Odd Fellows Home
Goldsboro, Wayne County, North Carolina
Marker Inscription
Odd Fellows Home. Orphanage and school opened in 1892. Provided for 960 children before closing in 1971. The original 20-acre tract is now a city park.
Erected by North Carolina Department of Cultural Resources
The Story
Opened in 1892, the Odd Fellows Home in Goldsboro served as an orphanage and school run by the fraternal order, caring for and educating children until it closed in 1971. Over its lifetime it provided for some 960 young people. The original 20-acre tract has since become a city park.
Why it matters
Before public welfare systems existed, fraternal orders like the Odd Fellows filled the gap by sheltering and schooling orphaned children, a form of private social safety net central to nineteenth-century American life.
Own a business near here? Add it to the map.
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Charles B. Aycock
Goldsboro, NC
Charles B. Aycock served as governor of North Carolina from 1901 to 1905 and became known statewide as a crusading champion of public schooling, earning the label 'the education governor.' His campaign to expand universal education left a lasting mark on the state's school system in the early twentieth century. His former law office stands a couple of blocks from this marker in Goldsboro.
James Y. Joyner
La Grange, NC
James Y. Joyner (1862–1954) served as North Carolina's Superintendent of Public Instruction from 1902 to 1919, one of the longest and most influential tenures in the office's history. An educator and agriculturist, he worked to expand and modernize the state's public schools during the Progressive Era. His former home stands a few blocks northwest of this La Grange marker.
E. E. Smith 1852–1933
Duplin County, NC
For more than four decades E. E. Smith led the State Colored Normal School in Fayetteville—today Fayetteville State University—shaping one of the South's key institutions for training Black teachers. He also served as U.S. minister to Liberia from 1888 to 1890, representing his country abroad. He was born about two and a half miles southeast of this marker.
P. D. Gold
Wilson, NC
P. D. Gold (1833–1920) was a prominent Primitive Baptist leader who, for fifty years, edited 'Zion's Landmark,' an influential religious newspaper published from Wilson. His long editorship made him a leading voice of the Primitive Baptist movement across the region. His office and home stood a half-block northeast of this marker.