New Haven Orphan Asylum / Children’s Center of Hamden
The New Haven Orphan Asylum and its successor, the Children’s Center of Hamden, traced through institutional histories, the 1880 federal census and the 1916–1925 relocation. The collection includes selected nineteenth-century mortality extracts and an illustration of the first home. These are distinct record types; no complete admission, discharge, death or burial register is presented. Historic photographs of the Hamden campus remain a research gap.

id: NH-001
title: The first home on Grove Street
kind: Illustrations
date: Published 1887; exact drawing date unknown
summary: First home of the New Haven Orphan Asylum, a cottage on Grove Street near Church Street, as illustrated in an 1887 city history. The accompanying text says seven children entered the home in May 1833 and the property was purchased in 1835. This is a period illustration, not a photograph.
url: https://archive.org/details/historyofcityofn00atwa_0/page/678/mode/1up
credit: Artist not credited on image; Edward E. Atwater (editor), History of the City of New Haven to the Present Time; W. W. Munsell & Co. (publisher), New York; Printed page 678; IA leaf 1170; bottom of right column. Full page preserved locally in first_home_atwater1887_page678.jpg.
notes: Public domain in the United States: illustration published in 1887. Archival scan contributed by Allen County Public Library Genealogy Center. Cropped from the original page scan, retaining the original printed caption; JPEG conversion only.
file: images/new_haven_orphan_asylum_first_home_1887.jpg
text_file: 
institution: New Haven Orphan Asylum (founded 1833)
accessed: 2026-09-08
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id: NH-002
title: Cemetery-lot reference
kind: Death & burial evidence
date: 1883-02-26 (semi-centennial occasion); published 1883
summary: The asylum’s 1883 history credits Mr. Heaton with providing a cemetery lot. The passage does not identify the cemetery, lot number, people buried there, or burial dates.
url: https://archive.org/details/1883HistoricalSketchOfTheNewHavenConnecticutOrphanAsylumCT/page/n12/mode/1up
credit: H. M. Packard (author); Press of O. A. Dorman, New Haven (printer); Printed page 11; PDF page 13 of 35; zero-based PDF index 12
notes: Public domain in the United States: published 1883. Internet Archive item metadata explicitly carries Public Domain Mark 1.0. Page rendered from original scanned PDF to JPEG; no content edits.
file: images/history_1883_pdfpage_13.jpg
text_file: 
institution: New Haven Orphan Asylum (founded 1833)
accessed: 2026-09-08
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id: NH-003
title: Epidemic mortality account
kind: Death & burial evidence
date: 1883-02-26 (semi-centennial occasion); published 1883
summary: The 1883 history describes measles, scarlatina and smallpox after the asylum occupied its new building in 1855, reporting one death during two years of epidemics. This is a retrospective aggregate account, not an individual death certificate.
url: https://archive.org/details/1883HistoricalSketchOfTheNewHavenConnecticutOrphanAsylumCT/page/n13/mode/1up
credit: H. M. Packard (author); Press of O. A. Dorman, New Haven (printer); Printed page 12; PDF page 14 of 35; zero-based PDF index 13
notes: Public domain in the United States: published 1883. Internet Archive item metadata explicitly carries Public Domain Mark 1.0. Page rendered from original scanned PDF to JPEG; no content edits.
file: images/history_1883_pdfpage_14.jpg
text_file: 
institution: New Haven Orphan Asylum (founded 1833)
accessed: 2026-09-08
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id: NH-004
title: Fifty-year mortality statement
kind: Death & burial evidence
date: 1883-02-26 (semi-centennial occasion); published 1883
summary: The institution’s 1883 history reports 46 deaths among its children over the preceding fifty years. It supplies no names in this passage and should not be treated as a complete individual death register.
url: https://archive.org/details/1883HistoricalSketchOfTheNewHavenConnecticutOrphanAsylumCT/page/n18/mode/1up
credit: H. M. Packard (author); Press of O. A. Dorman, New Haven (printer); Printed page 17; PDF page 19 of 35; zero-based PDF index 18
notes: Public domain in the United States: published 1883. Internet Archive item metadata explicitly carries Public Domain Mark 1.0. Page rendered from original scanned PDF to JPEG; no content edits.
file: images/history_1883_pdfpage_19.jpg
text_file: 
institution: New Haven Orphan Asylum (founded 1833)
accessed: 2026-09-08
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id: NH-005
title: St. Francis Orphan Asylum — separate institution
kind: Photographs
date: Photograph taken no later than publication in 1918; exact capture date unknown
summary: St. Francis Orphan Asylum in New Haven, photographed in a snowy streetscape and reproduced in a 1918 city history. This Highland Street institution was distinct from the New Haven Orphan Asylum founded in 1833.
url: https://archive.org/details/modernhistoryofn01hill/page/n215/mode/1up
credit: Photographer not credited on plate; Everett Gleason Hill (author), A Modern History of New Haven and Eastern New Haven County, vol. 1; S. J. Clarke Publishing Co., New York and Chicago; Unnumbered plate between printed pages 146 and 147; IA leaf 215; lower photograph. Full plate preserved locally as st_francis_asylum_hill1918_leaf215.jpg.
notes: Public domain in the United States: photograph published in 1918. Archival scan contributed by Allen County Public Library Genealogy Center. Cropped lower photograph from original plate, retaining its original printed caption; resized to maximum 1400 pixels wide and JPEG converted.
file: images/st_francis_orphan_asylum_before1918.jpg
text_file: 
institution: St. Francis Orphan Asylum, New Haven (separate Catholic institution)
accessed: 2026-09-08
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id: NH-006
title: Historical sketch for the fiftieth anniversary
kind: Historical records
date: February 26, 1883
summary: The full source-provided text covers organization, buildings, fundraising, medical care, schooling and the institution’s account of children’s later lives. It includes reported deaths, but is not an individual death register.
url: https://archive.org/details/1883HistoricalSketchOfTheNewHavenConnecticutOrphanAsylumCT
credit: H. M. Packard; New Haven Orphan Asylum; O. A. Dorman, printer (1883); Internet Archive
notes: Public domain, 1883 publication. OCR errors and period language retained. Complete original PDF available from repository.
file: 
text_file: history-1883.txt
institution: New Haven Orphan Asylum
accessed: 2026-09-08
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id: NH-007
title: From the orphan asylum to The Children’s Center of Hamden
kind: Institutional history
date: 1833 origins; 1925 move; current history accessed 2026
summary: The successor organization traces its origin to the New Haven Orphan Asylum and dates its move to Whitney Avenue in Hamden to 1925. Its present work includes behavioral health and educational services.
url: https://childrenscenterhamden.org/about/
credit: The Children’s Center of Hamden, About / History
notes: Current institutional history, linked and summarized. The current website does not provide a public child death register.
file: 
text_file: 
institution: New Haven Orphan Asylum / Children’s Center of Hamden
accessed: 2026-09-08
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id: NH-008
title: St. Francis photograph in the public library catalog
kind: Photograph source links
date: Undated photograph; digitized 2013
summary: The New Haven Free Public Library catalogs a photograph of St. Francis Orphan Asylum. This is an additional view of the separate Catholic institution, not the asylum founded in 1833.
url: https://nhfpl.omeka.net/items/show/67
credit: New Haven Free Public Library; identifier 35000094361523
notes: Photo linked. NHFPL asks for permission for publication or exhibition. The separately sourced 1918 photograph is included in this archive.
file: 
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institution: St. Francis Orphan Asylum — separate institution
accessed: 2026-09-08
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id: NH-009
title: State Board of Charities report — further record lead
kind: Records to request
date: 1909 publication; 1907–1908 reporting
summary: The bound volume’s contents identify New Haven Orphan Asylum on page 215, St. Francis on page 216, and children’s-home statistics on page 226. The referenced report pages were not retrieved in this edition.
url: https://books.google.com/books/about/Public_Documents_of_the_State_of_Connect.html?id=iO4UAAAAYAAJ
credit: Public Documents of the State of Connecticut, volume 3, part 2 (1909); Google Books catalog
notes: Contents-level lead only. Do not infer death counts from the contents listing.
file: 
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institution: Separate institutions listed in state report
accessed: 2026-09-08
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id: NH-010
title: Individual deaths and the unidentified cemetery lot
kind: Records to request
date: Not obtained
summary: Original death certificates, the institution’s child death register and an identified cemetery-lot record are still needed. Search the citywide New Haven index by a known name and then verify institutional residence and burial place in the underlying record.
url: https://ctcemeterycollective.org/collections/saint-bernard-cemetery?tab=deaths
credit: SGC New Haven city death-index reference collection; H. M. Packard (1883), p.11
notes: The citywide index does not identify this orphanage or prove a Saint Bernard burial. Mr. Heaton’s lot cannot yet be assigned to a named cemetery.
file: 
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institution: New Haven Orphan Asylum
accessed: 2026-09-08
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id: NH-011
title: The 1916 Whitneyville land gift and delayed building plan
kind: Historical documents
date: 1918 (describing 1916 gift)
summary: Hill’s 1918 history describes Frederick F. Brewster’s land gift in Whitneyville, a $250,000 building fund and construction delayed by wartime conditions. It documents a plan preceding the institution’s actual 1925 move to Hamden.
url: https://archive.org/details/modernhistoryofn01hill/page/261/mode/1up
credit: Everett G. Hill, A Modern History of New Haven and Eastern New Haven County, vol. 1 (1918), p. 261; Internet Archive scan
notes: Public domain in the United States: published in 1918. Verified printed page 261; Internet Archive leaf 367. This is evidence of planning, not proof the Hamden campus opened in 1916 or 1918. Append to existing collection new-haven-orphanage; retain existing NH-001–NH-010.
file: images/nh-011-hill-1918-p261.jpg
text_file: texts/nh-011.txt
institution: New Haven Orphan Asylum / Children’s Center of Hamden
accessed: 2026-09-08
license_url: https://rightsstatements.org/page/NoC-US/1.0/
external_image_url: 
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id: NH-012
title: New Haven Orphan Asylum in the 1880 federal census
kind: Historical documents
date: 1880-06
summary: A reproduced portion of the 1880 population schedule carries the institutional heading New Haven Orphan Asylum and an Owen Bray entry. It adds a named residence record to the asylum collection.
url: https://buried-stories.com/2024/11/01/john-bray-abt-1835-1891/
credit: 1880 United States census, New Haven, Connecticut; cropped historical scan reproduced by Sherill Baldwin, Buried Stories
notes: Public domain United States federal census record. Simple highlight in the supplied reproduction is retained. Visually verified institution heading and Owen Bray surname/given name. Do not present this small excerpt as a complete resident list. Researcher discusses both Owen and Stephen Bray, but the delivered caption claims only the clearly readable Owen entry. The supplied image is already cropped; full federal census page was not acquired.
file: images/nh-012-census-1880-bray.png
text_file: texts/nh-012.txt
institution: New Haven Orphan Asylum / Children’s Center of Hamden
accessed: 2026-09-08
license_url: https://www.archives.gov/research/census
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id: NH-013
title: Children’s Center of Hamden — institutional history
kind: Sources & research leads
date: Current
summary: Official continuity statement: New Haven Orphan Asylum founded in 1833, Hamden move in 1925.
url: https://childrenscenterhamden.org/about/
credit: Original publisher or holding institution, linked at source
notes: Use to expand the existing collection; do not create a duplicate Children’s Center institution. External source reference; the complete source is not reproduced in this download.
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text_file: 
institution: New Haven Orphan Asylum / Children’s Center of Hamden
accessed: 2026-09-08
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id: NH-014
title: Hamden Children’s Center service history
kind: Sources & research leads
date: 2020-07-20
summary: Local reporting on the institution’s history and programs in 2020.
url: https://www.newhavenindependent.org/2020/07/20/hamden_childrens_center_new_ceo/
credit: Original publisher or holding institution, linked at source
notes: Modern text and photos linked only. External source reference; the complete source is not reproduced in this download.
file: 
text_file: 
institution: New Haven Orphan Asylum / Children’s Center of Hamden
accessed: 2026-09-08
license_url: 
external_image_url: 
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id: NH-015
title: 1883 Historical Sketch
kind: Sources & research leads
date: 1883
summary: Already archived anniversary history, including the first premises and selected mortality passages.
url: https://archive.org/details/1883HistoricalSketchOfTheNewHavenConnecticutOrphanAsylumCT
credit: Original publisher or holding institution, linked at source
notes: The donated Heaton cemetery lot is unnamed in the existing extract. Do not identify it with Evergreen, Blake Street or Woodin Street without additional evidence. External source reference; the complete source is not reproduced in this download.
file: 
text_file: 
institution: New Haven Orphan Asylum / Children’s Center of Hamden
accessed: 2026-09-08
license_url: 
external_image_url: 
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id: NH-016
title: Bray family newspapers and full federal census
kind: Sources & research leads
date: 1880–1891
summary: Research cites the 1880 census, an 1882 Donation Day school award and later family records.
url: https://buried-stories.com/2024/11/01/john-bray-abt-1835-1891/
credit: Original publisher or holding institution, linked at source
notes: Retrieve full census metadata and the October 27, 1882 Morning Journal and Courier issue. The blog’s Donation Day image link points to an 1890 court clipping, so that linked image was not selected as an 1882 record. External source reference; the complete source is not reproduced in this download.
file: 
text_file: 
institution: New Haven Orphan Asylum / Children’s Center of Hamden
accessed: 2026-09-08
license_url: 
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id: NH-017
title: 1925 Hamden campus opening documentation
kind: Sources & research leads
date: 1925
summary: Seek a contemporary opening program, annual report, deed and exterior photographs of the Whitney Avenue campus.
url: https://childrenscenterhamden.org/about/
credit: Original publisher or holding institution, linked at source
notes: Repository or institutional inquiry remains necessary; no rights-cleared campus image was found. External source reference; the complete source is not reproduced in this download.
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institution: New Haven Orphan Asylum / Children’s Center of Hamden
accessed: 2026-09-08
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