Originally occupying 160 acres, the orphanage grew to 329 acres by 1937, with 42 acres for campus and 287 acres for cultivation, and it was virtually self-sufficient. Children lived in 16 cottages, and the grounds included a nursery, hospital, school, gymnasium, laundry, superintendent and employee residences, a power plant, greenhouse, icehouse, cemetery, and a complete farm operation with cows, horses, swine, and chickens. A large root cellar stored the garden's fruits and vegetables for winter. The Main Building, built in 1886, served as the orphanage's nerve center, with the center section housing administration staff and a visiting room, the left wing used as a small boys living area, the right wing as a chapel, the rear area for dining rooms for children and employees, the lower level for the kitchen, bakery, barber shop, shoe repair, butcher shop, supplies, and storage, and the upper floors for employee living quarters. Since 1975, the Main Building has been listed on the National Register of Historic Places. In the southwest corner of the campus, the Children's Cemetery holds 198 of the more than 300 children who died while under state guardianship and were unclaimed by family. In the early years tombstones were erected, but after the state discontinued that practice, children were buried identified only by their number etched on a cement slab. In 1993, a monument and 151 named crosses were erected in their memory, and in 2001 a memory boardwalk was added.