St. Vincent Home for Children
Sun, 2008-05-25 12:32 - Kerry
St. Vincent Home for Children was founded in 1850 following a cholera epidemic and a fire, both of which occurred the previous year and which left many St. Louis children orphaned. The fire, begun aboard a steamboat at the levee, caused hundreds to be homeless and ravaged a 15-block area. Meanwhile, the cholera, transmitted by arriving immigrants, brought business to a standstill and killed more than 4,000 of the city's 64,000 residents.
Diocesan orphanages at the time were already very crowded and many of the victims of the disease were poor and helpless. An appeal to the German Catholic community brought a strong response and construction of the new orphanage began in 1850 under the auspices of the newly-formed German St. Vincent Orphan Society. Five sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet took charge of the new home in 1851 and the first orphan, Anna Schwerdt, arrived on July 25 that year. Within two months of opening its doors, the orphanage became home to some 30 children.
In 1888, the Sisters of Christian Charity assumed the duties of the orphanage. They found 141 children placed in their care and an increasing number in the future.
In 1914, a 20-acre plot in Normandy Park was purchased for $18,000. The Cornerstone for the new Home was set on June 15, 1916 and the children moved into their new home in Normandy on August 8, 1917.
St. Vincent Home sustained itself through the Civil War, the Great Depression, two World Wars and other conflicts, all of which brought their share of orphans to the Home's doors.
In June 1950, families, friends and benefactors of St. Vincent Home celebrated its centennial.
Over the years, St. Vincent Home has transitioned to meet the changing needs of children in the area. No longer an orphanage, St. Vincent Home is a Residential Treatment Center.
[See http://www.bizjournals.com/stlouis/related_content.html?topic=St%20Vincent%20Home%20for%20Children for more, regarding the cost of "changing needs"]
Comments
Missing among the list
I found it interesting that such a large, long-serving Home would be missing from the list of orphanages/children's homes in the United States. I guess "location, location, location" means everything, even to orphan services in the good ol' US of A.
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Perhaps Missouri's children have better placement options that go outside the Catholic denomination? [Google the list, to see who and what's available for children of the state: Missouri Children's Homes -- Somehow Catholic Charities begin to rate on the second-page, after Protestant and Christian Evangelical groups. So much for following an alphabet order!]