Catholic charity's first institutions: Sacred Heart Home, St. Vincent de Paul, St. Vincent Villa

1876–1886 — the precursors of Catholic Charities in the diocese

The sequence: Catholic Charities of the Diocese of Fort Wayne–South Bend traces its own prehistory, in its centennial history, to three Fort Wayne foundations of the diocese's first decades: the Sacred Heart Home for the aged in 1876, a St. Vincent de Paul Society established in the diocese in 1879, and St. Vincent Villa, an orphanage, in 1886. The congregations themselves belong to the Religion section; what belongs here is that these were the city's charitable institutions — homes for the old and for children without parents — a generation before the federated charities existed.

St. Vincent Villa: The orphanage stood at 2000 North Wells Street. Its cornerstone was laid 27 September 1886 under Bishop Joseph Dwenger; the first building on the site, the St. Vincent's Orphan Asylum, opened in 1886–87, primarily for girls, staffed by the Sisters of the Poor Handmaids of Jesus Christ, on a rural tract the diocese had held since 1867. The Rensselaer girls' orphanage was abandoned for this site. In 1932, under Bishop John F. Noll, new cottage buildings rose to house both boys and girls — nine buildings went up between 1932 and 1950 — and at its height the Villa held as many as 300 children at a time, many of them not orphans but children of families that could not keep them. It operated into the late 1970s; the YWCA bought the property in 1978 (see the YWCA entry). The district is on the National Register of Historic Places.

The county's own orphan care: Beside the Villa, the county ran the Allen County Orphan's Home on Bluffton Road (documented 1895, with places for 45 boys and 18 girls) for abandoned and neglected children — the public counterpart to the diocesan home. Catholic Charities' later diocesan history adds a 20th-century chapter to the Villa's story: in 1961 the agency placed young Cuban refugees at St. Vincent's Villa after communism was established in Cuba, before a group home was established on Wayne Street.

Sources:

1. Catholic Charities of the Diocese of Fort Wayne–South Bend, "100 Years of Catholic Charities" — Sacred Heart Home 1876, St. Vincent de Paul Society 1879, St. Vincent Villa 1886, the 1961 Cuban refugee placements.
2. National Register of Historic Places nomination, St. Vincent Villa Historic District (1994) — the 1886–87 first building, the Sisters of the Poor Handmaids, the 1932 cottages, the site's 1867 purchase.
3. ACGSI, "Saint Vincent Villa Catholic Orphanage" — the 27 September 1886 cornerstone (Griswold, Pictorial History, 1917, p. 520), the late-1970s end, the 300-children scale.
4. Children's Homes (UK) Indiana listing — the Allen County Orphan's Home, Bluffton Road, 1895, 45 boys / 18 girls.