St Joseph's Home, Croydon, run by the Sisters of St Joseph of the Sacred Heart, was established in 1925. It was intended for the care of boys and girls (including siblings) aged three to seven years who were defined as orphans, neglected and destitute. St Joseph's Home amalgamated with St Anthony's Croydon at the end of 1979 and the remaining children were moved into foster care in St Joseph's Cottages.
St Joseph's Home, Croydon, run by the Sisters of St Joseph of the Sacred Heart, was established in 1926, in a fine house on Liverpool Road called 'Roslyn House'.
The house was a donation from Mr and Mrs Stuart Patterson, who bought it from Maurice J Savage and presented it to the Sisters of St Joseph in 1925. Initially, it accommodated 150 children. A new wing was added in 1927, a dormitory was added in 1945, and the building was renovated and further expanded between 1951 and 1953. In the years 1959-1963 the Home took in 356 children.
Children in St Joseph's were generally from single parent families, or households stricken by illness or disadvantage. Many children returned to their families, but some remained in the Home throughout their early childhood.
St Joseph's was founded specifically to keep siblings from the same family together, so took boys and girls. Ordinarily boys who reached the age of seven were sent on to Westmead Boys Home, while girls were sent to Lane Cove. However, siblings could be retained, finishing their schooling locally.
1925 - 1981 St Joseph's Home for Children, Croydon
1980 - 2003 St Joseph's Cottages
Sources used to compile this entry: A history of St Anthony's Home Croydon, with Sister Kathleen Burford, July 1989, http://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Committees/Senate/Community_Affairs/Completed_inquiries/2010-13/commcontribformerforcedadoption/submissions; Burford, Kathleen E. RSJ, Unfurrowed Fields: A Josephite Story NSW 1872-1972, 1991, 287 pp; Hanson, Dallas, Why are they in children's homes: report of the ACOSS children's home intake survey, Australian Department of Social Services: Australian Council of Social Services, Australian Government Publishing Service, Canberra, 1979, 83 pp; A Mini Pictorial Tour of St Josephs Home for Children: 34 Liverpool Road, Croydon [Document], Date: c. 1979; Thinee, Kristy and Bradford, Tracy, Connecting Kin: Guide to Records, A guide to help people separated from their families search for their records [completed in 1998], New South Wales Department of Community Services, Sydney, New South Wales, 1998, https://clan.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/connectkin_guide.pdf; Email from Archivist, Sisters of St Joseph, 29 April 2013.
Prepared by: Naomi Parry
Created: 9 March 2011, Last modified: 18 May 2014
Last updated: 4 August 2023
Cite this: https://www.findandconnect.gov.au/ref/nsw/biogs/NE00202b.htm
First published by the Find & Connect Web Resource Project for the Commonwealth of Australia, 2011
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