USA > New York > New York and its institutions, 1609-1871. A library of information, pertaining to the great metropolis, past and present > Part 27
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a situation. No doors save those leading to the prison, the almshouse, or the brothel, were certain to open to the indi- gent, friendless, unfortunate girl or widow, unexpectedly thrown into the whirl of this great city. To guard young fe- males, to provide for helpless childhood, and to care for the sorrowing widow, seem to have been the leading thoughts of the association. A work so eminently Christ-like, now commended by the most vile, was then watched with in- difference and suspicion by many of the good. The mana- gers of many of the pioneer benevolent associations, in their triumphant contests with the prejudices and calumny of their generations, have fought battles requiring a courage and de- serving the honor of a Wellington or a Washington. The great change wrought in public sentiment, concerning Chris- tian duty to the friendless and fallen, the decided support cheerfully given during the last twenty years, and the num- erous similar charities that have sprung up in every section of the country, are sources of the most profound satisfaction to the surviving early friends of this excellent Institution. During the early years of the movement their records show that more than temporal advantage .came to many houses of destitution, scores if not hundreds were converted to God, and drawn into the fold of the great Shepherd. Still their. efforts lacked concentration and thoroughness, for want of a building suited to their undertaking. No plan for the recep- tion of inmates really commensurate with the aims of the society was adopted until 1847, when a building situated on the corner of Second street and the Bowery was rented. About this time the managers issued a printed appeal for means to erect a IIome for the Friendless, calling attention to the numbers of females constantly out of employment, and the scores of orphan or deserted children who, by early care, might be saved from pauperism and prison. The means came, lots were purchased on East Thirtieth street, and in December, 1848, the Home, a fine three-story brick edifice, with accommodations for at least one hundred and fifty per- sons, was dedicated, to the great joy of the managers, who had toiled amid embarrassments so many years. The sphere of usefulness of the society was now greatly enlarged. Hun- dreds were annually fed, instructed, and furnished with situa- tions. This Institution is not a Home for those who are friendless because guilty of crimes against society ; nor to adult paupers, of whom the Scriptures say, "If any will not
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NEW YORK AND ITS INSTITUTIONS.
work, neither shall he eat;" nor yet for the aged, infirm, or diseased, for whom other establishments have been erected. It is a temporary asylum for homeless, friendless children, an arched and gilded passage-way from dingy, remorseless poverty, to a home of affection, culture, and elevation. It is a temporary refuge for destitute young women, not fallen, but within the age and circumstances of temptation, needing protection, and willing to live by honest toil. It contains a department for small children also, but such only are taken as afford the prospect of early adoption. Children do not remain at the Home over three months on an average. The plan of the society is a radical divergence from the old or- phan asylum system. Instead of keeping the children within the narrow limits of an asylum for years, forming habits and intimacies which must ultimately be broken, they are early placed in Christian homes, where daily contact with the affairs of common life enters largely into their training. The act of incorporation passed the Legislature April 6, 1849, and was amended requiring magistrates to commit vagrant and deserted children to the care of this society April 3, 1857.
In 1856 the society erected another fine building on Twenty-ninth street, immediately opposite the Home, connect- ing the two with a bridge. This edifice has a front of seventy- five feet, is four stories high, constructed of brick in the Ro- manesque order, and contains the chapel, the Home School (for the instruction of the children while remaining in the Institution), an Industrial School, the publication, and other offices of the society. The six lots on which these buildings stand cost originally less than $12,000, but are now valued, exclusive of buildings, at $75,000. The property of the so- ciety at present, including the four buildings purchased for industrial schools, is probably worth $150,000, and is free from debt.
The society began the publication of the " Advocate and Guardian" in 1835, which has been a valuable medium of communication with the benevolent public, bringing hundreds of friends to select children or confer donations, besides bless- ing many with the valuable religious matter with which it has always been filled. Its circulation amounts to about 33,000 at present, bringing a small revenue above its expenses.
The society conducts its business through a president, vice- president, two secretaries, a treasurer, and thirty-five or more managers, annually elected, representing the different Evan-
THE AMERICAN FEMALE GUARDIAN SOCIETY. 433
gelical denominations. These are divided into the necessary committees, and give much time to the Institution. Seventeen years ago the society opened its first industrial school, Mrs. Wilson having previously established the feasibility of such an undertaking. It has now eleven of these schools securely founded in different parts of the city, with an average daily attendance of about 1,500 children, while the names of sev- eral thousand are on register. These are emphatically mis- sion movements, as they are established among and gather in the most ignorant and degraded of the population. Thou- sands of ragged, neglected girls treading the slippery glaciers of time, and certain to plunge after a short career of vice into the darkest ruin, are thus annually reached, instructed in let- ters, and trained to useful industry. But the influence ex- tends beyond the children. The parents are reached, and soon a mothers' meeting is established. Women who have not seen the inside of a church in thirty years, perhaps never, are drawn out to a mothers' meeting composed of women as ignor- ant and poor as themselves, where the Scriptures are read, prayer offered, and exhortations given by earnest women who go out to seek and save the lost. Many are awakened, some converted, nearly all are improved. Rum and other evils are partially or entirely abandoned, industry and its attendant blessings follow. The amount of good accomplished in this single branch is incalculable.
Another branch is the Dorcas Department. This contains the garments, bedding, etc., sent in barrels and boxes from hundreds of churches in various parts of the country, and what is prepared by the benevolent in the city. From these shelves supplies are drawn to cover the half-naked children admitted to the Home, and to fit them for a long journey to a country home with their newly-appointed guardians. Poor widows and deserted women, with children, are also assisted to enable them to keep their families together. The demands on these shelves are enormous. From 1847 to 1863, over 12,000 beneficiaries were admitted to the Home; an average per annum, including readmissions, of 2,000. During the year closing in 1869 the report shows that 5,811 persons had re- ceived aid from the society, 1,000 adults had been provided with situations, and 452 children had been in the Home. Dur- ing the same period 1,650 loaves of bread had been given to the poor, and 42,000 loaves furnished for the children of the industrial schools. During the year closing in 1870, 619,000
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NEW YORK AND ITS INSTITUTIONS.
meals were given away, and nearly as many furnished with situations as during the previous year.
The society now carries forward its work at an expense of. about $80,000 per annum. It has as yet no endowment, and has received but little from either city or State, It is emi- nently worthy of the contributions and sympathy of the pub- lic.
HOME FOR INCURABLES.
( West Farms.)
UR public hospitals are open for the reception of such patients as entertain a reasonable hope of recovery or relief. Were incurables to be admitted indiscrimin- ately, their wards would soon be filled to repletion, and the masses for whom they were designed would be hope- lessly excluded. The general provision made by the city for incurables on Blackwell's Island is entirely insufficient for the wants of the community, leaving ample scope for the exercise of private charity. Many incurables not dependent on charity also prefer the quietude of a private " Home," where the ministrations of religion may be regularly en- joyed. The Protestant Episcopal church of New York has the honor of organizing the first society for the establishment of such an Institution in the country. The certificate of incor- poration bears date of April 4th, 1866. A board of twenty- four managers annually elected are charged with the admin- istration of the affairs of the society, and any person approved by a majority of the managers may become an annual member on the payment of ten dollars, a life member by the payment of one hundred dollars, or a life patron by the payment of one thousand To secure to the patients greater quietude, purity of atmosphere, and sunlight, the Home was located in the country. A wood dwelling, with choice surroundings, situated at West Farins, two and a half miles above Harlem Bridge, was first leased and afterwards purchased by the so- ciety, and is still occupied for the Home. The residence of the superintendent and chaplain, who is an Episcopal clergy- man, stands in the rear of the Home. Though the Institu-
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HOME FOR INCURABLES.
tion is under the management of the Episcopal church, some charity patients have been admitted from other denominations, and pay patients come when they can be admitted, from all classes of orderly people. All admitted are said to be taken for life, yet the physician's annual reports give the number of those "withdrawn" and " discharged,"-probably those who have unexpectedly recovered. Persons are taken who are afflicted with any incurable disease at any age, but with few exceptions those thus far received have belonged to one of these three classes-paralytics, subjects of malignant diseases, and consumptives. Several dreadful cases of cancer, attended with indescribable sufferings until vitality has been devoured, have been treated at the Home, and the society has found a compensation in the fact that these were cases to which no other hospital offered a suitable asylum. The Home was opened June 8th, 1866, and during the first year seventeen male and sixteen female patients were received, of whom four died and three withdrew, leaving twenty-six under treatment. At the close of the second year twenty-eight re- mained. During the year ending June 8, 1869, fourteen had been admitted, eight had died, five relieved or discharged, while twenty-nine remained. Seven or eight have since deceased, and as many more have been received. In May, 1869, a cot- tage a short distance from the Home was hired and soon filled, one of the managers generously presenting his own check for the entire rent. Most institutions boast of the numbers admitted and sent away in triumph, but this, from the . pecu- liar nature of the charity, can mention only the few who, though far beyond hope of recovery, are so nourished and watched over that life is protracted for months and sometimes years. Pay patients are admitted for six dollars per week, unless separate rooms are taken, when the price is increased to eight or ten.
The Home, considering the limited number received, has been an expensive charity, the patients being for the most part helpless, requiring constant attention and a varied and liberal diet. The expenditures of the Home the first year amounted to $6,849.29, toward which the pay patients contrib- uted $1,844. During the year ending June 8, 1869, the ex- penditures, including some increase of furniture and small re- pairs of buildings, amounted to over $14,000, toward which the pay patients contributed $3,343. The report at close of year, June 8, 1870, showed that besides covering all past expendi-
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NEW YORK AND ITS INSTITUTIONS
tures the society had an invested fund amounting to $36,000. The society has neither solicited nor received assistance from the public treasuries, but has been generously remembered by private Christian charity. A single donation from Messrs. Henry and Chauncey Rose amounted to $30,000. From the estate of Peter Lorillard $2,500 have been received, besides numerous smaller suis from many friends of the enterprise. During the last year forty-five patients have been in the In- stitution, of whom thirty remain. The report of 1869 ap- pealed for $100,000 to enable the managers to so enlarge the Home as to accommodate one hundred patients. The last re- port follows in the same strain, recommending the erection of a large hall for the aged. The Institution should be en- larged, and doubtless soon will be.
THE SAMARITAN HOME FOR THE AGED.
(Corner of Ninth avenue and Fourteenth street.)
HE association for the establishment of this Institu- tion was organized at the residence of Mrs. James Mc Vickar, April 15, 1866, and the act incorporating the society passed the Legislature March 23, 1867. The enterprise was at first intended to provide for aged and indigent females, and grew mainly out of these two facts : First, the several institutions of a similar character were known to be so crowded that applicants were constantly re- fused for want of room; secondly, because all others of the kind in the city, with a single exception, were denominational, and their doors closed against applicants, however worthy, from other religious bodies. The printed circular distribu- ted at its organization declared that the "Home " should " be absolutely free from all sectarian bias, and open, in its direc- ·tion and its objects, to persons of all Protestant denomina- tions." That its " Board of Managers " should "always con- tinue to represent indiscriminately our common Protestant Christianity in all its various forms." At the election of its officers and managers ladies connected with the Episcopal,
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THE SAMARITAN HOME FOR THE AGED.
Dutch Reformed, Unitarian, Baptist, Quaker, Methodist, Universalist, and Presbyterian Churches were elected. An · advisory committee of gentlemen, a legal adviser, and a phy- sician, were also appointed. The society began its benevo- lent undertaking in a hired building at 253 West Thirty- seventh street, in. May, 1866, ten months before its legal incorporation. None are admitted under sixty-five years of age, except in special extreme cases. An entrance fee of $100 was at first required of those admitted, but the constantly increasing expense of living, and the uncertainties of income, have led the managers to advance the price to $250. The first inmate of the Samaritan Home was an American wo- man of seventy, who had always supported herself until by partial paralysis was left helpless and homeless.
The attention of the society was also early directed to the pitiable condition of many aged and homeless men. Some of these had been once the children of fortune, others for a period successful merchants, but having outlived their fam- ilies and encountered reverses which had swept away their means, were now pining away the evening of their career in saddest destitution and friendlessness. Destitute of all those arts of self-accommodation, that tact and skill in the kitchen and nursery which render the presence of an infirm woman more endurable and less trying to charity, how dreary the lot of old men who have known better days, to find themselves in the last twilight of existence, when retire- ment and comfort are so desirable, wifeless, penniless, friend- less, childless, or, what is still worse, to have ungrateful chil- dren who leave them to eke out their last sad hours in a crowded, squalid almshouse, with heartless officials for their only guardians. In May, 1868, two years after the formal opening of the Home, the department for aged men was opened. This necessitated the hiring and furnishing of another house, which was taken on the same block, No. 259 West Thirty-seventh street. . These buildings were, however, unsuited to the enterprise, being old, cold, and without cellars. On the 1st of May, 1869, the managers leased and transferred the Home to the corner of Ninth avenue and Fourteenth street. This building is a large double house, fifty feet front, constructed of brick, with three stories and basement, bisected with halls, and is well adapted to the wants of the Institution. It is surrounded by fine open grounds for gardening, and is leased for five years, at an expense of about five thousand
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NEW YORK AND ITS INSTITUTIONS.
.
dollars per annum. It belongs to the Astor property, and that wealthy family could hardly dispose of it better than to donate it to the Samaritan Home.
Persons are received at the Home on a probation of three months, after which period the board takes definite action in the case. If the applicant is not confirmed as a permanent inmate, the admission fee is returned, deducting board at two dollars per week since the date of admission. Those admit- ted are expected to assist, if able, in performing the light work of the house and garden. No system of labor has yet been introduced to provide income, the inmates being too much broken down to perform much service. During 1868 three of the aged women and one of the men passed away to the bet- ter land. In 1869 two more aged ladies died, and in 1870 six more were laid to rest. Mr. Charles T. Cromwell some time since presented the Home with a fine burial-place at Cypress . Hill Cemetery, which is already occupied by the remains of the mouldering dead. Like all societies, this in its beginnings had its struggles with poverty and the indifference of the public, but it has passed the crisis. Its managers have not only met their expenditures, but have established a building fund which already amounts to over $20,000. Its friends are now annually cheered with a few large and many small do- nations, besides its annual subscribers, upon whom it mainly relies for support. The expense of the Institution amounts to $9,000 or $10,000 per annum.
Living near the Home, we have often visited it and found it always a well-ordered asylum of comfort and refinement. There are now twenty aged men and twenty-four women com- fortably domiciled in their appropriate apartments, with space for several more. The men can be seen any day occupied with light tasks around the garden and yards, or reading their favorite books. The women, seated in casy chairs, spend their day between light needle-work or knitting, and in reading the religious magazines. All appear cheerful and contented. They speak of their matron, Mrs. Julia J. Trew, in terms of high appreciation. Divine service is conducted by some clergyman every Sabbath, and religion sheds it hallowed ra- diance among them through all the year. Turning away from the door of this Good Samaritan, we can but pray that it may long survive to pour wine and oil into the wounded heart of hoary humanity.
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THE COLORED HOME.
(Sixty-fifth street and First avenue.)
THE first meeting for the organization of this excellent charity is believed to have been convened at the residence of Mrs. Maria Banyer, at No. 20 Bond street, in the autumn of 1839. The plan for reliev- ing the suffering poor among the colored population is said to have originated with Miss Shotwell, Miss Jay, the first contributor, generously presenting a thousand dollars toward the founding of the Home at their first meeting. At a sub- sequent meeting a board of managers was formed, a consti- tution adopted, and the organization perfected under the title of "The Society for the Relief of Worthy Aged Colored Persons." It was duly incorporated in 1845, under the title of "The Society for the Support of the Colored Home." Soon after its first organization a building on the North river, known as " Woodside," was opened, and twelve inmates at once received. Through the liberality of Mr. Horsburgh,. a property on Fortieth street and Fourth avenue was pur- chased in 1843. The act of incorporation, in 1845, was followed by a grant of $10,000 from the Legislature, which sum had been previously appropriated toward the erection of a State Hospital in this city, but was now transferred to the managers of the Colored Home for the erection of perma- nent buildings. The next year arrangements were made with the Commissioners of the Poor, which still continues to re- ceive, at a very low rate, the colored paupers of the city. unless medically unfit for the Colored IIome. Forty-four lots of ground on First avenue, between Sixty-fourth and Sixty-fifth streets, were purchased in 1848, and the following year a portion of the buildings now occupied were completed. The Institution consists of four departments-the Home for Aged and Indigent the Hospital, the Nursery, and the Ly- ing-in Department. The admissions to the Hospital exceed those of the other three divisions combined. The buildings at present form a hollow square, with a fine flower-garden in the center. Fronting on Sixty-fifth street stands the beauti- ful brick chapel erected in 1858, under the supervision of the excellent chaplain MacFarlan. The first floor of this build-
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NEW YORK AND ITS INSTITUTIONS.
ing contains a parlor, appropriate apartments for the superin- tendent, steward, physician, matron, and the dispensary. On the floor above is the chapel, well arranged, with galleries on the sides, and seatings for six hundred persons. From either end of this building extend at right angles the male and the female wings, four stories high, capable of accommodating a hundred and twenty persons each. Each floor is a ward ex- tending the whole length of the building, and contains twenty-eight beds. These wings are connected in the rear by another two-story building, divided into smaller apartments containing from five to eighteen beds each. This is devoted, in part, to the nursery and the lying-in department, founded by the bequest of Mrs. Jacob Shatzel in 1847. About fifty are annually received into this last-named department, who leave when they are able, some to service in Christian families, others to their old habits of vice and dissipation. The build- ings are heated with stoves, and baths with hot and cold water have recently been introduced. The nursery contains children over three years of age, who cannot gain admittance into the Colored Orphan Asylum. The average number in this department is about twenty. The Institution is designed for the colored poor of New York county, yet, when space will allow, persons from outside the county are taken, and pay one dollar and eighty-two cents per week if they require medicine, and if not, one dollar and five cents, three months pay being required in advance. The State appropriated $12,000 to this charity in 1866, in 1867 $3,858, and over $4,000 have since been received from the same source. The Commissioners of Charities and Corrections pay a stipulated price for the board of pensioners admitted under their direc- tion, but this is only a moiety of what is actually expended in their support. The excellent Chauncey Rose remembered the Institution with a bequest of $16,000. About one thousand persons are annually cared for, at an expense of about $30,000. Dr. James D. Fitch held the position of resident physician twenty-six years The Institution has a chaplain, a resident, a house, and an assistant house physician, which receive a trifling pecumary compensation for much earnest labor. Many of the inmates are very old, some pressing into their second century. Most of the inmates are pious, and, as the majority of them are Methodists, the chaplain is selected from that denomination, though ministers. and missionaries from all evangelical churches are always well received. The in-
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THE COLORED HOME.
mates hold prayer-meetings in their rooms, in addition to the regular services. Every winter a Christmas tree grows up suddenly, whose prolific branches bring forth something nice for every inmate, which is received with great joy. On these .occasions addresses are delivered by some of the prominent men of New York, and this holiday period is remembered with much interest all the year.
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ST. LUKE'S HOME IN HUDSON STREET.
'ST. LUKE'S HOME FOR INDIGENT CHRISTIAN FEMALES. (Madison avenue and Eighty-ninth street.)
This Institution was originally opened in the city of New York, on May 1,1852. A year or two previous to that, an aged female called at the rectory of St. Luke's church, in Hudson street, and asked the rector, Rev. Isaac H. Tuttle. whether there was not an asylum or a home of the Episcopal church, where a lady of fourscore might find a retreat for her remaining days. The good man replied, " Madam, I am sorry to say our church has none, but by the grace of God it shall have;" and from that day he set about the work of estab- lishing that much-needed Institution. On St. Luke's Day, October 18, 1851; he preached a sermon on the importance of founding a Home of this kind." Ile conferred with some of his clerical brethren on the subject, and invited several of his congregation to meet at the rectory and consider the
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