Applicable National Register Criteria Areas of Significance (Mark "x" in one or more boxes for the criteria qualifying the property for National Register listing) SOCIAL HISTORY Property is associated with events that have made a significant contribution to the broad patterns of our Property is associated with the lives of persons significant in our past Property embodies the distinctive characteristics of a type, period, or method of construction or represents the work of a master, or possesses high Period of Significance artistic values, or represents a significant and distinguishable entity whose components lack individual distinction. Property has yielded, or is likely to yield, information important in prehistory or history.
Significant Dates 1856, 1861, 1869, 1891, 1898, 1901, 1910, 1923 Criteria Considerations (Mark "x" in all the boxes that apply) Significant Person (Complete only if Criterion B is marked above) owned by a religious institution or used for religious removed from its original location. C a birthplace or grave. D a cemetery. E a reconstructed building, object, or structure. F a commemorative property. less than 50 years old or achieving significance within the past 50 years. Property is: 1856-1960 1930 history. purposes. Kunz, Anthony Jr. Architect/Builder (Enter categories from instructions) Cultural Affiliation St. Aloysius Orphanage Hamilton County, OH Name of Property County and State Period of Significance The Period of Significance is 1856 to 1960, during which St.
Aloysius Orphanage was continuously operated as an Criteria Considerations Statement of Significance Summary Paragraph Narrative Statement of Significance While similar child care institutions still operate in Cincinnati, St. Aloysius is the only one that has preserved and adapted treatment center. Developmental history/additional historic context information nineteenth century. The Jacksonian era, 1824-1845, was one of extensive social reform in response to changes brought condition. Some of the reform movements, such as the American Female Moral Reform Society and the temperance institutions such as orphanages." orphan asylums began operating and the movement continued to grow into the 1840s with the founding of 30 more.
They first took hold in the Northeastern cities of New York, Boston and Philadelphia - which were leaders in establishing English Protestant descent who had settled along the banks of the Ohio River following the Miami Purchase by John iv Reform and Politics in the Age of Jackson, 1824-1845. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co., n.d Little, Brown & Co., 1971), 207 http://college.cengage.com/history/us/norton/people_nation/7e/students/studyguide/norton_sgvol1_ch11.pdf. vi "Population History of Cincinnati 1810-1990." http://physics.bu.edu/redner/projects/population/cities/cincinnati.html organization and included an active chapel, the institutition derives its significance from its importance in Social History St.
Aloysius Orphanage is locally significant under Criterion A in the area of Social History as an enduring and late children of all races and religions in need because of their parents' death, abandonment or abuse. by industrialization and urbanization across the nation. In the early nineteenth century, the religious revival known as the In the 1830s, a movement for child-care institutions spread rapidly throughout the country. In this decade alone, 23 private institutions - but also in Bangor, Richmond, Mobile, Chicago and Cincinnati. They quickly reached out to catch a wide variety of dependent children. They admitted abandoned as well as orphaned children as well as those whose widowed or The 1830s were years of rapid growth for Cincinnati. In the early 19th century, Cincinnati was home to people of primarily Cleves Symmes in 1788.
Between 1830 and 1855, Cincinnati was the nation's fastest-growing city." The population in - David J. Rothman. The Discovery of the Asylum: Social Order and Disorder in the New Republic (Boston, Toronto: its mid-to late-1g" century institutional buildings to contemporary use. During its period of significance, from 1856 to 1960, it continued to function as a traditional residential orphanage longer than most institutions before converting to a lay-based movement, were attempts to cleanse society of perceived moral evils. Some attempted to create utopian communities in surviving example of an institution founded in the 1830s in response to the cholera epidemic and adapted during the 20th St.
Aloysius Orphanage Hamilton County, OH Name of Property County and State strong in Cincinnati, which had a population of about 297,000 in 2010 according to the US Census.) The year 1832, however, brought severe challenges. An economic panic spread distress throughout the nation, and cholera epidemic. Historian Charles Greve wrote that "cholera visited the city on September 30th and stayed for 13 months. In the month of October alone, 423 persons died. The course of this terrible epidemic continued until late in the to their graves than have any of its visitations since, not withstanding our then small population of 25,000 one of the less violent, it continued to take a heavy toll on Cincinnati's residents. Cincinnati's first orphanage, the Cincinnati Orphan Asylum, had been established in 1818 by the Ladies Bible Society and known as the St.
Peter's Orphan Asylum, was initially housed in a dwelling on Sycamore street; then moved in 1836 to a among them about the large number of ethnic German boys who needed care during this troubled time. Father Henni, emphasis was to keep the faith alive and be a guiding spirit for the Orphan Society. The first issue was published July 20, 1837 and it continued until 1843. care and purchased a nine-room house at Sixth and John Streets, which was dedicated on the feast of St. Aloysius in cared for the orphans until May 8,1842. Children were housed for free or based on ability to pay, and the necessary financial support was raised by the Society. vili "St. Aloysius Orphanage Society, Centenary Historical Review, 1837-1937." customs.
1830 of 24,831 grew to 161,000 by 1860.A majority of new residents were German-speaking immigrants drawn by professed to be non-sectarian, was governed by Protestants, and Catholics were uncomfortable giving up their children to first order of religious sisters in the United States. The Sisters came to Cincinnati from Emmitsburg, Maryland, where St. Wahrheitsfreund (Friend of Truth),the first German Catholic newspaper in the United States, with Father Henni as editor. The paper was designed to provide immigrants with practical advice on life in the new world of Ohio, but its main then called, was assumed by the Sisters of Charity, who served as the staff. In the following year, on March 3, 1843, the Co., 1904) 588.
...following the fire, flood and famine, came the dreaded pestilence, Asiatic cholera, which carried more of our population located in a four-story building on city-owned land now occupied by the Cincinnati Music Hall. In response to acute need caused by the terrible cholera scourge, the asylum was incorporated in 1833. The Cincinnati Orphan Asylum, which address that need. Father John Martin Henni (1805-1881) was a popular community leader who founded many institutions for German-speaking citizens of Cincinnati. Among them, was the first German-speaking parish school at Holy By 1842, the number of children had increased to 29 and the day-to-day management of the Orphan Asylum, as it was Charles Greve. Centennial History of Cincinnati, and Representative Citizens. (Cincinnati: Biographical Publishing St.
Aloysius Orphanage Hamilton County, OH Name of Property County and State the first Bishop of Milwaukee, and Father Joseph Ferneding, Vicar-General of Cincinnati, became the first chaplain of the wife received a small salary each year for their services in addition to their board and lodging. By this time the number of boys under their care had grown to 53. Relocation to Bond Hill, 1856 in the city, a healthier climate in the country was sought for a Waisenhaus (children's home). On September 15, 1849, after much deliberation, it was decided to purchase 62 and 1/2 acres of farm and forest land on Dayton Road (now By October 1856, a three-story building, 60-feet-wide by 70-feet-deep, was built for $9,000 and orphan boys were wide by 60-feet-deep and 56-feet-high, was dedicated on October 21 of that year. With the additional space provided, the girls were moved to the Bond Hill facility.
In 1864 and 1865, additional lands were purchased, resulting in 71.24 total acres, portions of which would be used as farmland to grow fruits and vegetables and as pastures for livestock, making Miss Elsie Pape from 1866 to 1877. Main Building. With insurance funds, it was rebuilt with a fourth floor added to the central block in the form of a mansard roof with gabled dormer windows. The dramatic domed tower, which enclosed a water tank, was also added at this time. When St. Aloysius Orphanage moved to Bond Hill, the area was agricultural. Its location in the remote countryside orphanage, Longview Asylum, which had moved a bit farther north in the early 1860s, were the only major non-farming that made it possible to commute to Cincinnati, which created a market for suburban development. In 1871 the first Land & Building Association then a century - until the 1990s. In 1875, D. J.
Kenny described the building and its setting in Illustrated Cincinnati as follows: "Built of substantial brick, it St. Aloysius Orphan Society, a lay group responsible for financial support and governance, was incorporated, making "St. orphan society, serving until his death in1872. By 1846,the Sisters of Charity had given up management of the orphans bought property on Fourth Street between Western Row (now Central Avenue) and John Street. A second lot extending Bond Hill. In 1852, the Schulhofs departed and the children were cared for by the Brothers of the Holy Cross, of Notre Bond Hill structure, which became the main building, at a cost of $17,437. The new building, which measured 90-feet- inception, St. Aloysius had conducted a grade school within the institution. In 1875, a second building was erected as a Mansards were added to both wings in 1898.
In 1901, a small 3-story addition was made to the west (rear) end of the The original home had become too small for the large number of children who needed care, and in April 1844 the Society Dame, Indiana, through the end of1853, followed by the Brothers of Mary, of Dayton, Ohio, for 1854 and most of 1855. relocated there. Meanwhile, orphan girls remained downtown and occupied the building on Fourth Street. From March 1856 to September 1861, Henry Schulhof was again in charge. In 1861, an addition was built on the front of the original the agricultural operations (demolished in 1960). landowners.
In the late 1860s, the Marietta & Cincinnati Railroad, which later became part of the B & O, completed a line stands in the midst of meadow and arrable land of excellent quality very much of which has been cultivated to garden-like order to produce food for the residents but also to provide young people a skill for future employment. "The children are subdivision in Bond Hill was laid out just north of the orphanageby a group of investors organized as the Cooperative St. Aloysius Orphanage Hamilton County, OH County and State Wage homes were private homes where orphans lived and worked in exchange for room and board and low wages. The employment in domestic service. Records reflect that this practice was in effect at St.
Aloysius from at least the 1880s to The 20th Century (criminals, lunatics and delinquent or dependent children) were best served by isolating them in special institutions. These asylums rigidly regimented the daily lives of the "inmates" in a militaristic manner. In Cincinnati, both the House of Refuge however, the asylum had become a symbol of oppression and the Jacksonian assumption on which it was based was Critics of orphan asylums argued that they were overcrowded, impersonal institutions that failed to treat children as individuals while at the same time allowing undeserving parents to shirk their parental duties. These criticisms reached than their own, was the second-best option, when family life could not be maintained. Orphan asylums were to be in response to financial conditions and social welfare policy. The peak year for St.
Aloysius was 1911, with 295 "inmates." to provide an infirmary for sick children. German feeling during the war hastened the assimilation of the German population to American ways. German was no In order to create yet more space at St.Aloysius, it was decided to convert the spaces on the second and third floors partitioned into a small office, is the only trace remaining of the original chapel space.] ix Kenny, D. J. Illustrated Cincinnati (Cincinnati: Geo. E. Stevens Co, 1875), 53-54 * Daniel I. Hurley, One Child at a Time: A History of The Children's Home of Cincinnati 1864-1989 (Cincinnati: The Children's Home of Cincinnati, 1990), p. 66 *Letter dated June 1,1922 to Joseph Berning Printing Co., Records of St. Aloysius Orphanage, Cincinnati History Library, Cincinnati Museum Center. discredited. apparently ended.
Name of Property taught agricultural pursuits and the easier trades as soon as their years will admit." ix Historic photographs show children that had burned down.This barn was destroyed by fire in 1966but was not replaced because farming on the property had 1938. By this time, not all inmates were orphans. Many had one parent who was unable to care for them for health or Progressives were critical of the failure of many of the institutions established in the mid-19t*-century during the earlier Jacksonian reform era. At the heart of the Jacksonian reform had been the assumption that both society and its deviants for children and the Workhouse for adult criminals were developed on this asylum model. By the early 20th century, auditorium was located in the undercroft. Designed by Kunz & Beck, architects, the chapel contained cut stone installed to a wage home, adoptive home or foster home.
Others were released because they had reached the age of 18. The first two decades of the 20" century were a period of social reform known as the Progressive movement. The their climax at the White House Conference on Dependent Children of 1909, which called for aid to poor widows and other destitute mothers in their own homes, so that they could continue to care for their own children despite their family's poverty. The conference also declared that foster care, the temporary placement of dependent children in homes other Yet in most states, orphan asylums such as St. Aloysius continued to care for more children than were aided by either mothers' pensions or foster care until at least the 1920s. The population at St.
Aloysius continued to expand and contract longer taught in Cincinnati schools, books were no longer printed with a page in German opposite a page in English, and of occupants was 260 and the facility was still severely overcrowded. by the David Hummel Building Company, iron work from L. Schreiber & Sons, and stained glass windows from the St. Aloysius Orphanage Hamilton County, OH Name of Property County and State St. Aloysius Orphanage was fortunate to have the services of architect Anthony Kunz, Jr. (1872-1954), who was a life addition to the gymnasiums and 1923 Chapel which are known to be his commissions. Born and educated in Cincinnati, Kunz studied architecture in the offices of Emil F. Baude and G. & A. Brink. He became a partner of August Brink, 1894-95; practiced on his own ca. 1897-1921; then as Kunz & Beck, 1921-32; and Kunz & Sons, Catholic Church in the West End (1909).
Later works included a school (1913), rectory (1922), and church (1927) for St. School in Covington. (Holy Cross Church was National Register-listed in 1986.) Years of Transition: 1925-1950 during the second quarter of the twentieth century. In 1916, the Bureau of Catholic Charities was established to coordinate assigned a professional social worker to St. Aloysius and requested specialized training for all administrators of child care Further changes followed a national study of "The Catholic Church and the Destitute" completed in 1929 by the Reverend when a high school program was added. This was instituted in response to the State Compulsory School Attendance Law, girls had a small outdoor playground. There was an outdoor swimming pool, but only the boys were allowed to use it. University of Cincinnati, 1939), 30-31. xiv Ibid., 28.
noted that he had practiced as an architect for 61 years. He was also a member of the Knights of Columbus and St changes imposed by Catholic Charities were absorbed more readily. It was decided to set a limit on the number of children St. Aloysius would care for and that orphans would be better distributed among a variety of other Catholic institutions. In "Girls over sixteen, who were not returned to their own homes, were placed out as domestic servants. Members of the collected their wages. When they reached eighteen, their earnings were turned over to them. Domestic service was the only occupation provided for the girls. St. Aloysius was, perhaps, the most isolated of all the institutions in the matter of reveal that a wood-frame gymnasium with a tin roof was planned and probably built, but it has not been extant for some xii "Anthony Kunz," St. Aloysius Bulletin (Vol. XXX1, No.
1, June 1954), 9. practice, Kunz was probably responsible for the 1901 addition to the main building and the 1910 Infirmary (Glad House) in ca. 1933-53. Not much is known about William H. Beck, who partnered with Kunz from 1921 to 1932. The firm executed many churches, schools, and other buildings for the Cincinnati Catholic Archdiocese including the impressive St. Matthew Church, Norwood (1906-1909); St. Leo, Fairmount (1911); St. Francis Seraph Church School and Monastery, Liberty and Pius, Cumminsville; St. John Baptist (1922) in Harrison; a church and rectory (1927) for St. Boniface at 1750 Chase Church in Springfield.
In Kentucky; and they designed Holy Cross Church in Latonia (1906-1908), and Bishop Howard standing committee on the admission and discharge of children, visited the girls regularly, until they were eighteen and Reverend O'Grady also observed that recreational opportunities were minimal. Architectural specifications dated 1898 time. There was a baseball field for boys but they were not permitted to use it unless accompanied by the chaplain. The institutions. St. Aloysius Orphanage Hamilton County, OH County and State girls - were built in the rear of the main building version of mothers' pensions, Aid to Dependent Children, made home care more widely available, orphan asylums finally St. Aloysius was one of those Catholic institutions that endured economic challenges and maintained its traditional Orphanage were evacuated to St.
Aloysius until it was safe for them to return to their own homes. The number of orphans at the facility peaked after World War Il at around 200. In the 1960s, the Orphanage offered safe harbor to nine Cuban refugees from Communist takeover of their country. Modernization of Treament: 1950 to the present The 1950s were a period of further modernization. More of the children at St. Aloysius were from homes where they had provided the funds for training and membership in these national committees for the Sister administrators of St. Aloysius. afternoons, children were also permitted to be entertained by relatives or qualified volunteers. alarm systems.xviii * Ibid., 34-35 xv11 "St.
Aloysius Orphanage Sesquicentennial 1837-1987," 10 centers for troubled children, or closed their doors.vi Name of Property struggled on caring for poor children into the 1950s or 1960s; others became foster care agencies or residential treatment nor gloom. We must be Christ conscious and Child conscious. We must be members of the Confraternity of Kindness." The flood of 1937 in Cincinnati saw the population of the orphanage expand temporarily as children of St. Joseph obtain a degree in Social Work. Completing her degree in 1936, Sister Mary subsequently compiled a 48-page handbook The Orphan Society sent representatives from the Sisters of Notre Dame to attend the University of Chicago seminar on children and the nuns, plus the realization of a prudent investment in the adequate maintenance and conservation of the private agencies.
In 1955, private institutions were caring for approximately half as many children as in 1930, because of foster care and adoptions. However, during this same period, the average daily number of children in Catholic institutions Cincinnati. A report on "Volume and Trends in Child Welfare Services in Cincinnati and Hamilton County, 1930 to 1955," produced by the Community Health and Welfare Council reported that "Almost two-thirds of all children in private St. Aloysius Orphanage Hamilton County, OH Name of Property County and State institutions, in recent years, were in Catholic institutions." In 1960, the end of the period of significance for this nomination, St. Aloysius still had 100-plus dependent children in its care.
place children in foster families rather than institutions, the number of children with deceased parents had radically decreased, and families were helped by governmental assistance programs. Services now focused on children who were addiction. Most of the "orphans" were there only temporarily until arrangements could be made through Catholic Charities for their release to rehabilitated homes or to willing relatives. The building, mode of operation, staff programs and school of St. Aloysius all underwent a process of evaluation. In 1972, workers was hired to provide guidance and support and a psychologist or psychiatrist was also added to the staff. At this Dame phased out their affiliation and St.
Aloysius incorporated Medicaid and licensed Mental Health Services into Aloysius and its team of counselors, therapists, teachers and caseworkers offer 22 different programs and serve about 18,000 children and adults each year.** during the early 19" century to establish institutions for the care of orphaned, abandoned and poor children. Like the significance from 1856 to 1960, St. Aloysius continued to care for and house abandoned and abused children. Since then children and families. Conclusion treatment offered on an individual basis, at times in groups, and involving families whenever possible. A staff of social time, 5-and 7-day living plans were offered, depending on the needs of the child. In addition, St. Aloysius had two fewer their services. By 1987, the Notre Dame Sisters and lay workers at St.
Aloysius were caring for an average of 30 children, but the operation had been secularized; formal religious instruction was no longer provided. Nonetheless, the Society children and families through therapy, education and treatment group homes. During the 1990's, the Sisters of Notre St. Aloysius Orphanage is significant in the area of Social History because it represents the local and national trend Steve Kemme, "Staying True to Its Mission: St. Al's Has Always Put Kids First." Cincinnati Enquirer, 10/24/2011. In the 1960s and 1970s, the population at St. Aloysius began to decline.
Courts and state legislators began to prefer to abused or abandoned due to a breakdown in traditional family life caused by divorce, desertion, or alcohol and drug teachers in 1972 and decided to send children considered emotionally stable and intellectually able to Catholic schools in early to mid-twentieth century it survived economic hard times and government suppport to mothers designed to keep Founded in 1837, St. Aloysius was the first such institution in Cincinnati to focus on German-speaking Catholic children None of the other orphanages in Cincinnati remain in their 19t*-century buildings. The first orphanage in Cincinnati, the *x Sister Mary Ivan in "Home Offers Security to 100 Children," Cincinnati Enquirer, 10/9/1963, 16:1. St. Aloysius Orphanage Hamilton County, OH Name of Property County and State are there any others that could be eligible.
The one Catholic institution in Cincinnati that shares significance in Social to 1924) are all different than St. Aloysius Orphanage. Other social welfare institutions established and built in Cincinnati in the mid-19th century, such as the Cincinnati House of Refuge (1850, demolished in the 1920s); Cincinnati Work House and Hospital (1869, demolished c.1990); and the rooms, kitchen-related and other utilitarian spaces, to more contemporary classrooms, counseling rooms, offices, and storage. St. Aloysius Orphanage is the last surviving example of its kind; it remains on a property it has occupied since There are no other buildings in Cincinnati or Hamilton County with the same association listed in the National Register nor central blocks with wings joined by connectors in various Revival styles.
However, while the other institutions were all 1856, with all of its contributing buildings built by 1930. During the period of significance of 1856 to 1960 it continued to History with St. Aloysius Orphanage is St. Francis Hospital at 1860 Queen City Avenue, a Queen Anne structure built in 1888 and listed in the National Register in 1984. However, its mission, use, architecture, and period of significance (1875 demolished, St. Aloysius adapted its interior spaces from old-fashioned classrooms, dormitories, clothes rooms, dining St. Aloysius Orphanage Hamilton County, OH Name of Property County and State 9.
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