The old State Home grounds (on what was once the 80-acre Chapin Farm at the end of Smith Street in Mount Pleasant) are now the college's East Campus. Most of the original structures were replaced in the 1950s with the exception of the superintendent's mansion which remains and is RIC's Forman Center.
The Department of Children, Youth, and Family (DCYF) occupied much of the campus until the 1990s and preserved the records of the orphanage. A year or two ago when Trinity Repertory Comapny was preparing to stage a production of John Irving's The Cider House Rules, a researcher asked the DCYF for help in tracking down the history of orphanages in Rhode Island.
The stacks of leather-bound books from the State inning of a project that has brought together numerous historians, children's advocates, and former orphanage residents. The end results will be housed in a museum in one of the buildings on campus.
NOTE: The experiences of former residents of the orphanage are being gathered through an Oral History Project. For more information contact Diane Martell at RIC School of Social Work (401) 456-8628.
Taken from The Pawtucket Valley Historian, Volume 18, Issue 7