The Wartburg Orphans' Farm School was established in 1866 by a Lutheran minister, Reverend William Passavant, with an initial gift of $30,000 from New York sugar refiner Peter Moller.

However, Reverend Passavant, who had previously founded The Orphan's Home and Farm School in Zelienople, Pennsylvania, convinced Moller of the need for a similar orphanage in New York to help the great number of children left fatherless by the Civil War.

[6] Passavant called the school "Wartburg" because its high, wooded land reminded him of the castle near Eisenach in Germany, where Martin Luther found refuge in 1521-22 and where he began his translation of the Bible.

Gottlieb C. Berkemeier began his term of 36 years in 1885 as Wartburg's director, beginning four decades of rapid expansion, during which more than a dozen buildings were erected.

Led by Professor Robert Steinmetz for 36 years, the Wartburg Boy's Band was recognized for their musical ability and performed in concerts throughout the Northeast and New England.

[10] The farmland on the north side of the campus provided the fruits, vegetables, and dairy products that were the core of the nutritional needs for the orphans and seniors at Warburg.

That same year, Lohman Village, a community of individual townhouses for older people who are still able to lead an active life and desire the security and assistance of Wartburg, was opened.

[13] In 1991, The Wartburg Foundation, Inc. was established with its Certificate of Incorporation charging the newly formed entity with the responsibility "to solicit, accept and receive monies, legacies, gifts, grants, contributions, subventions, endowments, and property of any kind, real or personal, and thereafter to hold, invest and reinvest the same", with the ultimate goal of supporting the work of The Wartburg Home through Foundation Board-approved grants.