New York Foundling Hospital Founded Today, 1869

On this day in 1869, the New York Foundling Hospital opened under the Sisters of Charity. Their website has this to say: When gas lights were in vogue and Ulysses S. Grant was President, Sr. Mary Irene Fitzgibbon and a small group of devoted Sisters opened The Foundling Asylum of the Sisters of Charity to care for babies abandoned in the devastating wake of the Civil War. On October 11, 1869, on the first night in their small Greenwich Village brownstone, an infant was left on their doorstep. By January, 123 babies had been delivered into the Sisters’ care. Within a year, a larger house was secured. But this also proved to be too small for the overwhelming need… It has been nearly 140 years since The Foundling first opened its doors. While our mission has remained clear, the means with which we are fulfilling it have evolved with the changing needs of those we serve. As we look to the needs of today’s children we have removed “hospital” from our name, reinforcing our identity as The New York Foundling: an agency that continues to care for the needs of the most vulnerable among us.