Porter-Leath

Porter-Leath, formerly known as the Children's Bureau, is a non-profit organization based in Memphis, Tennessee that serves children and families in the area. Porter-Leath was founded in 1850 as an orphanage and has since grown to six program service areas. The agency retains the early nature of its mission by providing foster care and has also expanded to early childhood education.

The agency remains in its 1852 location on the 9 acres (36,000 m²) of land donated by Mrs. Sarah Leath. The original orphanage building remains in use as administrative office space. The three buildings built before 1900 are on the National Register of Historic Places. Porter-Leath has program off-site program locations including Head Start facilities on American Way and in the Douglass neighborhood, as well as CareerPlace in Whitehaven.

Porter-Leath's mission statement is empowering children and families to achieve a healthy, optimal and independent lifestyle. Porter-Leath is a United Way of the Mid-South partner agency and is accredited by the Council on Accreditation (COA) and the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC). The name Porter-Leath is a derivative of past names Porter Home and Leath Orphanage.

Prior to 1850, no organized asylum for orphans existed in Memphis, Shelby County, Tennessee. As a matter of fact, there were very few such institutions in the United States at that time. The fate of orphans in Memphis and elsewhere in those days was bleak. Unless relatives or friends took them in, such children were committed to the county poorhouse or permitted to run loose in the community. Because no provision was made for destitute widows, their lot was also in question. Life in Memphis during this time was not far from the world Charles Dickens described in Oliver Twist.

In 1850, the same year that the towns of Memphis and South Memphis merged to make the City of Memphis, a group of concerned Memphians including Mrs. Sarah Leath, Lyttleton Henderson, Mrs. Margaret Doyle and Mr. and Mrs. John Craft met at the Cumberland Presbyterian Church and organized the Protestant Widows’ and Orphans’ Asylum. Judge Pettit served as the first president of the Asylum’s Board of Trustees. An outpouring of public support helped ensure a state charter for Memphis’ first institution for the care of the destitute in 1851. The Asylum was incorporated the following year.

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