Ida Barbour Early Learning Center 
Our History

Over 110 years of providing day care!

• The late Miss Ida B. Barbour, a native of Portsmouth, Virginia, founded Miller Home and Day Nursery in 1910.

• Miss Barbour attended Philadelphia’s Institute for Colored Youth (now Cheyney State University). Miss Barbour returned to Portsmouth and was a teacher at the Chestnut Street School (now I.C. Norcom High School). 

• After learning of her neighbor’s death, Miss Barbour and her elderly mother took in the neighbor’s five small children who were left with no one to care for them.  As time passed, her family of homeless and neglected children grew.  Miss Barbour operated with minimal finances and the support of the Women’s Sewing Circle. 

• On July 6, 1925, Miss Barbour died, but services for children in need continued without cost to them. Many organizations, citizens, and doctors offered their generous support and services.

• In 2004, the Board of Directors voted to change the name of Miller Home and Day Nursery to Ida Barbour Early Learning Center, in honor of its founder.    

• The center is in the United States Library of Congress Archives as one of the oldest daycare establishments in the state of Virginia.