Boston Female Asylum

"[1] Its mission was to "receive ... protect ... and instruct ... female orphans until the age of 10 years, when they are placed in respectable families.

[4] As late as 1886, some found notable that "the asylum is under the direction of a board of lady managers.

After the event, local newspaper publishers Gilbert & Dean wrote: "we have not learnt what collections the society made, but it must have been above five hundred dollars.

"[8] "Beginning in 1902, the managers of the asylum came to feel strongly ... in favor of the use of the family home for the care of children, in preference to the institution.

Gradually their work took on new form, until, in 1907, the asylum was finally closed, and family home care was entirely substituted.

Detail of 1846 map of Boston, showing Female Asylum on Washington St. in the South End ; map engraved by G.G. Smith
Ode by J.Homer, sung at the 3rd anniversary of the Boston Female Asylum, held at Trinity Church, 1803 ( Boston Weekly Magazine )