Editing Defeat is an Orphan (section)

==The New Old Way Home==

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The New Old Way Home orphanage sits several miles outside of town in one of the still-bucolic areas of eastern Massachusetts, though its questionable how long the area will remain its rural character with the growth of the suburban areas around the city. The sprawling structure was built in the mid-19th Century to help aid the rise in uncared-for children caused by increasing industrialization and deaths from the Civil War. Never religiously-affiliated, the Home relied on the largesse of New England's upper classes and the Massachusetts state government. It's a bit run-down, now - a symptom of the hard times on which it has fallen.

Now, in the modern days of 1924 and in the wake of the Progressive movement, institutions of the sort have fallen out of favor. While the Home had done well in navigating the winds of political change of the last quarter-century, things seem to have taken a precipitous turn in the last year or so. Donations have dried up or fallen through. The Home's endowment suffered some unlucky financial losses. Local and state governmental bodies have become less cooperative. Planning and permitting paperwork has been frequently lost or inexplicably filled with errors. Key staff members have experienced personal issues that have required them to depart suddenly. Everything that could go wrong, has.

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'''History of the Home'''

*The Home was founded in 1867 by a consortium of Massachusetts mercantile gentry, needing more beds to house the urchins that were then plaguing Boston and its environs, and wanting to feel good about themselves in the process.
*The cornerstone for the Home itself was laid in summer 1868 and the building complete in the fall of that year.
*It was first populated in December of 1868. Most of the initial children were Civil War orphans.
*The Home went through a handful of administrators over its first decade, until Artemis Strozier took over in 1876. The Home prospered under his leadership.
*He retired in 1890, to be technically succeeded by his son, Geoffrey. There is some question about whether Geoffrey was anything other than a figurehead as opposed to his sister Tabitha.
*In any event, Geoffrey retired in 1914 and his son-in-law Thomas Shipley technically took over at that point. As Graves would know, Clara did most of the actual administering.
*The Home came close to closing a few times in its early years, Artemis Shipley righted the ship and there were no really notable catastrophes until recent events.
*There is an off-hand mention of a legal case in 1906 - Bergeron v. New Old Way Home Trust - mentioned on a court calendar. But no other reported information about it.