Public Healt/i a11d Social Welfare Work
fully furnished for them and the next day His Excellency called upon them to bless them and wish them well. He gave them a ciborium and the altar stone for their chapel that was to be built, and later contributed S1, 100 towards the first payment on the site purchased for the future permanent convent. The first convent was built on 1511 Chenevert Street. Three years later, on September 17, 1917, the cornerstone for the new convent was laid on its present site, 1410 Richmond Avenue, Msgr. James M. Kirwin repre- sented at the ceremony Bishop Gallagher, who was ill at the time. An addition was built in 1929 to accommodate about 100 children. The institution is on a ten acre tract, with sufficient room for playgrounds and expansion. Girls are received regardless of creed or nationality. The Sisters' purpose is to rehabilitate wayward girls to enable them to take their place in society again after they have acquired habits of honest and gracious living. 76 A small group of Catholic women, desirous of helping young working girls away from home by providing reasonable quarters in pleasant sur- roundings, organized the Catholic Women's Club Home in Houston in 1918. A temporary location was secured, and in 1923 the present modern building was erected and equipped at a cost of $85,000 borrowed for the purpose. It has accommodations for fifty-six girls, each room is de~igned for two, with ample light and air, and there is a spacious living room with piano, radio, a library, and a dining room on the first floor. Baths showers, and drinking fountains are provided on the second and third floors. Sewing machines and laundry service are also available to the girls. Young women who live in the Home must be single and earning a moderate income. The rates include two meals a day, breakfast and dinner. Applicants are required to present suitable references. 17 Not a house for delinquents, it provides a Catholic home for working girls in healthy and agreeable surroundings. A group of Sisters of Our Lady of Charity of the Good Shepherd arrived in El Paso, from Mexico on July IO, 1927. Mother Mary of St. Francis de Sales and her four companions were traveling light in their flight from persecution. Two suitcases and $100 constituted all their worldly possessions. They were temporarily housed by the Sisters of Reparation. Losing hope of returning home, they acquired a modest
"Diocese of Galveston, Centennial, I 68. 11 /bia., 165.
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