Boles Home

Boles Home is one of the largest children's homes supported and maintained by the Church of Christ. The institution, originally Boles Orphans' Home, was funded by William Foster and Mary Barnhart Boles. In 1923 the couple donated 436 acres of land near Quinlan to the Church of Christ and requested that the church make improvements to the site at a value of at least $10,000 before January 1, 1925. Through the efforts of church officials of the Pearl and Bryan Street Church of Christ in Dallas and under the direction of A. O. Colley, the money was collected, and a home for ten orphans was opened on November 24, 1924. Colley, the minister of the Greenville Church of Christ, served as the institution's first superintendent. He oversaw the construction of a boys' dormitory and organized the beginnings of a successful farm. During the mid-1930s superintendent J. B. Nelson added more buildings. By 1940 the home had sixteen buildings, room for 237 children. On November 23, 1939, Mr. and Mrs. Boles provided a gift of an additional 321 acres. Between 1943 and 1949 twenty-three buildings and 818 acres of land were added to the home. Over the next four decades the acreage decreased. By the mid-1970s the institution was surrounded by more than 100 acres located near the banks of Lake Tawakoni. A public elementary school and high school were located on the campus. In 1990 Boles Home had eight cottages. Each cottage housed a maximum of eight children needing out-of-home care, including counseling and other professional services. On April 17, 2009, Medina's Children Home and Boles Children's Home consolidated to form Arms of Hope. The partnership brought together 135 years of experience caring for thousands of children. Though initially established as homes for orphans, Arms of Hope expanded to include at-risk children and single mothers and manages over 650 acres of property.

Adapted from the official Handbook of Texas, a state encyclopedia developed by the Texas State Historical Association (TSHA). It is an authoritative source of trusted historical records.