Holy Family Orphanage

Holy Family Orphanage is an abandoned Catholic orphanage located at 600 Altamont Street in Marquette, Michigan. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on October 5, 2015.The building opened in 1915, served its last orphan in 1967, and was abandoned in 1982. Since being abandoned, the facility has been cited as an allegedly haunted location.FacilitiesAt its peak, Holy Family Orphanage housed approximately 200 orphans from the Upper Peninsula of Michigan and nearby areas. The building includes classrooms, bedrooms, bathrooms, laundry facilities, kitchen facilities, and a chapel.The building is mostly constructed of brick, but does include a decorative front entrance made of South Marquette Sandstone.HistoryConstruction on Holy Family Orphanage began in 1914, and cost approximately 100000.The building opened immediately after construction in 1915. Initially the facility accepted mostly children between second and eighth grade, but later infants and older children were accepted as well.While it was intended originally to only serve white children, some of its first residents included 60 Native American children transferred from a Catholic home named after St. Joseph in Assinins. The Native American children had been placed in the Assinins home after being taken away from their parents to accommodate their integration into white culture. Also notably, in 1963, the Roman Catholic Diocese of Marquette decided to host a group of child refugees from Cuba as a part of Operation Pedro Pan.