Angel Guardian Home

6301 12th Avenue | Dyker Heights | built 1902

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The lot about 1940
About 1940. Via 1940s.nyc
The lot about 1985
About 1985. Via 80s.nyc

The city photographed every building for its tax records around 1940 and again in the 1980s. NYC Municipal Archives.

Written with AI from the source each entry cites, then fact-checked.

  1. 1899

    July 4

    The Sisters of Mercy open the Angel Guardian Home orphanage in Dyker Heights

    Bishop Charles McDonnell asked the Sisters of Mercy in 1897 to start an institution for young children, and they chose their semi-rural Dyker Heights land for it. George H. Streeton designed the building for 200 children, ground was broken in 1897, and it opened in July 1899. The Sisters' records say six nuns, five lay employees and nine young women opened it to ninety girls on July 4, 1899.

    “…opened The Angel Guardian Home to ninety girls between the ages of 2 [sic] and five years old.”

    Source: NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission

  2. 1901

    The city asks the Sisters to take in orphan babies and single mothers with infants

    In 1901 the Commissioner of Public Charities asked the Sisters of Mercy to open the home to orphan babies and to single mothers and their infants, and they began doing so that year. In 1903 the city's Department of Welfare approved a Foster Boarding Home Program, which started with 30 babies. The 1905 Catholic Directory listed 232 residents, among them eight Sisters and 194 children.

    “In 1901, the Commissioner of Public Charities requested that Sisters of Mercy open their facility to orphan babies and single mothers and their infants…”

    Source: NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission

  3. 1910

    Chapel and school wings extend the Renaissance Revival main building

    Streeton's red brick building, with limestone trim, a mansard roof and a carved limestone doorway, mixes Italian Renaissance Revival and Beaux-Arts styles. Around 1910 a south wing with a larger chapel and a north wing holding a school were added in the same manner. The north wing gained another floor in 1917, and a high brick wall enclosing the whole site followed in 1922.

    “The 1910 expansions of the chapel wing to the south and the school wing to the north, which was extended an additional story in 1917…”

    Source: NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission

  4. 1948

    An overseas program places European orphans in Brooklyn and Long Island homes

    After the Displaced Persons Act passed in 1948, the Angel Guardian Home worked with the Catholic Committee of Refugees on an Overseas Program. It found homes in Brooklyn and on Long Island for orphan children from Europe. Through much of the twentieth century the home served orphans of both sexes and unwed mothers, and in the 1930s it began taking school-age children and keeping siblings together.

    Source: NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission

  5. 1998

    The main building, once a residence for infants with HIV, ends that use

    With the AIDS epidemic, the main building was turned into the Chalone Interim Care Residence, named for Sister Margaret Mary Chalone, for babies who had contracted HIV. It closed in 1998, when New York State clinical guidelines held that the children needed no special medical supervision and could go to foster families.

    Source: NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission

  6. 2017

    September 21

    The chapel doors are symbolically closed for the last time on Mercy Day

    The Angel Guardian and St. Mary's of the Angels homes merged in 2003 as the Mercy First network, and residential care for orphans at Dyker Heights was phased out. During the Mercy Day celebration on September 21, 2017, the chapel doors were symbolically closed. The Sisters of Mercy sold the property in 2018, with a deed restriction requiring open space, community facilities and housing with at least 15% affordable units.

    “On September 21, 2017, during the annual “Mercy Day” celebration, doors to the Chapel of Angel Guardian Home were symbolically closed for the last time.”

    Source: NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission

  7. 2020

    November 10

    The Landmarks Preservation Commission designates the Angel Guardian Home

    The commission designated the main building an individual landmark on November 10, 2020. At the August 2020 hearing sixteen people spoke in favor, including the owners, Councilmember Justin Brannan, Community Board 10 and the Historic Districts Council, and no one opposed. Some speakers urged the commission to landmark a second building on the site as well.

    Source: NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission

Nearby

All 4 buildings with stories in Dyker Heights