DUANE
Duane's take
Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'll do my best to do it justice. Now, some stories start with a grand vision — a man in a tall hat, a ribbon-cutting, maybe a brass band. This one starts quieter than that.
It starts with concern. Plain, simple concern for children who had nobody. Out of that concern, an institution opened in 1879, guided by the Reverend Robert Cooke Buckner.
That's the name you need to hold onto. Buckner. The place would carry it for generations.
The first structure on this very site went up in 1880. And when it opened its doors, it housed six children. Six.
You could count them on your hands and have fingers left over. But something was set in motion that year that Texas would not soon forget. The home went by the name Buckner Orphan's Home in those early days, tending to children who were dependent, orphaned, with nowhere else to turn.
And quietly, steadily, that work grew. By 1910 — thirty years on — the orphanage was caring for six hundred children. From six to six hundred.
Let that settle over you for a moment like dust after a long ride. Reverend Robert Cooke Buckner himself passed in 1919, but the institution he guided kept right on. In 1914, the Baptist General Convention of Texas came in to provide support, and in time the home was renamed Buckner Baptist Children's Home.
The mission shifted some with the years — it now primarily cares for children from broken homes — but the thread running through it never changed. Children who needed somebody. Somebody showing up.
More than a hundred years of that. More than a hundred years of being a leader in Texas child care. Six children in one building, and look what concern — steady, stubborn, unglamorous concern — can build.
That's the Buckner story. Right here in Dallas County, standing on the same ground where it all began.
What the marker says
Founded out of concern for dependent, orphaned children, this institution opened in 1879 under the guidance of the Rev. Robert Cooke Buckner (d. 1919). Originally known as Buckner Orphan's Home, the first structure on this site was built in 1880 and housed six children. By 1910 the orphanage was caring for 600 children. Supported by the Baptist General Convention of Texas since 1914 and later renamed Buckner Baptist Children's Home, the facility now primarily cares for children from broken homes. For more than 100 years the Buckner home has been a leader in Texas child care. 1983