Waiting for Thanksgiving dinner at a Bronx orphanage

Thanksgiving in early 20th century New York City wasn’t just celebrated in private homes and expensive hotel restaurants. Institutions of all kinds across Gotham also honored the holiday with their own commemorative dinners.

Hospitals, facilities for the poor, sick, and aged, and even city prisons served up a special Thanksgiving meal—usually along with speeches by important guests and often religious sermons.

Orphanages also celebrated Thanksgiving. This photo (above) shows more than 100 young residents sitting at long, linen-draped tables inside the girls’ dining room at the Roman Catholic Orphan Society in the Bronx. The orphanage was built in 1902, relocated from an older building on Fifth Avenue in Midtown.

A boys’ dining room operated in a building next door. Together, both the girls’ and boys’ buildings could house up to 1,600 residents at a time, according to nycago.org.

These uniform-clad, unsmiling girls look like they’re on their best behavior. I wish we knew exactly what their Thanksgiving menu offered…and what their adult lives were like.

You won’t find this handsome orphanage (above, in 1914) in the Bronx anymore. By the 1920s, thanks to a sizable reduction in the number or orphan residents, both buildings were abandoned and sold. The Bronx VA Hospital took its place.

[Photos: New-York Historical Society]

The “orphan asylums” all over Manhattan

There sure were a lot of orphanages in Manhattan in the late 19th century. I counted 20 in King’s Handbook of New York City, from 1892.

Some were founded by nonsectarian organizations; others by religious orders.

All sound pretty heartbreaking—but at the time, they were progressive institutions where orphans and “half-orphans” could live, go to school, and learn a trade rather than fall victim to the streets.

The Hebrew Orphan Asylum (above), a colossal home on Amsterdam Avenue and 136th Street that housed 1,000 kids, opened in 1822.

It was “where Hebrew orphans and indigent boys and girls are sheltered and educated,” states King’s.

The Roman Catholic Orphan Asylum opened this home (right) for girls in 1870.It’s on Madison Avenue and 51st Street; the boys building is down the block at Fifth Avenue.

“In both the boys’ and girls’ departments, provision is made for the technical instruction of the inmates,” says King’s. “The work is carried on with a thoroughness which is characteristic of the Catholic Church in other directions.”

At right is a sketch of the St. Joseph’s Asylum, at 89th Street and what was then known as Avenue A (today’s York Avenue).

I think it’s the same orphanage called St. Ann’s Home for Destitute Children in King’s, as the address is the same.

King’s describes it as “a large and cheerful edifice with accommodations for nearly 300 inmates.”

Below is the third incarnation of the Colored Orphan Asylum, first opened in 1837 on Sixth Avenue and 12th Street.

The orphanage moved to bigger digs on Fifth Avenue and 43rd Street—but that building was burned to the ground during the Draft Riots of 1863, one of the city’s most shameful moments. (None of the kids were hurt.)

The orphanage moved uptown to 143rd Street, shown here in 1874.

[All photos: NYPL Digital Gallery]