Today’s video is St. Joseph’s Orphanage in Pics. I snapped each and every one of these photos myself. They are accompanied by lovely music. I already have a much longer video on this topic I posted months ago, if you’re interested.
“St. Joseph’s Orphanage was operated by the Sisters of Providence from 1854 to 1974. For most of that period, the orphanage was located on North Avenue in Burlington. While a private Catholic institution, it was one of Vermont’s few institutions serving dependent children through the mid-20th century. In recent decades, more than one-hundred former residents of St. Joseph’s say they were physically, sexually and emotionally abused by nuns, priests or lay staff workers in the 1940s, 50s, and 60s.”-https://omeka.middlebury.edu/vermont_institutions/collections/show/7
“…The building was constructed between 1879 and 1883 under the oversight of Father John S. Michaud.[2] The interior of the building in its original construction consisted of a large kitchen in the back right, large recreation rooms on last two or three bays of either end, and a laundry room in a rear extension, as well as many rooms for sleeping for the children. The building had kerosene lighting, and there were originally four wooden utility buildings in the back with uses listed as a carriage house, two sheds, and an icehouse.[4]
Between 1906 and 1912 electric lighting was installed into the main building.
Between 1942 and 1960 a major change occurred in the form of a large southerly addition. This new building was used as a school with a stage and a hall.
By the late 1960s, the Sisters of Charity Providence Organization was running operations at this property.
The Catholic church retained control over this property until 2010 when Burlington College, a small private liberal arts college, purchased it for $6,075,100.00 as reported by the city assessor’s office.[20] According to the Burlington Free Press, the building was sold to help pay for settlements of a number of sexual abuse lawsuits against the Roman Catholic diocese in Vermont.[21]” -http://www.uvm.edu/~hp206/2012/leckie/webfinal/stjorphan.html