In the past, readers of Hixnews have written in about St. John's Protectory a number of times. This month, AH attempts to provide a more complete version of its history, gleaned from contemporary reports and news articles.
Introduction: A "Protectory?"
They could have called it something else. In fact, they might have called it many things - orphanage, work house, poor house, refuge, even reformatory.
Although it was a little bit of each, none of those labels really fit. Many of the boys housed in the Protectory were not orphans. Some came from families which through illness or poverty simply could no longer take care of them. Others had been removed by social agencies from abusive or dysfunctional households. Some had been placed in the Protectory by the courts, in the hopes that the petty criminal behavior often shown by streetwise boys might be redirected positively. At least one poor family persuaded their son to commit petty theft and be caught, hoping that he would be sent there and find a door to a better life.
Most people may have thought of it as an orphanage, but "protectory" fit it much better.
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