Orphanage - School of Chavaniac

The FHLMF’s idea in creating this school in 1917, was to make young French orphans active and capable, with a broad and solid general education. The committee included the study of history and the American institutions in the school’s curriculum. The students finished their study with an advanced course in the United States. They were be placed, under the care of the association, in large American companies whose leaders had already proposed to take in young the school’s graduates. The committee completed this initiative with a set of measures that would enable the school to be independent and self sufficient. In this regard, workshops concerning all of the professions necessary for the life of the community: tailors, shoemakers, painters, carpenters, blacksmiths, etc., were created to provide the castle with everything necessary for maintaining its buildings, and served as learning centers for children who entered these trades. Besides these workshops, a model farm and dairy were built to supply the orphanage and as a training center for children who were oriented towards agriculture.

As a committee dedicated to the allied countries, the FHLMF quickly added to the French group of orphans, young exiles from Poland, and then from Russia and Italy.