Buckner Baptist Children's Home
Dallas, Dallas County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Founded out of concern for dependent, orphaned children, this institution opened in 1879 under the guidance of the Rev. Robert Cooke Buckner (d. 1919). Originally known as Buckner Orphan's Home, the first structure on this site was built in 1880 and housed six children. By 1910 the orphanage was caring for 600 children. Supported by the Baptist General Convention of Texas since 1914 and later renamed Buckner Baptist Children's Home, the facility now primarily cares for children from broken homes. For more than 100 years the Buckner home has been a leader in Texas child care. 1983
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
In 1879 the Rev. Robert Cooke Buckner opened a home in Dallas for orphaned and dependent children, beginning with a single building in 1880 that sheltered just six youngsters. Demand grew astonishingly fast—by 1910 the institution cared for some 600 children—and in 1914 it came under the Baptist General Convention of Texas. Renamed the Buckner Baptist Children's Home, it grew over more than a century into a leader in Texas child care.
Why it matters
Buckner's home reflects the rise of organized, faith-based child welfare in post-Civil War America, when private and religious institutions cared for orphaned children long before public social services existed.
Own a business near here? Add it to the map.
Related people
- · Robert Cooke Buckner
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Buckner Log Cabin
Dallas, TX
Dr. Robert Cooke Buckner was born in this rough-hewn two-story log cabin in Madisonville, Tennessee, in 1833, and moved to Texas in 1859. In 1879 he founded the Buckner Home for orphaned children, work that continued after his 1919 death under his sons and grandson. In 1912 staff and friends moved the cabin itself to this site, where children at play nicknamed it the "Tennessee House."
Site of Peacock Military Academy
Dallas, TX
Peacock Military Academy began in 1894 in San Antonio under educator Wesley Peacock, and in 1930 he opened this North Texas branch to school young men from the first grade through junior college in military, academic, and physical training. The Dallas branch was short-lived, going bankrupt and closing in 1934 amid the Great Depression. Its central administration building outlived the academy, serving as an educational facility from 1938 onward.
Site of Scyene Meeting Place
Dallas, TX
Settlers in 1840s Dallas County first gathered under a tree at this spot, and by the 1850s a succession of two-story frame buildings hosted a Masonic lodge, church services, elections, and one of the county's earliest public schools. Among its pupils was the young Myra Maybelle Shirley, later infamous as the outlaw Belle Starr. When the Texas & Pacific Railroad bypassed Scyene in 1872 the town dwindled, yet the community hall kept hosting fraternal groups and classes until 1927.
Pleasant Mound Methodist Church
Dallas, TX
This congregation grew from a shared frontier meeting house in the farming hamlet of Scyene, a two-story building that doubled as store, Masonic lodge, and school where several denominations worshiped side by side. The Methodists built a log sanctuary in 1876 and relocated to the Pleasant Mound community in 1878, replacing their buildings repeatedly as membership grew. The tradition of shared worship gave way to separate congregations after 1900, but neighbors still gathered for annual homecomings for decades.