St Christopher's Home, Young

St Christopher’s Home in Young was a children’s home established by the Church of England at McLerie Street (now Calabash Street), Young. As well as caring for up to 14 children at a time, the Home provided ‘vocational training’ in the church’s work for six girls, which included teaching, nursing and ‘works of mercy’. In March 1932, the Community of the Holy Name took over management of St Christopher’s, after the death of the Home’s founder, Miss Alice Kitchen. In April 1934, the Church announced the Board’s decision to close the Home, after the Community of the Holy Name’s decision to withdraw its Sisters from the work of running St Christopher’s.

Alice Maria Kitchen was the founder of St Christopher’s Home in the town of Young. While serving on the committee of St John’s Nursing Home, she proposed to St John’s Church of England that a home be established to provide temporary care of children whose parents were in the Nursing Home.

A newspaper article stated that Kitchen ‘spent almost her entire fortune on the building, equipment and maintenance’ of the Home which opened in 1927, under her supervision. At the dedication festival of the Home in 1930, the Rector of Young, Canon McKeown, stated that previously, children were cared for by the local parish.

As well as providing a Home for children of ‘disintegrated families’, St Christopher’s also aimed to provide training for young women ‘in the idea of vocational service’. The Rector of Young, Canon McKeown, reported that by 1930 at least two of these young women had ‘decided to definitely enter the religious life of the Church’ (Daily Advertiser, 1930, p.2).

In 1932, Alice Kitchen died age 58. She had worked at St Christopher’s until failing health forced her to ‘relinquish her self-imposed and self-sacrificing labours’. Before her death, Kitchen made arrangements for the Community of the Holy Name to take over St Christopher’s.

Sisters from the Community of the Holy Name took charge around March 1932, and ran St Christopher’s until 1934. The Matron in charge was Sister Gertrude. In April 1934, Canon McKeown announced that the Community had decided to withdraw its Sisters from running St Christopher’s, ‘to carry on other urgent work’. Learning of the departure of the Community, the Board decided to close St Christopher’s (The Young Chronicle, 1934, p.1).