USA > New York > New York and its institutions, 1609-1871. A library of information, pertaining to the great metropolis, past and present > Part 17
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The managers now wisely resolved to remove the Institu- tion to a more retired locality. Their grounds, with the rapid growth of the city, had now greatly increased in value, which they were enabled to sell for $175,000; and a beautiful plot of ground, at One Hundred and Forty-third street and Tenth ave-
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NEW YORK AND ITS INSTITUTIONS.
nue, was purchased for $45,000. The children remained in the almshouse, attended by their officers and teachers, receiving such instruction as the circumstances would admit, from July 16, to October 19, 1863, when they were removed to the. Fields mansion, now the IIome and School for Soldiers' Chil- dren, at Washington Heights. A large bowling-alley was converted into a school-room, and the main edifice extensively repaired. The corner-stone of their new Asylum was laid in August, 1867, and the buildings completed in September, 1868. They are constructed of brick, in the Rhenish order, three stories with basement, with a frontage of two hun- dred and thirty-four feet, and a depth of one hundred and twenty-five feet, surmounted with three unique, octagonal towers, and have accommodations for over three hundred children. The first floor contains reception-room, 'parlor, private apartments for officers, infant class-room, and chapel, which is very large and beautiful, used during the week for the general school-room for the larger scholars. Adjoining is a spacious veranda, the favorite resort of the children during brief intermissions. Immediately over the chapel, on the west side of the building, is the principal dormitory for the girls, containing eighty-six tidy single beds. Two other apartments are set apart for the same use for the girls, and two for the boys. The buildings are for the most part fire- proof, the stairs being constructed with stone steps, and part of the windows furnished with sheet-iron blinds. The wash- ing, drying, cooking, and pumping are performed with steam, and the edifice heated with the same element. The parlor very appropriately contains the picture of Miss Shotwell, its principal foundress.
The fiends who meanly sought the destruction of the Insti- tution had no conceptions of the splendid future certain to dawn upon the enterprise. Driven from an edifice of $7,000, they soon entered one worth $130,000. "The memory of the just is blessed ; but the name of the wicked shall rot." The cosey wood cottage formerly occupied by the owner of the premises still stands, and is occupied as an infirmary. The. ample lawns, yet unadorned by art, are exquisitely beautiful, the architecture faultless in style and proportions, the view from the observatory so rich and extensive that one cannot visit this peerless place, and contemplate its saintly charities,. without feeling himself improved and drawn . perceptibly nearer to IIcaven.
PROTESTANT EPISCOPAL ORPHAN HOME AND ASYLUM. 305
The Asylum contains at this writing 282 children, about 1,650 having been received since its opening, June 9, 1837. Children are received between the ages of two and ten years, and are retained until they complete their twelfth year, when they are apprenticed, generally to farmers. Much of the lighter work of the establishment is performed by the older girls, and a number are employed permanently in the sewing-room, and in special service in different parts of the house. The board of children received and again with- drawn by their parents is placed at the moderate rate of seventy-five cents per week. The schools are well conducted, and the usual per capita appropriation from the State educa- tional fund is received. An appropriation of $25,000 was re- ceived from the Legislature in 1869, and the sum of $6,570. from the Commissioners of Charities and Corrections. The annual expenses of the Institution exceed $30,000. Service is conducted every Sabbath, generally by a city missionary. The matron, Miss Jane Mcclellan, has had charge of the Asylum many years, and merits special credit for the tidy and sys- tematic arrangement of all its departments.
ORPHAN HOME AND ASYLUM OF THE PROTESTANT EPISCOPAL CHURCH IN NEW YORK.
THE society having control of this Institution was or- ganized in 1851, its affairs being under the direction of a board of trustees and managers, composed of ladies representing nearly every Episcopal church in the city of New York. There is, as usual, an advisory com- mittee of gentlemen, to whom in cases of difficulty they appeal. Any member of the Protestant Episcopal church may become an annual member by the payment of three dollars, or a life member on the payment of fifty dollars at one time. The object of the Asylum is the care, support, and religious training of orphans and half-orphans. Children are received into the Institution between the ages of three and eight years only, and may be retained, the boys until they are twelve, and the girls until they are fourteen. Children taken without · charge must be entirely given up to the Institution, otherwise
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NEW YORK AND ITS INSTITUTIONS.
the sum of seventy-five cents per week is charged for their support. The committee on receiving and dismissing chil- dren meets every Friday, to whom application may be made ; but their by-laws declare that admissions shall be regulated invariably by the amount of funds in hand, or by anticipated receipts that are reasonably certain, so that the finances may never be embarrassed. Children are indentured, or adopted only to married persons keeping house, members and regular attendants of the Protestant Episcopal church, and recom- mended by their pastor. Girls are not bound in families where there are apprentices, and neither boys nor girls are permitted to go to a tavern, a boarding-house, or where liquors are sold. Children are taken from the Institution on trial for three months, when, if the employer is dissatisfied, he is allowed to choose again, or if the child has. just cause of complaint it may be recalled. All indentures expire with the eighteenth year of the child, and none are allowed to go so far from the city that some one of the managers cannot visit them annually. The Asylum stands on Forty-ninth street, between Lexington and Fourth avenues, is two stories high, besides basement and attic, is in the Gothic order, and has accommodations for one hundred and sixty-five children. In 1868 a rear wing, containing an infirmary, was added to the main building, at an expense of $32,000, which contrib- uted greatly to the safety of the children and the convenience of the Home. The Institution has, besides the matron and three female teachers, a nurse and six domestics. The chil- dren number, on an average, from one hundred and forty to one hundred and sixty ; and the Institution is supported at an annual expense, exclusive of repairs, of about $15,000. Only two deaths have occurred in the Institution during the last four years. A religious school, similar to Sunday schools, is conducted in the Institution every Friday, many young ladies consenting to teach on that day, and one of the pastors in the city devotes some time to catechising the children. In 1868, the heart of the matron was made glad in receiving the sacrament of the Lord's Supper from one once an orphan boy in the Asylum. It has long been the custom of the managers to meet at the Home every Friday, to cut and make gar- ments for the children. Many friends of the society have gladly attended these meetings, furnishing as they do an opportunity to gratify that yearning desire in every true woman's heart, to minister to the helpless and suffering.
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PROTESTANT EPISCOPAL ORPHAN HOME AND ASYLUM. 307
This is the only orphan house of the denomination in the city, and has completed its nineteenth year without receiving anything from the city authorities, and but a small amount from the State. Its permanent fund from legacies is rapidly increasing, and now amounts to forty-four thousand dollars.
THE SHELTERING ARMS.
(Manhattanrille.)
INSTITUTIONS for the relief of orphans, half-orphans, the aged, sick, and blind, have greatly multiplied in New York during the last fifty years; yet a few observing minds discovered that there still existed a large and helpless class in the community, to whom no door of generous hospi- tality was open. Each Institution being established for the relief of a single class, always sufficiently numerous to tax it to its utmost, others, equally needy and worthy, were necessarily excluded. The asylum for the blind, and the one for the deaf-mnte, received inmates at a certain age, but where were the poor homeless children to spend their earlier years? There were hospitals for sick and crippled children, as long as surgeons pronounced them curable, but incurables could not be admitted. Some institutions received half-orphans, or poor children, free, on condition that they were surrendered to the institution ; but many parents, in pressing need of temporary relief, were unwilling to irrevo- cably surrender their children. The half-orphan asylum could not receive the children of the father deserted by his wife, of the wife abandoned by her husband, nor of parents who were both sick, in the hospital. These considerations led to the founding of the Sheltering Arms, an institution which pro- posed to extend the arm of relief and defence to multitudes not hitherto provided for. When the enterprise was first sug-
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THE SHELTERING ARMS.
gested, some regarded it as a useless undertaking, and sug- gested that it would be difficult to find children not hitherto provided for, while others, more considerate, thought it too vast, if not quite Utopian. The society having been organ- ized, the President, Rev. Thos. M. Peters, D.D., generously offered his own house, situated at the corner of One Hun- dredth street and Broadway, free of rent for ten years, which was opened on the 6th of October, 1864, and forty children, all the building could accommodate, immediately received. The first child received in anticipation of opening the Insti- tution, was a little deserted blind girl of four or five years, and soon after, a helpless crippled boy, unable to gain admit- tance into any hospital, because incurable, was received, and after seventeen months, flew away to that land where the inhabitants no more say, "I am sick." The operations of the first eighteen months proved two things. First, that their accommodations were inadequate to the demands made upon them; and secondly, that the generosity of the public would support a larger family .- In 1866, another building was erected by the trustees, at an expense of $10,000; the number of children increased to ninety, and the annual ex- penses of the Institution from $6,000 to $11,000. But a new difficulty soon confronted them. The Boulevard, in its wide sweep up the island, cut through their grounds, taking nine of their twenty-two lots, leaving the remainder in two pieces, and too small for their use. After examining several pieces of property, the trustees purchased an acre of ground, situated on One Hundred and Twenty-ninth street and Tenth avenue, in what is called Manhattanville. Their plan of building is partly modeled after the rough house of Wichern, near Hamburg, on the Horn, i.e., to erect cottages, so that the children may be divided into families of equal number; but the great value of ground on Manhattan has compelled them to unite several under one roof, instead of scattering them around the field as at Hamburg. Their new building was completed, and the children removed to it on the 5th of February, 1870. ' It is a two-story brick, with basement and attic, in the Gothic order, with slated French roof, and is com- posed of five sections. The central portion, rising a little above the rest, is thirty-six by forty-seven feet, and contains office, parlor, kitchen, linen and work rooms, infirmary, and all necessary sleeping apartments for adults. The two wings are each fifty by forty feet; each contains two cottages, with
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NEW YORK AND ITS INSTITUTIONS.
accommodations for thirty children each, affording space for one hundred and twenty in all. Each cottage contains its separate dining-room, play-room, wash-room, and dormitory. An appeal was made for $5,000 donations, the amount neces- sary to erect a cottage, the name of the donor to be given to the building. Mrs. Peter Cooper generously furnished the sum to erect a cottage for girls ; Mr. John D. Wolfe, one for boys ; another friend gave the amount for the third, and the Ladies' Association have undertaken to pay for the fourth. The school-house is a separate building. The ground and buildings have thus far cost about $75,000, and the trustees purpose to duplicate these buildings, as soon as their finances will admit, and increase the number of inmates to about three hundred. A small Episcopal church stands in the rear of the Institution on the adjoining street, where the children attend service. The president of the society is an Episcopal clergy- man ; representatives of other denominations are, however, in its board of management. Children are received without re- gard to creed or nationality, and the managers acknowledge donations from Jews, Gentiles, and all denominations of Christians. The internal management of the Institution was, from its commencement until the spring of 1870, committed to the Sisterhood of St. Mary, of the Protestant Episcopal Church. Six of them took charge of the four families of children, and found time to write articles for their monthly paper, conduct fairs, collect subscriptions, and attend to sun- dry other matters. Their habit strikingly resembled that worn by the orders of the Romish faith, and, as they were be- liered by many to be too closely allied to them in many points of faith and practice, it was considered best by the board of management to remove them from the Institution. Miss Sarah S. Richmond, an estimable lady of piety and culture, has at present the charge of its internal management, and is assisted by hired help. These lady managers are deserving of great credit for the sacrifice and toil bestowed on these home- less children, many of whom are " rough casts of unculti- rated humanity," but are soon subdued by gentle treatment and faithful instruction. The Institution has, at this writing. one hundred and twenty-five children, ten of whom are in- curable invalids who could gain access to no other institution.
Children are received at any age, from infancy to fourteen years, subject to the call of their parents or relatives; but if left to the managers, are retained until farther advanced in
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THE SHELTERING ARMS. 311
years than in most institutions, that their habits of virtue may be more thoroughly confirmed. In addition to an English education, they are to be taught trades as far as possible. Board is charged of such as are able to pay, but all received from this source has not exceeded one-sixth of the current expenses of the Institution in any year. The State has con- tributed some small sums to the Institution ; but the city au- thorities, giving unnumbered thousands to others, have not been importuned# by the Sheltering Arms to impose heavy burdens on the public for its support. Their president and managers have taken the wise, Christian, and statesman-like view, that private charitable corporations should be supported by those especially interested, and that public officials should not be invoked to compulsorily draw supplies from those who might disapprove of their principles or practices. All honor to the Sheltering Arms for this most wholesome example, so eminently worthy of imitation. They have wisely sought, by the dissemination of knowledge relating to their work, to develop a charity in their friends, affording abundant supplies not easily affected by the caprices of leg- islation. The undertaking of the society has thus far proved a magnificent success.
" The policy has been somewhat changed since writing the above.
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ROMAN CATHOLIC ORPHAN ASYLUM, BOYS' BUILDINGS, FIFTH AVENUE
THE ROMAN CATHOLIC ORPHAN. ASYLUM.
(Corner Mott and Prince streets.)
In April, 1817, the " Roman Catholic Benevolent Society " was incorporated by act of Legislature, the Right Rev. Bishop Connolly being its first president.
The Institution for several years consisted of poor wooden structures located at what is now Prince street, but was at that time far out of the city. The present edifice, at the cor- ner of Mott and Prince streets, stands on the original site, and was erected in 1825. It is a large four-story brick, with It accommodations for three hundred and fifty children now stands in the midst of a dense population, and is occu- pied by about two hundred of the larger girls, who are em- ployed in needle and laundry work, and other industrial pursuits. These are adopted or indentured at from fourteen to seventeen years of age. A few, regarded as more than ordinarily brilliant, are sent to the academy in Forty-second street, where they pass gratuitously through a three years' course of instruction. The Asylum has been from the first under the charge of the Sisters of Charity, who superin- tend the studies of the children, instruct the girls in the
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THE ROMAN CATHOLIC ORPHAN ASYLUM.
varions industrial arts, and attend to all the interests of the household. In 1846, the Asylum being inadequate to the Jemands, the society obtained from the Common Council, for one dollar a year, a grant of 450 feet of the west end of the block lying between Fifty-first and Fifty-second streets, front- ing on Fifth avenue. Upon this site was completed in Novem- ber, 1851, a beautiful four-story brick edifice, since known as the boys' buildings. The building consists of a central portion sixty feet by thirty, with front and rear enclosed balconies, fifteen feet wide on each story, and of two wings of the same height. In the rear of the northern wing is a building fifty by twenty-five feet, used for kitchen, laundry, etc. The ceilings are high, the entire building well ventilated and warmed, and well arranged with class-rooms, dormitories, chapel, etc. In the rear is a large play-ground, while the grounds in front are richly cultivated, and profusely set with choice shrubbery and flowers.
In 1857, the authorities granted the remaining portion of the same block of ground, extending to Fourth avenue, for additional buildings. Madison avenue, having since been extended, forms at present its western boundary. A plan was now formed for the erection of one of the largest and finest orphan houses in the country, for the reception and training of the smaller girls. The northern wing, two hundred feet in length and five stories high, was begun in 1866, and sufficiently completed for the reception of the children on the 23d of August, 1868. The basement contains the kitchen, laundry, heating appliances for the whole establishment, etc. The cooking, washing, and heating are performed with steam. The first floor contains a dining-room of iminense capacity. All the additional stories of this wing are to be devoted to dormitories, after the other portions are completed. These floors afford ample space for one hundred and fifty single beds each, and even more could be introduced.
The high price of building materials at the time of its erection, and the purchase of the needed machinery, swelled the cost of this first section of the enterprise to nearly $150,000. In March, 1869, the main edifice fronting on Madison avenue was begun, and completed in the space of a year. This con- tains the parlors, school-rooms, the private apartments, and tras completed at a less expense than the preceding. Another immense wing, the counterpart of the one first erected, is soon ·to follow, which will contain the chapel, infirmary, and vari-
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NEW YORK AND ITS INSTITUTIONS.
ous needed accommodations. The buildings are all five sto- . ries above the basement, constructed with excellent taste, of pressed brick and freestone; in the Gothic order, with French roof, and will afford accommodation for one thousand children. This establishment, both for its colossal proportions and the beauty of its architecture, greatly exceeds the two preceding, which had previously been considered large and model asy- lums. About three hundred of the smaller girls, composed of orphans and half-orphans, are here domiciled at this writing. A regular English course of study is taught on five days of the week, a portion of Saturday and the Sabbath being devoted to the Roman catechism, and other exercises of religion.
The last Legislature contributed $10,000 of the people's money to this Institution.
NEW YORK ASYLUM FOR LYING-IN WOMEN.
(No. 83 Marion street.)
The condition of many virtuous and worthy women. left homeless and friendless, in the most critical period of their history, led several humane physicians and a num- ber of excellent women, in 1822, to organize a society for the purpose of establishing a lying-in asylum. Then, as now, desertion from intemperance, destitution arising from long sickness, the unkindness of some husbands, or the loss of a partner by death, made such an asylum necessary. A . ward had been devoted to these patients for twenty years in the New York Hospital, but a more private asylum was considered desirable. The act of incorporation passed the Legislature March 19, 1827. The business of the society is conducted by a board of thirty-three female managers, annut- ally elected by the society, which is composed of such females as contribute the sum of $3 per annum toward the support of the Institution. The work of the society began in some rooms in Orange street, leased for $275 per annum, where it continued eight years. The sixth annual meeting of the
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NEW YORK AND ITS INSTITUTIONS.
organization was held in the lecture-room of the Brick Church, on the 12th of March, 1829, and the report was read by Dr. James C. Bliss. In this he stated that thirty-four patients. had been received during the year, that their accommodations were entirely inadequate to meet the wants of the class they · were seeking to benefit, and recommended the plan of build- ing a suitable asylum. Rev. Dr. Macauly and Dr. Cock fol- lowed with addresses, in which they approved of the plan of erecting a new building. A subscription paper was immedi- ately prepared, and the sum of $550 subscribed during the day. Three lots were purchased far out of the city, and in 1830 the Asylum now standing at No. 85 Marion street was. erected. The three lots cost $2,750; and the building, which is a substantial three-story brick, forty-five by sixty feet, capable of accommodating fifty patients, $8,707. The Asylum. has been supported by private subscriptions, with small excep- tions. In presenting their sixth report, in March, 1829, the managers gratefully acknowledged the reception of $200 from the corporation, which is a singular paragraph to read in these days, when millions are donated to similar charities. To remove a debt, at a later period, $1,500 were granted, and during the half century of its operations about $7,000 have been received from the city, and nothing from the State.
The hospitalities of the Asylum are given without charge to virtuous, indigent women only, evidence of bona fide mar- riage being invariably required.
The Institution was established when foundling hospitals were not appreciated in this country, and when many be- lieved such institutions calculated to encourage vice. It has been the opinion of the managers that to throw the Institution open to all who should claim its assistance would unavoid- ably very soon confine its operations to the vicious alone, as virtuous married women would not become the associates and fellow-pensioners of the degraded and abandoned. Hence, to make the charity of value to the most worthy class, for which it was chiefly undertaken, none but the virtuous could be received. But in declining to receive those considered improper subjects, they did not abandon them to absolute destitution, for about the year 1830 a system of out-door charity was established. The city was divided into nineteen districts, and a physician appointed to each, who visited gratuitously by day and night all persons not admitted into the Institution, whenever application was made at the office
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WATCHO-EL
THE MAGDALEN BENEVOLENT ABYLUM. (5th Avenue and 88th Street.)
THE PROTESTANT HALF ORPHAN ASYLUM.
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.NEW YORK MAGDALEN BENEVOLENT SOCIETY.
in the basement of the Asylum. This arrangement, with some modification, still continues. Since the opening of the Asylum, 3,600 inmates have been received, and over 12,000 out-door patients have been attended by the district physi- cians. The number of applicants is not as large as in former years, 85 only being admitted during the last twelve months.
The Institution is the most purely charitable of any on the island, as no board or other fee is required; yet, situated in a retired nook at the head of Marion street, though one of the oldest, it is really the least known of any in the city. The managers, unwilling to be entirely supplanted by other insti- tutions, are now considering the propriety of removing the Asylum to a better locality. The matron, Mrs. Hope, has taken charge of the Asylum over fifteen years, and proved herself an intelligent and conscientious Superintendent. The Asylum has furnished hundreds of wet nurses to families in need of them, and situations to hundreds of others, who . would otherwise have gone back to abodes of destitution, if not to ruin. Mrs. Mayor Hall is one of the active managers of the Institution.
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