Over 157 Years of Service to Children
Founded during the Civil War era, in response to the critical needs of children and families, Northern Home for Children opened its doors on August 3, 1853 on Buttonwood Street in Philadelphia and incorporated on January 26, 1854 as “Northern Home for Friendless Children… an association for the laudable and benevolent purpose of educating and providing for friendless and destitute children.”

In May of 1854, Northern Home moved to 23rd and Brown Streets where it remained until 1923, when it relocated to its current 6-acre site at 5301 Ridge Avenue in the Roxborough section of Philadelphia.

For most of its 157 years of serving children, Northern Home was a residential facility that served what was described as “innocent victims of social poverty, during an era of unparalleled economic luxury.” The children’s lives had been shattered by the untimely death of parents or guardians or by the separation of parents and other factors that necessitated residential placement.

Northern Home assumed the burden of providing the physical, social, and emotional resources for these children. Providing food, shelter, and clothing was only the beginning. Northern Home’s environment helped to develop in these children the self-esteem and self-discipline that would be needed to allow them to aspire for successful lives and instilled a confidence in their ability to do so.

Northern Home’s six-acre, hilltop campus provided six fieldstone buildings that included four dormitories, an infirmary, a dining hall and kitchen, a gymnasium, a library, and meeting rooms during its tenure as a residential facility housing as many as 100 young girls and boys.

New Needs Sustained by a Renewed Commitment to Children and Families
The need for supportive services is as great now as it has ever been in Northern HomeÁs 155-year existence. For most of its history, Northern Home was solely an institutional residential program.

In 1997, under new professional leadership, Northern Home for Children implemented a thoughtful plan to extend its reach to more children and families in North Philadelphia, and expanded its services to provide a Ëcontinuum of care.Ó The program began providing services to children directly in the community, while maintaining a program of residential and emergency shelter for young boys.

Northern Home is unique in several ways due to its extensive history of service and is now the only surviving facility of its kind in Philadelphia. In preparing for the 21st century, the Board of Trustees and its President/CEO focused on providing a broad range of preventive and interventive services to children and families including residential care, outpatient counseling, partial hospitalization, wrap-around care, education, recreation, foster care placement, parental education, alternative education, truancy prevention, and juvenile delinquency prevention.

The buildings on our campus currently house a staff of close to 300 full and part time employees. The newest building, the Caroline Alexander Buck Residence Hall opened in January 2006, and currently provides a transitional living space for eight women between the ages of 16 and 18, each with one very young child. In our other campus-based program, the Partial Hospitalization Program brings children to campus every day after school and during the day in the summer, and provides them a full ranage of activities, including outdoor games on Connell Field, indoor activities in the gym, the computer lab, and Holton Activity Center. Children have a range of hands-on learning opportunities including horticultural activities.

Through these programs, together with our Behavioral Health Program, our Community- Based Programs, and our Home-Based and Residential Services, Northern Home for Children now serves close to 3,000 children and families each year.