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leading financiers and business men of the time. The construction of the buildings on the property bounded by 68th and 69th Streets and by Lexington and Third Avenues was begun in 1872. In November 1873, the main building was completed and occupied. Through the years other buildings were added until the Foundling Hospita was completed.
While the building was in progress the services of the institution were expanding. Shortly after its establishment, the Foundling became a refuge not only for abandoned babies but also for unmarried mothers.
Another important development was the inauguration of the Boarding Department. Because of the lack of room ii the late house on 12th Street, the Sisters asked their neighbors to care for some of the infants in their own homes. Thus was inaugurated, on November 15, 1869, the Boarding department of the Foundling.
As soon as Sister Irene was settled in the new building on 68th Street, she established the Adoption Department to find suitable permanent homes for those children who were legally free for adoption. Every care was taken to ensure proper guardianship for each child. The date of the first recorded placement of a child in a free home, witl a view to adoption, was May 1873.
In 1880, one of Sister Irene’s dreams was realized when St. Anne's Maternity Pavilion was erected, in order to shelter friendless, expectant mothers, whether married or unmarried, and to provide proper confinement care for them. Although originally planned only for mother’s care by the Sisters, St. Anne’s was opened in 1915 to outsid< physicians who wished to send private patients for confinement. In 1946, St. Anne’s Maternity Pavilion was close to private cases in order to expand and improve services to the unmarried mothers who were the original objects of Sister Irene’s concern.
In 1881 St. John’s Hospital for Children, and Pediatric Service of the New York Foundling Hospital was erected.
1944, the Hospital service of St. John’s was discontinued in order to expand and improve services to well childre in need of care away from their own homes and thus meet an urgent need in this community.
In 1910, St. Joseph By The Sea, at Huguenot, Staten Island, was opened as an annex to the New York foundling Hospital.
In 1930, a Social Service Department was established in order to provide casework services for unmarried mothers cared for in the Shelter. It was about the same time that professionally trained workers were added to th staff of the Boarding and Adoption Departments.
The Foundling Hospital also has a training school for the training of young ladies as Infant Care Technicians, a Pediatric Clinic for foster children, a Prenatal Clinic, a Development clinic for children being considered for adoptive placement, and -its newest service—a Child Guidance Clinic.
In 1958 in order to carry on the work of the New York foundling Hospital and to give adequate coverage to the number of dependent and neglected children in need of care away from their own homes, the buildings on 68th Street were replaced by the modern fire-proof building equipped with all the facilities necessary to carry out a program according to the highest standards of child care.
As the New York Foundling Hospital enters its 100th year of service, it may be described as a mult-ifunctional social agency providing the following services:
Nursery care on an emergency basis to abandoned and neglected children regardless of creed or color;
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Casework services to families requesting placement of children;
Placement and supervision of Catholic children in boarding and adoption homes;
After-Care supervision of children discharged from foster care;
Shelter care and casework services to unmarried mothers.


Orphan Train Riders of BSL Document (032)
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