St. Anthony's Orphanage (Toledo, Ohio) records

The Grey Nuns of Montreal arrived in Toledo on October 27, 1855. Father Augustine Campion, second pastor of St. Frances de Sales Church, obtained the consent, not easily, of Bishop Amadeus Rappe, Bishop of Cleveland for the Grey Nuns to establish a school, hospital and orphanage in Toledo. On November 12, 1855 the Grey Nuns took possession of the Wall House, a small two-story house on Superior near Cherry Streets. The nuns gave it the name of St. Vincent Asylum and Hospital. On November 12, 1855 they received their first orphans.

On January 1, 1901 the orphanage was separated from the hospital and given to the Diocese of Cleveland although the Grey Nuns continued to staff and operate it. A new building on Cherry Street near the hospital was constructed and dedicated on October 27, 1907, the 50th anniversary of the arrival of the Grey Nuns in Toledo. To avoid confusion with the hospital the name of the orphanage was changed to St. Anthony's Orphanage.

In June 1951 the Grey Nuns announced that they could no longer staff St. Anthony's Orphanage. The Sisters of St. Francis in Tiffin took over the operation. In 1958 the name of the orphanage was changed to St. Anthony's Villa.

St. Vincent's Hospital began a renovation program to update and expand the hospital in 1961 that included razing the Cherry Street wing of the hospital and orphanage building. St. Anthony's Villa moved from its Cherry Street location to a newer facility on Central Avenue when St. Vincent's Hospital began its expansion program in 1961. The orphanage closed its doors for good in 1984.

This history was provided by Peter Ueberroth, archivist for the Catholic Diocese of Toledo. The first three paragraphs were taken from A History of St. Vincent Medical Center, 1855-1995 by Edward F. Ockuly, MD.