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WELCOME TO THE

HALIFAX PROTESTANT ORPHANAGE

Halifax Protestant Orphanage

                1857--1917

Halifax Protestant Orphanage

               1925--1970

The Protestant Orphanage was founded in 1857 by Rev. Fitzgerald Uniacke. The Orphanage's first home was a stone house which stood on the site of the Full Gospel Church on North Park Street and was purchased for $6,000. An addition was built in 1861, and sometime later the building was moved to Veith Street. It was destroyed by the Halifax Explosion but was later rebuilt. At the time of the explosion, temporary quarters for the children were set up in Brookfield House on Pleasant Street until the home could be rebuilt.

 

The Protestant Orphan's Home annual report of 1858 states:  That it is just one year since the Protestant Orphan's Asylum was opened.  It was undertaken in faith but with many fears as to its ultimate success; but the Lord has been good, and have realized their fondest expectations, and been enabled during the past year to provide a happy and religious home for twenty orphans, who are now fed, clothed, educated and supported by the kind liberality of Christian friends.

 

The applications for admission during the first year have been frequent and they have endeavored, as far as possible, to select the most needy and make provision for fatherless children.  In their efforts they have not been disappointed; and the mild and gentle behaviour of the little orphans and their moral and religious improvements, show that they have been cared for by others and watched over by their Father in Heaven.

 

Their rules and regulations for the guidance of the matron and the government of the house have been carefully framed and strickly adhered to and the utmost economy observed in all their expenditures.  They can accommodate from 30 to 35 orphans, and can estimate the cost of feeding, clothing, educating and supporting each child, till they reach the age of 12 to 14 years, when they will be placed at service or put out to trades.

 

The children attended the services at St. George's Church where Rev. Uniacke is the pastor twice every Sabbath.  Special seats were built for them in the front pews.  The boys wore a dark grey uniform and the girls a lighter shade of gray.

 

In 1859 one of the orphan's by the name of Bessie Hooper, who was 7 years passed away.  A committee was appointed to frame bye-laws under the act to  incorporate the Protestant Orphan's Home, passed the 15th day of April, 1859.   In 1862 they state that they are particular in selecting situations, and have passed a rule that no girls are to be permitted to leave the home to become domestic servants until they reach the age of 15 years.   Applications for children are required to produce certificates of character from their Clergy,  before the children will be given into their care.

 

Francis McEvoy, an orphan of eleven years, who on the death of his grand-parents, was placed in the Orphan's Home and had tried to run away several  times.  On October 22, 1870, he succeeded but was brought into Police Court and charged with running away.  The Magistrate first ordered that he be sent to City Prison Reformatory, but was allowed to be delivered into the charge  of Dr. Hannon who promised to find the boy a home in the country.  This was recorded in the Acadia Recorder.

 

In 1876 a little girl who had been in the home, named Sarah Churley, was taken back on January 15 on account of her weak and sickly condition due to some affection of the brain, but she only lasted till the 30th. when after great suffering, she passed away.  After being Matron and Assistant Matron since 1918, Annie Elford retired in 1937. 

 

January 15, 1896 a boy by the name of William Pollock, 11 years of age, was taken to the police station dead drunk.  On a table he was stretched out, unable to speak and had lost the use of his limbs.  The boy was found by a police officer lying on a porch on Cunard Street.  Had the night been cold, the boy would probly have frozen to death.  The officers removed his wet clothing and place him by a big fire and are trying to find out where he got the liguor.

     William was still at the station the following night, and he seemed quite contented in his present position.   The boy does not care to go home, as he says he has been very cruelly treated, and showed the officers his body on which there were large black and blue marks, recently inflicted.

     A couple of days later William was sent back to the Protestant Orphanage from where his parents took him.  In 1894 the father was deprived of the custody of the boy, 

 

 IN MEMORY OF THE CHILDREN WHO DIED WHILE LIVING IN THE PROTESTANT ORPHAN'S HOME

 

Bessie Hooper 6, Apr 17, 1859 ---Eliza Hill 8, Aug 18, 1865 --- Anne Conners 7, Aug 1865 ---George Swindles 8, Jan 25, 1880--- Edward Mason 9, July 27, 1880--- Charles Henry Purcell 6, July 5, 1880---Mary Ann Shachie 6, Mar 15, 1880---Lillian Schroeter 7, Jan 6, 1890---Lon Edna Purcell 6, Apr 1897---Alice Maud Robinson 6, June 3, 1898

In Loving Memory of

Mary E. Knaut--Matron

Ethel May Melvin--Asst. Matron

Lena Meagher---Housemaid

And Twenty-Four Of Our

Children

Who Lost Their Lives In The

Total Destruction Of The

Orphanage

In The Halifax Explosion

December The Six 1917

 

"LEST WE FORGET"

 

The Protestant Orphanage children and staff that were killed in the Halifax Explosion are buried in St. John's Cemetery. This is a picture of the monument which is hard to read and a small headstone.  The size of the plot is 20x27. Section M, Row 30 and 31 Lot 582-586.  

 

IN MEMORY CHILDREN AND STAFF OF THE PROTESTANT ORPHANAGE KILLED IN THE HALIFAX EXPLOSION DECEMBER 6, 1917


Agnes Abraham---Ivy Abraham---Gerald Ainsworth---Mary Covey Melvin Covey---Victor Covey---Roy DeWolf---Aubrey Fish---George Hincher---Harold Hincher---John Reuban Howard---Mary Isnor Robert Jackson---Gordon Lancaster---Thomas Lancaster---Rena Meagher---William McIntosh---Roland McNeil Ethel Morley---Tina Parslow---Raymond Reid---John Ross---George Russell---Elizabeth Roberts---William Sturmey---Gladys Taylor---James Wood---Mary Knaut (Matron)---Ethel Melvin (Asst. Matron)---Lena Marr (Employee)

 

 

 

 

 

Halifax Protestant Orphanage

                1924--1970

The Protestant Orphanage closed in 1970 and the Veith House Community Center was established.    Now a little tour of the building as I remembered it as a child of 8 years old and how it never changed much when I returned to work as a matron in 1967.

 

                                                                                      MAIN FLOOR

 

When you go through the front door you first will notice the picture and small plaque of Rev. Richard Fitzgerald Uniacke, founder of the Protestant Orphan's Home in 1857.  The son of Richard John Uniacke, he was born in November 1797 and died on June 1, 1870.  He married Elizabeth Gould in St. Paul's Anglican Church in 1830. 

 

On another wall is a plaque dedicated in Memory of the children and staff that were killed in the Halifax Explosion. 

 

On the right of the building on first floor are three windows.  In this room was the reception room and also where we would  line up as children to get our booster shots. Also in this room were two large glass parlor doors which would open at Christimas time and we would line up to receive our present.  When you went through these doors you would enter the large play room.  The window on the far right is part of the playroom. 

 

The window on the left is belongs to a small room which we children called "The Horror Room".  When children were sent to the Orphanage this room was their home for two weeks of quarantine.  Never allowed to leave that room except to use the bathroom until our time was up, door always locked.  Guess who has no doors closed in her home today ?  With four other sisters in this small room could say we drove each other nuts.

 

The room next to the Horror Room was the Superintendent’s office. Next to her office was the sewing room, where the daily wash was brought to be sorted, folded, ironed and put away.

 

 

                                                                                            SECOND FLOOR

 

The second floor, triple windows far right was the sick room where you were put when you were sick or injured.  This was to help keep the other children from catching what you had and you could get a better rest.  Later this room was used as a dorm for the older girls.  In the next room was a very large dorm where all the girls slepted.  Here you would find three long rows of beds.   Many of nights one of my sisters would crawl under these beds to mine after she wet to bed.   The windows are the bedrooms of the matrons.   The children hardly ever used the stairs to go up and down to these rooms.  They always had to use the fire escape

  

 

                                                                                                  THIRD FLOOR

 

The third floor was laid out exactly like the second but was for the boys and the boys’ Matrons.

 

 

                                                                                                  BOTTOM FLOOR

 

Below the first floor, which you cannot see from the front is where the dining room was.  The children would line up at meal time and go down the fire escape for their meals.  Each table seated about six children and a large table for the duty staff.  Off duty staff ate in the kitchen.  Miss Fraser was cook for the Orphanage for over twenty years and what a cook.  Children and staff all loved her.  Also on that floor was the boys and girls coat rooms and a large laundry room.   Below that floor was a basement. 

 

                                                                                                      OUTDOORS

 

 The Orphanage was fenced in, from one end to the other, with another play area fenced off for the smaller children. The play area had sandboxes, swings, and other playground climbing equipment. There was a fenced-in wading pool which was originally opened on July 7, 1924. The pool was thoroughly renovated and repainted under the supervision of the Halifax Shrine Club and was officially reopened in July 1960. During the ceremony, attention was drawn to the plaque placed at the pool, marking its original opening date.  The pool is gone and in its place stands Wee Care Centre for children.

 

 

 

 

Please send me an email if you have any questions or would like to add to the Orphanage web pages.

     Linda.LeBlanc@eastlink.ca

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