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History of Toronto and County of York in Ontario
Part IV: Toronto: Charitable Institutions


The House of Industry is a white brick building on the south side of Elm Street, between Elizabeth and Chestnut Streets. Its object is to supply an asylum to the indigent poor, but it is a very different kind of institution to the British workhouse. Here many a homeless waif obtains a night's lodging, with supper and breakfast, to invigorate him for the coming day's search for work. The superintendent is Mr. W. Iv. Nutt.

One of the most deserving institutions in the city is the Hospital for Sick Children, an unpretentious building—formerly occupied by a Protestant Sisterhood—on the corner of the College Avenue and Elizabeth Street. It is conducted by a number of charitable ladies, who depend entirely, for the support of the institution, upon voluntary, unsolicited contributions. It contains five wards, with an average of about six beds to each ward. The hospital is attended gratuitously by a staff of six physicians. In connection with t is the Lakeside Home, on the Island, where such of the little patients as can bear removal are taken for the summer months.

The Boys' Hume, on George Street, is intended for the reception and training in industrial pursuits of destitute boys who have not been convicted of any offence against the law The Girls' Home, on Gerrard Street, serves a similar purpose for destitute girls under the age of fourteen, but destitute little boys under four years of age are also admitted. The building is a handsome edifice in the Tudor Gothic style.

The St. Vincent de Paul Society, an association of benevolent gentlemen of the Roman Catholic faith, have their headquarters ia the building on the south-east corner of Shuter and Victoria Streets. It is a benevolent society pure and simple, without respect to creed, its object being to relieve suffering wherever found. Another Roman Catholic institute, the House of Providence, has already been spoken of m connection with St, Paul's Church. In addition to the above, the members of this faith also conduct the Notre Dame Institute, on Jarvis Street, where young ladies employed in the city, but without homes of their own, are provided with lodging at a small cost, or even gratuitously; and the St. Nicholas Home, a similar institution for young boys.

The Asylum for the Incurable affords a refuge to those to whom the Genera] Hospital—which only admits cases supposed to be capable of improvement by treatment—is closed. The building, a large and commodious one, with cheerful rooms for the unfortunate sufferers who are past hope, is situated on Dunn Avenue, Parkdale.

Other public charities are the Toronto Dispensary, attended gratuitously by a staff of well-known city physicians; here the poor obtam advice gratis and medicine at a merely nominal rate, the institution being supported by private subscriptions aided by a small grant from the city ; the News Boys' Home, on Frederick Street; «the Infants' Home, on St. Mary Street; the Orphans' Home, north of the Brockton Road; the Magdalen Asylum, on McMurrich Street, in St. Paul's Ward; and the Catholic Magdalen Asylum, at Parkdale.


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