursing unit in Kentucky, giving care to children from birth to age 21 with a variety of birth defects and medical problems. The Home also operates a shelter for children removed from their homes due to violence or neglect, support services for pregnant teenagers, transitional housing for teenage mothers and their children and housing for severely emotionally disturbed teenagers so they can stay in their home community.

In 2001 the Home served about 1,200 children.

History

It was founded on April 23, 1880 by a special act of the Kentucky General Assembly and charged to "provide for the comfort and care of children of poor families and for destitute mothers". It was first located at 108 West Broadway and led by Dr. James Taylor Helm, in cooperation with Christ Church Cathedral.

In 1930 it merged with the Protestant Episcopal Orphan Asylum, and moved into a former Durrett family mansion at 202 East Chestnut in 1942, a facility capable of housing 18 children at a time. The property was sold in 1969 for an expansion of Norton Children's Hospital, and the Home of the Innocents moved to 505 East Chestnut, where capacity was gradually increased from 30 to 90 children by 1987. In 1975, the Home of the Innocents assumed the pediatric nursing services formerly provided by the old Louisville Jewish Convalescent Children's Home.

On March 5, 1999 the Home purchased the 20.5-acre (83,000 m²) Bourbon Stockyards site for $3.4 million, located east of Downtown Louisville in the Butchertown neighborhood. The Home constructed a $25 million campus on this site, funded by a capital campaign that included a $6.2 million donation from Kosair Charities. In 2008 the Home entered the final stretch of a $26 million capital campaign for substantial expansion and improvements.

Campus

The campus includes 8 acres (32,000 m²) of green space.