New York Foundling

The New York Foundling, founded in 1869 by the Roman Catholic Sisters of Charity, is one of New York City’s oldest and largest child welfare agencies. The Foundling operates programs in the five boroughs of New York City, Rockland County, and Puerto Rico. Its services include foster care, adoptions, educational programs, mental health services, and many other community-based services for children, families, and adults.

A wave of very poor immigrants and social disruption were among the many conditions that led to an epidemic of infanticide and abandonment during the late 1860s. It was not unusual for the sisters at St. Peter’s Convent on Barclay Street to find a tiny waif left on the doorstep. Sister Mary Irene FitzGibbon, of St. Peter’s approached Mother Mary Jerome, the Superior of the Sisters of Charity, regarding the need of rescuing these children. When the matter was placed before Archbishop (afterwards Cardinal) John McCloskey, he urged the Sisters to provide an asylum for the care of abandoned children.

On October 8, 1869 the New York Foundling Asylum of the Sisters of Charity, in the City of New York was incorporated. Three days later, Sister Irene and her two companions, Sister Teresa Vincent and Sister Ann Aloysia, moved into a small rented house at 17 East 12th Street in New York's Greenwich Village. Although they expected to spend three months preparing for the opening of the institutions, an infant was laid on the doorstep that very first night.

Sister Irene, placed a white wicker cradle just inside the front door with the goal of receiving and caring for unwanted children and those whose parents could not properly care for them. 45 more babies followed in that first month. Because of the lack of space in the house on 12th Street, the Sisters asked their neighbors to care for some of the infants in their homes, and on November 15, 1869, the Boarding department of the Foundling was initiated.

The need for this type of service was confirmed by the 123 babies that were left by January 1, 1870. Within a year, a larger house at 3 Washington Square was secured. After two years, The Foundling had accepted 2,500 babies. The New-York Historical Society has a collection of the notes left with the abandoned babies, which is part of a larger collection of historic photographs of the Foundling maintained by the Society. Shortly after its establishment, the Foundling became a refuge not only for abandoned infants but also for unmarried mothers.

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