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Pinkerton Hall was designed and constructed as the Kentucky Female Orphan School in 1859 after an earlier wooden structure was destroyed by fire. Named for the founder of the school, a minister of the Christian church and a surgeon with the Eleventh Kentucky Cavalry, Dr. Lewis L. Pinkerton, the KFOS was the first institution of its type established in America to provide educational opportunities for young orphan women. There were at that time large numbers of orphaned women in the state due to frequent epidemics and the rugged living conditions in the piedmont of that day. Land was purchased and the building paid for, with the school largely supported by the Christian church, Disciples of Christ.
Giovannoli, Harry. Kentucky Female Orphan School: A History, 1930. Midway, KY: Midway College, 1930.