Sunday, September 01, 2013

Calling all Catholic Homeys from the Philadelphia Archdiocese and beyond!

http://catholicphilly.com/2013/08/local-news/events/st-francis-st-joseph-homes-alums-plan-anniversary-party/


How many boys can YOU identify?

St. Vincents Tacony, St. John's Orphan Asylum for Boys, West Philadelphia,   St. Joseph's House for Homeless and Industrious Boys, North Philadelphia, AKA The Hut, St Francis Vocational School Eddington, (St. Francis-St. Joseph Home)  alums plan anniversary party.  We also invite any women survivors from homes or orphanges for girls,  like from St. Joseph's Gonzaga Home - Gemantown, St. Margaret's, and the Catholic Home for Destitute Girls 29th and Allegheny Ave.  

Alumni of St. Francis-St. Joseph Homes for Children will celebrate the 125th anniversary of the founding of what were then separate institutions on Sunday, Sept. 8, rain or shine, at the main campus, Route 13 and Street Road, Bensalem. Mass will be celebrated at 11 a.m. followed by a picnic.

St. Francis was founded in 1888 by Elizabeth, (St.) Katharine and Louise Drexel as St. Francis Industrial School, a vocational training facility for adolescent boys who aged out of the former St. John’s Orphan Asylum.

St. Joseph’s House for Industrious Boys was founded approximately the same time by Father Eugene V. McElhone with a similar mission, but initially accepting homeless adolescent boys straight from the streets of Philadelphia.

The two institutions have operated as a single institution on the Bensalem campus and in community-based group homes since 1998. At this point St. Francis-St. Joseph is virtually the last man standing of what once was a huge archdiocesan network of residential homes for non-delinquent children at risk.
The St. Francis-St. Joseph alumni invite former residents of all the former homes to the celebration.

For more information contact:

Dick Kolb -Circa -  1945-1951  Phone: 856-303-1463  or
John J Bangert - Circa - 1953-1966   Phone: 508-514-0143 Email: jjbangert@gmail.com

Art of Thomas Eminson

 Self Portrait of Abused Child - 
Tommy Eminson