[2] It was founded by Harriet Ryan Albee through the assistance of rich women friends whom she had drawn into sympathy with her charitable purpose.

[6] Obtaining sufficient encouragement in her benevolent idea from the rich women of Boston,[5] Albee applied to Rev.

Permission was readily granted, and when the society learned for what purpose the room was to be used, they offered it to her rent-free, a benefaction she gladly accepted.

[5] There were seven in the Home at the time of its removal from the church vestry, the large proportion of deaths owing to many being admitted when in the last stage of consumption.

[7] "...it looks like a private house, of cheerful aspect, with a most agreeable hostess; the only difference from ordinary circumstances being, that the guests are all ill." (Anonymous, Our exemplars, 1861)[7] Early in the spring of 1859, a fair was held to raise funds for the institution, for which poems were written by Nathaniel Langdon Frothingham, Oliver Wendell Holmes, James Russell Lowell, and Ralph Waldo Emerson.

Here Albee received twelve inmates, which number she considered a proper limit for one house; but she desired to found similar homes in other parts of the city, and to this object devoted all the time she could spare.

The care of tuberculous patients was a serious problem in Boston in her day where there were at least 4,000 cases of consumption in its contagious stage and for whom less than 400 beds were provided by municipal and private charity.

[5] In view of the pressing need in the community for the isolation and care of poor patients with pulmonary tuberculosis in its more advanced stages, it was the purpose of the Directors of the Home to devote its resources more exclusively than formerly to such cases.

In view also of the increasing provision by the city and the state of public institutions for the care of tuberculous patients without regard to their previous social condition, it was felt that this Home could fill a special place by the admission of those whose former associations would make life in a public institution an added trial in their affliction.

The observance of proper precautions by the patients diminished the chance of infection from those who left the institution and was a useful example to the numerous relatives and friends who visited the Home.