St. Agatha Yesteryear

In January, 1884 five Sisters from St. Joseph Home in NY and four little homeless girls, set up housekeeping in the Little Flower House on the present site of St. Agatha Home. That summer, a small building was erected for a chapel, children's dining room and kitchen. Next, they built a school room, then a dormitory. One year later, there were 185 children residing at St. Agatha and four additional Sisters were added.

Five boys arrived from NY Foundling Hospital in 1889 with the new idea of keeping families at the same facility. St. Joseph's dorm became classrooms and dormitories for the boys. Before long, there were four hundred children in residence. In 1897, the Home celebrated it's first reunion of 75 girls who had left St. Agatha.

In 1898, ground was broken for the present day Administration building with a large chapel, a convent for the Sisters, and larger dining areas for the boys and girls. A boys dorm was built, a twin to the main building, just to the left of it, but it burned down in 1906, and was never replaced. The boys were sent to neighboring homes including St. Dominic's, in Blauvelt, and St. Agnes, in Sparkill. In 1917, a Preventorium was built behind the boys dorm, to house children whose parents had TB, so that they would not contract the disease.

In 1920, the first high school class began, and a vocational school was built up on the hill, where it later became the High School girls cottage. Girls were taught sewing, dressmaking, cooking, while boys learned carpentry, chair caning, and printing. The Hackensack River was diverted to provide a place to swim, and later, commonly called "The Brook." A boys dining room, or refectory, and an assembly hall which is still called "the band room", were built so that families could eat together. In 1923,the Preventorium moved up on the hill by the vocational school, and the vacated building became the boys school. Later it became St. Agnes cottage, for girls.

The population rose and fell according to conditions such as the Depression and WWI and II. With the shortage of Sisters, the high school closed in 1936, and the nearly 100 boys were transferred to a Sparkhill. Beginning in 1938, most of the eighth grade girls were transferred to a convent in NYC and attended neighborhood schools.

During World War II, from 1939 - 1945, Seminarians from St. Joseph's Seminary began to work with the boys. In 1947 they became counselors during the summer. In 1945, the girls went by bus to Pearl River High School. In 1946, an Alumnae Association was formed which still exists. In 1947, Reverend Terence J. Cooke was assigned as chaplain at St. Agatha, and brought many innovations. He went on to become the Archbishop of NY, and a Cardinal.

In 1955, Seton Hall was built for High School boys. St. Agatha received a director for it's expanding social services dept. Loyola and DePaul followed shortly thereafter, to house teens and pre-teens. In 1958, five new cottages were built to accommodate twelve children, each, with a group mother and a counselor, at the top of Duryea Lane. In the 1960's, Hayden Circle was built to house younger boys. The construction of these smaller cottages, in a group home atmosphere, was the fulfillment of a dream that began before the turn of the century, to move away from large scale institutional life, towards the Cottage Plan, and a more homelike atmosphere.