Orange County Childrens Home (now site of the E.A. Horton Memorial Hospital. photo by Alfred Henry Still c 1907) In 1865, prominent Middletown businessman and real estate developer Isreal O. Beattie built his 20 room mansion " oodland Ridge" on Prospect Ave. , near Ridge Street in 1880, a group of interested citizens approached the Orange County Board of Supervisors with the proposal of establishing a childrens home so that orphans would not have to be housed in the poor house. The former Beatie house was purchased for $8,000. , remodeled for $2000., and opened in February 1881. Several additions were made over the years. The institution was abandoned in July 1917, when other housing arrangements were made. In 1919 , the property was purchased by the board of directors who were planning Horton Hospital, and there was some thought given to converting the house to a nurses residence. However, George N. Clemson donated money for the construction of a new nurses home and the old building was demolished in 1926. Ground for the new Hospital was broken in 1927, and it opened March 12, 1929. > > >