On Sept. 23, 1920, the Arkansas Society’s Board of Directors approved a plan to build a Childrenﾒs Home and Hospital at a total cost of $200,000 fulfilling the vision of Dr. Orlando P. Christian the Society’s first superintendent who was hired in 1916.

In 1929, it was renamed the Arkansas Children’s Home and Hospital, and this organization ceased its services as an orphanage and became the Arkansas Children’s Hospital in 1954. The Interstate Orphanage in Hot Springs (Garland County), which dates its founding to 1910, continues to operate in the twenty-first century as the Ouachita Children’s Center.

The Arkansas Council for Children and Youth, the state’s first group to advocate for orphans in the political sphere, was formed in the 1940s to assess the institutional funding needs of children throughout the state. In 1948, there were twenty-five child-caring institutions in Arkansas. Some 1,000 children received care in these institutions, which housed anywhere from about six to more than 100 children. By 1967, St. Joseph’s Home had as many as 119 children at one time.