On this site stood a Greek Revival-style house built circa 1855 for Oshkosh attorney Coles Bashford, who was later elected Wisconsin’s first Republican governor and served from 1856 to 1858. In 1875, Oshkosh lumberman Robert McMillan purchased the house, and his family owned it for more than 30 years. In 1911, trustees authorized by the will of Elizabeth Batchelder Davis, whose dream was to provide and perpetually maintain a home for children needing care and shelter, acquired the property, and it became the Elizabeth Batchelder Davis Children’s Home. The home opened in 1912 as a girls’ orphanage on a 65-acre farm with outbuildings, livestock, and an orchard, which provided fresh food and learning opportunities through chores. By 1914, it accepted both boys and girls. In the 1920s, as the need for orphanages diminished, it became a foster home and cared for children until 1963. In 1965, the house reopened as a group home for teenage boys, and from 1990 to 2004 it was used as a child care center. After a modern child care center was built next to the home, efforts to find a new use for the house failed, and it was razed in 2006. Elizabeth Batchelder Davis’s dream continued through the foundation she established, which has provided care and development opportunities for children for more than a century.