Utica's Orphanages

[Dave]

And the first orphanage we'll discuss is .....






Here's the rundown on the Utica Orphan Asylum from the Oneida County Historical Association:

www.oneidacountyhistory.org/MomentsInTime/UticaOrphanage/UticaOrpahnAsylum.asp


It began on the northeast corner of John and Catherine streets and from there moved to Chancellor Square, then to 312 Genesee where MWP is today (the former Proctor estate). They moved again when "Benjamin F. Jewett gave the society three acres of land on the northwest corner of Genesee and Pleasant street." (That's incorrect. Maps show the building on the northeast corner.)







In 1924, "the directors of the orphanage decided to devote all their resources to the care of crippled children. The orphans were transferred to other orphanages and the Utica Orphan Asylum was reorganized as Children's Hospital. Eventually the old orphan­age was razed and its grounds developed for residences. A street, Derbyshire Place, was built through the grounds and named for Charlotte Derbyshire, who was one of the leaders of the Female Society of Industry that had founded the orphanage."

The Childrens Hospital was built on Bennett Street, just below Burrstone Road, backing up to Faxton Hospital. In the 1950's through the at least the 1970's you could walk inside from Faxton to Childrens. I did so while selling newspapers in the late 50's when Childrens was still for children. The polio epidemic of the earlier 1950's ensured Childrens still had enough patients. In the 1970's my parents were there for resident physical rehab after their strokes.

[Dave]

We're open for discussion of other orphanages. Any orphanage ... if it's not in Utica, we can start another thread.

[jon]

Utica Orphan Asylum

[jon]

The House of the Good Shepherd -1905

[jon]

The House of the Good Shepherd was located on the West side of Genesee Street between the Parkway and Rose Place where the Pin-O-Rama Bowling Alleys are now.

[Dave]

Aug 31, 2010 23:43:44 GMT -5 jon said:

The House of the Good Shepherd was located on the West side of Genesee Street between the Parkway and Rose Place where the Pin-O-Rama Bowling Alleys are now.

I remember it well. I would pass it and walk down behind toward Sunset Ave. on my way home from Lourdes school to Hager street. The telephone company built a building just behind it on the south end of the lot on Rose Place as the old orphanage was coming down. And then, as Jon mentions, the bowling alley went up.

The House of the Good Shepherd Orphanage figures (fictiously) in three pieces I wrote, The Good Shepherd, Mina, and Sister Cliodhna's House Warming.

[Dave]

Regarding St. John's St. Josephs Orphanages.

I came across this, which was evidently copied from a forum. Unfortunately, i don't know who the author it.

Here's the basic history of the orphanage:

It was started by John and Nicholas Devereaux (brothers). They appealed to the newly established Community in St Joseph's Valley, Emmitsburg, Md and the request was granted. After a journey by stage and canal boat, Sisters Etienne Hall, Lucina Simms and Theophilia Williams arrived in Utica and opened the ninth establishment of the Sisters of Charity in the U.S. in a small house on St. John's Street.

The Devereaux family continued its charity and it was their desire that the institution be entirely supported at their expense, but the sisters also set up fundraisers for support. Then in 1849 an order was received to releave the Devereaus family of the charge and the institution became an incorporated body. The Asylum was incorporated in March 28, 1849. The Rev Joseph Stokes and Francis Kernan served as president from 1849-1863. Since then the institution has been under a board of directors and a superior has served as president.

In 1853 Michael McQuade and his wife, Johanna gave a gift of land. In 1872 the institution received a part of the county tax for charitable instituions. By 1897 the grounds belonging to the institution covered an area of about 32,000 sq. feet.

In 1907 the Sisters were offered a 2-story frame building near the outskirts of Utica. It was located on top of a steep hill. About this time Mathew A Carton purchased the land and deeded it to the Sisters of Charity for the purpose of errecting a modern, well equipped building. The building was occupied in 1912. The site comprised 22 acres. The initial cost of the building was more than $150,000 and it had accomodations for more than 300 children.

The new building (the address was now 2527 Genesee St.) was 3 1/2 stories high and in 1942 the name was changed to St. John's Home and School. Formerly the school was strickly a girl's school, but in 1925 St. John's took in boys between the ages of 6 and 10 after a fire destroyed another Utica orphanage known as St. Vincent's Protectorate.

A further merger came in 1955 when St. John's took in infants that previously had been cared for at St. Joseph's Infants Home, founded in the 1890s and located on Green St in West Utica. It remained as St. John's and St. Joseph's Infants Home until 1961 when it became Utica Catholic Academy. As of 1-8-95 (the date of one of the articles I am quoting this from) it it now known as the Academy at Southgate condominiums.

I hope this helps some people.

(End of found description.)

Below, the St. John's orphanage can be seen on John St. next to St. John's church.


Below: I copied this from the Utica 1883 map and annotated it. The Utica Catholic Academy I attended from 1957 to when it closed in 1960 can be seen on Burnett Street, as well as the orphanage directly on John St. The forefunner of UFA is over on the Square and Assumption Academy is also noted on the map.




Below: Here's the St. Joseph's home at the top of the hill on Genesee St. in South Utica, about a mile south of Our Lady of Lourdes Church and School. This became St. John's St. Joseph's when the John St. home burned. It also took in childen from the old St. Joseph's Infant's home on Green St. in West Utica. When Notre Dame High School opened in the fall of 1960 it was a boys school and it's principle supply of students came from St. Francis and UCA. the girls at St. Francis remained there, but the girls from the old John St. UCA were moved to the empty orphanage. Their first graduating class in that building was UCA '61. I was a member of the NOtre Dame HS Class of '61/



Below is a postcard labeled "St. John's Infant Home," which may have been the orphanage on Green Street, just off of York Street in West Utica. What appears to be a waterway in the background may have been only artist's license. Or it could be the Chenango Canal that ran parallel to Lincoln Ave where the railroad tracks ran when I was a kid and the canal ran before then. (Today, the Arterial runs the same route.) Below the postcard image is a piece of the 1883 Utica map. The map does not show the Infant's Home, but what appears to be empty land at the corner of York and Green.

[Dave]

Following is from various sources on the Internet. Some of it duplicates what has already appeared here.

Utica’s Orphanages


Kit Temple wrote:

In 2016:
When the Utica Orphan Asylum, which was next door to Fountain Elms, moved to their new location at Pleasant and Genesee streets in 1861 (which later became the Children's Hospital) the old asylum building became private housing for next 30 years. Then, James and Helen Munson Williams who had built and lived in Fountain Elms next door, bought the building and remodeled it in the Edwardian Style and gave it to their daughter Maria (pronounced 'muh-RY-uh') and her new husband Thomas Redfield Proctor as a wedding gift in 1893. They named it 'Proctor Gardens' and lived there the rest of their lives. T.R.Proctor died in 1920 and Maria Williams Proctor died in 1935. The building became the Music Building of the Munson Williams Proctor Institute and remained until 1960 when it was razed to make room for the new Museum. Part of the original foundation remains under the walkway that joins the museum with Fountain Elms.

In 2014:
Thanks for re-posting Jon Hynes' info about the Utica Orphan Asylum. I have the history of it but am interested only from 1854 to 1856 when it was on Genesee St. and some of my ancestors lived there. A lot of history in that building. After the asylum moved, it was where Thomas R. Proctor and his wife Maria Williams lived, calling it 'Proctor Gardens' until they died. Then it became the Music Building of the Institute. Here's a photo taken by Russell T. Rhoades in the 1940s. On the left is Fountain Elms and on the right is the Music Bldg/Proctor Gardens/Utica Orphan Asylum.

From History of Oneida County Vol 1. by Henry Cookinham Chapter XXVIII

Transcribed by B. McCulloch

Utica Orphan Asylum - In 1826 a society was formed among the influential ladies in Utica known as the Female Society of Industry, the object being to procure funds for the establishment of an orphan asylum. A charter was granted January 7, 1830, and in the same year a building was procured on the northeast corner of John and Catharine Streets. Later the establishment was removed to the southeast corner of Chancellor Square. In 1842 a citizens’ meeting was held in the interest of the institution, and it was decided to apply for an amendment to the charter by which children, who had one parents, might be accepted at the asylum. In 1845 the asylum was on Broadway, and in 1846 the lot was purchased at 312 Genesee Street, upon which a building was constructed and the institution was located there until 1861. Benjamin F. Jewett donated three acres of land on the corner of Genesee and Pleasant Streets and a new building was constructed on this lot in 1861 and upon this lot the building now stands. The institution has received from time to time gifts by will and otherwise, until it has a substantial endowment. The last gift of importance was that of Mrs. Lydia Francis, which was received by the institution through the will of Mrs. Francis, and amounted to about $65,000. With a portion of this fund a hospital separate from the other building was erected, and was completed and occupied about a year since. The last report of the institution, which is for the year 1911, shows that 17 of the older boys are in attendance at the public schools; it also shows that the children of the institution are instructed in kindergarten work, in Sunday school, physical exercises, and at time the older boys have received military drill. The girls are instructed in cooking and sewing. The balance sheet shows that the receipts during the last year were $29,069.67, and the disbursements slightly over $600 less than the receipts.


GUEST WROTE: I volunteered at Children's Hospital in 8th grade--that was part of Faxton, right?
Well, my earliest memories of Utica was in Oct. 1958 when we moved there. I was almost 5.

Dave Griffin wrote on May 24, 2009 at 7:52pm
May 22, 2009 at 2:55pm ninamh said:

Yes, as far as I know. As a kid I never for sure knew their relationship. I have to assume that Children's got crowded during the Polio epidemic in the 1950's, but it must have been built before that. Possibly as a Soldiers Hospital. The summer of '57 when I carried papers through there, it was not very crowded, or so I remember.

Here's a quote from their website: "Faxton Hospital evolved from the union of two facilities, Children's Hospital and Rehabilitation Center (an outgrowth of the old Utica Orphan Asylum on Genesee Street, established in 1830), and Faxton Hospital, established by Theodore S. Faxton on Sunset Avenue in 1875." The quote goes on into nonsense: "Faxton Hospital came into being on January 1, 1989 when Faxton Hospital and Children's Hospital merged."

More at:
tinyurl.com/qh2ojc

Also found this:

www.windsweptpress.com/temptemp/asylum.jpg