Community

“House of Mercy” at Nicholson Street

From as early as 1858, the Nicholson Street Sisters of Mercy were operating a “House of Mercy” within the Convent grounds, although its official establishment was September 1860, when the Sisters purchased the building next to Bishop Goold’s cottage to house this ministry.  

The “House of Mercy” provided temporary shelter, protection and instruction for poor, young women ‘of good character’.  Initially, its main beneficiaries were new emigrants, in need of a safe place to stay until they could find suitable employment.  These young women were instructed in Christian doctrine and, if they were Catholic, prepared for the sacraments.  The girls were also trained in household duties in preparation for employment in domestic service.  Employers were carefully chosen by the Sisters to ensure that they were ‘respectable’.  An average of 16 women were admitted at a time. Between 1862-1869, a total of 424 young women had been given shelter.

As emigration subsided, the Sisters of Mercy began to send some of the older girls from St Vincent de Paul’s Orphanage in Emerald Hill (South Melbourne) to the“House of Mercy” to be trained in domestic service. [1]   By 1872, “The Domestic Training Institution” was officially established for this purpose.  This was a residential school where girls from the orphanage were trained by the nuns personally for two years, before being apprenticed out to suitable families.  They learnt domestic skills such as washing, cooking, making up rooms and sewing and acted as servants to the adjoining boarding school.  Class capacity was small with an article in “The Advocate” stating that only 24 children could be admitted at a time.[2]   However, it appears that class numbers consistently fell below this number.  By 1877, only 14 girls in total had finished the training and moved to respectable employment.  In 1882, only ten girls were apprenticed out that year and in 1884, only 9.  Since its inception until 1886, only 85 girls in total had been trained and apprenticed out by the Institute.[3]  

The location of the “House of Mercy” changed numerous times.  Initially, the “House of Mercy” operated out of the two-story wing added to Goold’s cottage in 1858 (now home to the Learning Enhancement offices). Then, in 1860, the Sisters purchased the next door, four room cottage of grazier Donald Kennedy (now the offices of the Principal, Principal’s PA and Business Manager) and the “House of Mercy” was relocated there.  However, a change of premises was soon “necessitated by the number of young lady boarders at the high school”.[4]

During 1865-1866, Mother Ursula Frayne purchased a cottage on the corner of Nicholson and Palmer Streets.  After some alterations, the “House of Mercy” moved there.  Another move was required in 1881, when the remaining, larger part of the Palmer Street building opened.  The upper floor of this new section included a dormitory for 36 boarders.  After the boarders moved into this dormitory, the “House of Mercy” occupied the former boarders’ quarters.  Possibly this move was necessary as the “House of Mercy” cottage would be demolished shortly after to make way for the Ursula Frayne chapel.

We do not know exactly for how long “The Domestic Training Institution” operated at Fitzroy, as we have only found references to it in records of the 19th century.  However, relatives of care leavers who left St. Vincent de Paul, up until c.1920, recall their family members mentioning being sent from the orphanage to the Fitzroy Convent to be trained by the Sisters.  It seems likely that “The Domestic Training Institution” would have been phased out some time before “Our Lady’s School of Domestic Arts” was established on the site of the St. Vincent De Paul South Melbourne orphanage in 1937.

[1] “The Advocate”, 8 October 1870, p.5

[2] “The Advocate”, 21 April, p.18; 13 October 1883, p.12

[3] “The Advocate”, 5 October 1878 p.11; and  9 October 1886, p.12

[4] “The Wheel of Time” by Mother Ignatius, p.20

Melbourne Central Basketball Association

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Class of 1994 Reunion