Source: The Martha S. Cupples Home Dedication Booklet
Bishop E. R. Hendrix
May 20, 1896
“We meet this evening to dedicate to the glory of God and the service of our orphaned fellow
beings this spacious and beautiful Home. But the real service of dedication is not here and by
us. The dedicatory prayer began with the first cherished purpose to build this Home, and it was
fully given to God and its noble uses a year and a half ago when, on that beautiful October day,
Mrs. Martha S. Cupples went home to hear at the Master’s lips, “Come, ye blessed of my Father,
for I was hungry and ye fed me … . (1)
“Ten years after her marriage the Orphans Home, established and maintained for several years
by Mr. W.H. Markham, was adopted by the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, and Mrs. Cupples
became one of the first Board of Managers. In 1878 she was elected Secretary of the Board, in
which position, and that of Vice-President, she sought constantly to promote its interests until
the time of her death in 1894.” (2)
“The need of a building suitable to the growing demands of the Home early occupied the mind
and heart of Mrs. Cupples. When she saw the ample accommodations provided for the Methodist
Orphans’ Home in St. Louis became the theme of many conversations with her devoted husband,
even in foreign lands. What brought the home land near, even while in Southern Europe and Northern
Africa, also made the sick room in St. Louis bright, as all the details of such a building were
carefully planned, until the helpless sufferer forgot her pain in thinking of others’ joy. As
for more than three years, from June 1, 1891, to October 10, 1894, she suffered from the effects
of paralysis until, in her prostrate condition, she was stricken with pneumonia, from which she
died, the plans of this noble building occupied her thoughts as she dedicated every department
at once to God and the uses of the orphan children who rise up and call her blessed, and God also
calls her blessed.” (2-3)
“This splendid structure, joyfully tendered by Mr. Samuel Cupples, in memory of his ascended
wife, and gratefully accepted by the Church, in behalf of the countless orphans which it will
shelter and guard, as the very arms of a loving mother, is thus already sacred.” (3)
Read more on Martha Cupples' life according to Bishop Hendrix
Source:
Landmarks Association of St. Louis
“Designed by Thomas B. Annan, the orphanage was financed by Samuel Cupples (who had previously
commissioned Annan to design his own home, now located on the St. Louis University campus). The
Methodist Orphans' Home operated into the late 1940s, and a nursing home moved in until the 1980s.
Ultimately the grand structure fell into the hands of the city's Land Reutilization Authority. It
remained vacant and boarded for nearly a decade.”
