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The front of the sign reads, "Since 1937 this has been the campus of the Jenkins Orphanage, established in Charleston in 1891 by Rev. Daniel Joseph Jenkins (1862-1937). Jenkins, a Baptist minister, founded this orphanage for African American children with aid from the city. Housed in the old Marine Hospital on Franklin Street downtown 1892-1937, it also included an institute to teach and train children between the ages of 3 and 20. More than 500 lived there by 1896."
Note: An 1895 advertisement in the New York Times (PDF) beseeched aid for the orphanage's population of "more than 500 children." However, a report by the US Office of Education states that the total number of children living on all of Jenkins' properties was only 360 by 1913. It is unlikely that the orphanage's population would have decreased by 140-plus children in 18 years. Since only scattered records exist, we may ever know the actual number.
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