George Müller Orphanage: The Story of the Ashley Down Orphan Houses
George Müller's orphanage began in 1836 in a single rented house on Wilson Street in Bristol, England, with room for thirty girls. By 1870 it had become five large stone buildings on Ashley Down, on the north edge of the city, with room for more than two thousand children. By the time Müller died in 1898, 10,024 orphans had lived there. Every shilling for the land, the buildings, the food and the staff came without anyone being asked for money. Müller prayed, and he recorded each gift as an answer.
The story is told day by day in Müller's own journal, the Autobiography of George Müller, and in a shorter form in A. T. Pierson's George Müller of Bristol. Here is the story in brief, from those books.
Why an orphanage?
In late 1835 Müller was a pastor in Bristol. He had already started the Scriptural Knowledge Institution to support schools, Bible distribution and missions. On November 20 he found a copy of the life of A. H. Francke, the German pastor who had built a large orphan house at Halle in dependence on God, and he began to pray about doing the same.
He wanted to care for children who had lost both parents. But he wanted something more: a visible proof, for believers who struggled to trust God, that God still provides.
It needed to be something which could be seen, even by the natural eye.
The Life of Trust, chapter 5
The full reasons are in chapter VII of The Life of Trust, and in our article on George Müller's prayer and faith.
The first shilling and a wardrobe
On December 5, 1835, Müller read a verse that settled his mind:
Open thy mouth wide, and I will fill it.
Psalm 81:10
He asked God for a house, for £1,000, and for the right people to care for the children. Two days later the first shilling came in. At a public meeting on December 9 he explained the plan, but he purposely took no collection and let no one else speak. That afternoon the first piece of furniture was given, a large wardrobe. Over the next weeks his journal fills up with gifts like these:
In the evening a brother brought, from several individuals, three dishes, twenty-eight plates, three basins, one jug, four mugs, three salt-stands, one grater, four knives, and five forks.
The Life of Trust, chapter 5
Men and women offered to work for no salary. One of the largest early gifts, a hundred pounds, came from a poor seamstress who earned a few shillings a week. She had inherited a small sum, paid her late father's debts in full, and given most of the rest away. When Müller pressed her to be sure she had counted the cost, she answered:
The Lord Jesus has given his last drop of blood for me, and should I not give him this hundred pounds?
The Life of Trust, chapter 5
Wilson Street
The first orphan house opened in April 1836 at No. 6 Wilson Street, the house Müller himself had just moved out of. On April 21 the church set the day apart for prayer and thanksgiving, and Müller noted there were already seventeen children. An infant orphan house followed later that year, and soon after a house for boys. On June 15, 1837, the last of the £1,000 he had asked for came in:
During eighteen months and ten days this petition has been brought before God almost daily.
The Life of Trust, chapter 5I
The hard years
From the summer of 1838 the funds ran very low and stayed low for years. Often there was nothing in hand for the next meal. Müller and the workers met to pray, sometimes several times a day. They would not buy on credit, and they would not tell the public about the need. In November 1838 he wrote:
Never were we so reduced in funds as to-day. There was not a single halfpenny in hand between the matrons of the three houses.
The Life of Trust, chapter 6
That same day, on a walk he took only because he felt cold, Müller met a man who gave him money for the orphans. If he had come home half a minute later, he wrote, he would have missed him. Entries like this fill chapter VI of the Autobiography. The children never went without a meal.
Moving to Ashley Down
By 1845 there were four rented houses on Wilson Street, and the neighbors had begun to complain about the noise. The houses had no proper playground and poor drainage. Müller weighed the reasons, prayed, and decided to build a home for 300 children on open ground outside the city.
For thirty-five days he prayed and nothing came. On the thirty-sixth day, December 10, 1845, he received £1,000, the largest single gift so far:
But when I received it I was as calm, as quiet, as if I had only received one shilling. For my heart was looking out for answers.
Autobiography of George Müller, chapter XI
Early in 1846 he found land on Ashley Down. When he went to see the owner, he missed him twice in one day and decided not to press. The next morning the owner told him he had lain awake for two hours thinking about the land, and had decided to sell it for an orphan house at a much lower price. Pierson writes:
The bargain was promptly completed; and thus the Lord's servant, by not being in a hurry, saved, in the purchase of the site of seven acres, five hundred and sixty pounds!
George Müller of Bristol, chapter XIV
Building began in 1847. On June 18, 1849, the children moved from Wilson Street into the New Orphan House No. 1 on Ashley Down.
Five houses
Müller soon felt burdened for the hundreds of children still waiting. He prayed for a long time before he told anyone, even his wife. Then, house by house, the means came in:
- No. 1 opened in 1849, for about 300 children.
- No. 2 opened November 12, 1857, for 400 more.
- No. 3 opened March 12, 1862, built for 450.
- No. 4 opened November 5, 1868.
- No. 5 opened January 6, 1870.
Pierson describes the result:
Thus, early in 1870, the orphan work had reached its complete outfit, in five large buildings on Ashley Down with accommodations for two thousand orphans and for all needed teachers and assistants.
George Müller of Bristol, chapter XIV
He adds that the houses were plain on purpose, built of stone, "with about seventeen hundred large windows," and furnished simply. The whole cost of the five buildings came to about £115,000. The full account is in chapter XI of the Autobiography and chapter XIV of Pierson.
Life in the homes
Children came to Ashley Down as infants or young children and stayed until their teens. They were fed, clothed and schooled. When they were old enough, girls were placed in service and boys were apprenticed to a trade. They heard the Bible daily, and Müller recorded many of them coming to faith in Christ. The staff met regularly to pray over the needs of the houses.
The orphan houses were never Müller's goal for their own sake. In 1898, after he died, his son-in-law James Wright summed up what the work stood on:
It hangs upon no human patron, upon no endowment or funded property, but solely upon the good pleasure of the blessed God.
George Müller of Bristol, chapter XX
After Müller
The work went on under James Wright and then under others who held to the same rule: tell the need to God alone. Over sixty years, more than ten thousand children had passed through the homes. Over a thousand children were present at the short service held at Orphan House No. 3 before his funeral.
Read the whole story
The best telling is Müller's own, in the Autobiography of George Müller, starting at chapter V, the beginning of the orphan work. For a shorter version, read Pierson's George Müller of Bristol or The Life of Trust.
For more on the man behind the orphanage, see who was George Müller, a collection of George Müller quotes, and our guide to George Müller's books.