Old St. Joseph's Orphanage location

The site you are approaching on East Ninetieth Street holds a phantom piece of New York history. In eighteen fifty-seven, the German Redemptorist order purchased the former estate of stockbroker Nathaniel Prime to create a sanctuary for German-speaking Catholic orphans. At the time, Yorkville was considered the countryside, chosen specifically to move vulnerable children away from the dense, crowded conditions of the Lower East Side. This campus eventually expanded to occupy an entire city block between Eighty-ninth and Ninetieth Streets.