This report includes the text from the original Proposal for Classification report July 1993. DESCRIPTION: The orphanage is said to have originated with J.F. Lloyd, vicar of St Paul's, and Dr T.H. Kenderdine in 1860. It was confined to St Paul's Parish until 1862 when it became the Anglican Orphanage and moved to a rented home in Grafton. It opened with thirty-three children. Later that year it was transferred temporarily to St Stephen's School. It was not until 1865 that the St Stephen's Native Trust granted 5½ acres of their estate to the Orphan's Home for a period of twenty-one years. An orphanage was built on this site by A. Hunter and Son from charitable funds. This was opened in 1866 and included a stable intended for a school room and dining hall given by the Bishop of New Zealand. In 1883 a bequest of £12,150 was made by Mr Edward Costley. In 1890 the home was incorporated under the provisions of the Religious Charitable and Education Trusts Boards' Incorporation Act and registered under the name Orphans' Home Trust Board. A fire in 1905 destroyed the central part of the orphanage and one dormitory. The orphanage had no legal title to the St Stephen's land and the remaining buildings on the site were old and had been very overcrowded. Queen Victoria School for Maori Girls had taken up the available farm land so it was decided to build on an independent site. The Anglican Trust settled on an eighty-six acre property belonging to a Mr Wyllie in Papatoetoe. George Goldsbro' was accepted as architect after offering his services without charge. This was in memory of his father who had been honorary medical office at the institution. A sketch plan was approved based on a rough plan of a pavilion system drawn up by Dr Robertson and the foundation stone for the new building was laid by the Governor-General, Lord Plunket, on the 2 December 1907. Three dormitories, a kitchen and a laundry were built and occupancy was taken up on 1 April 1909. The building was officially opened on 1 May 1909 by Mr C.J. Trunks, Chairman of the Home Trust Board. A chapel was added to the complex in 1918. By 1920 moves were underway to complete the home with the addition of the administration block which had been marked by the foundation stone laid in 1907. On 19 May 1923 the stone of completion was set by the Governor-General, Viscount Jellicoe. Parliament passed a private act in December 1962 which changed the Orphan Home Trust Board to the Church of England Children's Trust. Policy too had changed. Foster and family homes were being used and with a fall in numbers owing to general prosperity, family benefit and demand for adoption, there were only ten children left at St John's. These children were moved to a family home in 1963 and the building was sold to the Division of Mental Health to become a hospital and training school under the Mangere Hospital Scheme. Known as the St John's Home for Mentally Subnormal Children, workshops were set up for simple assembly work and later, in 1967, special classes were established under the Department of Education. The home functioned in this way until 1990 when Area Health Board cuts made the unit uneconomical to run.