Our History

Murphy-Harpst has a rich tradition of caring for children that grew from two homes founded more than 70 years ago.

In 1914, Ethel Harpst was assigned by the Women’s Home Mission Society of the Methodist Church to teach children, conduct worship, and care for the sick in rural Georgia. In 1924, the society established the Ethel Harpst Center, located on 160 wooded acres in Cedartown, Georgia, to support her work. 

Several years later in 1931, Sarah D. Murphy, a Spelman College student born to former slaves, established a school at the edge of Cedartown for poor African-American children. Then, in response to the plight of so many of her students abandoned by their parents, Sarah transformed her school into an orphanage. After her death in 1961, the national Women’s Division of the Methodist Church took over the Sarah Murphy home. 

In 1984, the two homes merged into Murphy-Harpst Children’s Centers. Murphy-Harpst continues the visions of Sarah Murphy and Ethel Harpst as a place where children with no alternatives are welcomed and given hope.