Presbyterian Sisterhood Home - the building from the street, c. 1959, courtesy of Flickr.
Details
The Presbyterian Sisterhood established a maternity Home in North Fitzroy in 1909. It housed unmarried mothers and their babies. In 1953, the Mary Dickens Hospital Wing, a small maternity hospital, was added to the Home. The Home operated until around 1978.
The Presbyterian Sisterhood established a maternity home in 1909, situated at 223 McKean Street, North Fitzroy. The home, for unmarried mothers and their babies, operated until the late 1970s.
In 1926, the Sisterhood reported that more than 1,000 mothers and babies had passed through the Home at North Fitzroy.
In 1927, Miss KL Foster was the deaconess in charge of the Sisterhood Home.
In 1952, the Sisterhood announced its plans to build a small maternity hospital at the Home. The Mary Dickens Hospital Wing was opened in May 1953.
The Uniting Heritage Service holds the records for admissions into the home and children born to women residing in the home.
Sources used to compile this entry: Presbyterian Assembly, The Argus, 6 May 1926, 14 pp, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article3780051; Work for the needy, The Argus, 5 April 1952, 8 pp, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article23172663; 300 attended party to aid hospital, The Argus, 4 May 1953, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article23242283; UnitingCare Victoria and Tasmania, 'Submission to the Australian Senate Community Affairs References Committee Inquiry into Children in Institutional Care 29 July 2003 (submission 52)', in Inquiry into Institutional Care: Submissions received as at 17/03/05, Commonwealth of Australia, 2003, http://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Committees/Senate/Community_Affairs/Completed_inquiries/2004-07/inst_care/submissions/sublist.
Prepared by: Cate O'Neill
Created: 17 March 2010, Last modified: 30 July 2021
Last updated: 7 August 2023
Cite this: https://www.findandconnect.gov.au/ref/vic/biogs/E000569b.htm
First published by the Find & Connect Web Resource Project for the Commonwealth of Australia, 2011
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