[2][3] The site was purchased for $300,000 from the heirs of Thomas W. Offutt who had acquired it from the Amos Matthews / Woodbine[4] estate, to erect the home on its 17-acre (6.9 ha) natural campus at 600 West Chesapeake avenue, Towson.

The original building, a brick Colonial structure, contained accommodations for 80 girls, an assembly hall, infirmary, play rooms, and other features.

Accounts from the attending guests describe the home's interior appointments as having wide hallways and a bright living room with cretonne curtains, that opened into a sun parlor.

The smaller children were grouped into dormitories,[6] having ivory-colored woodwork and beds, while the older girls were to be settled into single and double rooms that had mahogany-colored furniture.

The girls orphanage was named for its original benefactor, Thomas Kelso, (1784–1878), who began the charity at a location in eastern downtown Baltimore neighborhood of Jonestown/Old Town, east of the Jones Falls.