Laura
11-06-2007, 04:33 PM
http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/11/05/conserved-woods-and-wetlands-where-orphans-once-romped/?hp
November 5, 2007, 4:30 pm
Conserved Woods and Wetlands, Where Orphans Once Romped
By Sewell Chan
For about a century, Mount Loretto, on the southeast coast of Staten Island overlooking the Raritan Bay, was a haven for homeless and disabled orphans. The Rev. John Christopher Drumgoole, himself an Irish immigrant, founded the Mission of the Immaculate Virgin in 1871 to help care for Irish children who had lived on Manhattan’s streets after the Irish potato famine and the Civil War. The mission moved to Staten Island in 1883 and continued, for decades, to provide vocational training and religious instruction for its charges.
As foster care became less institutionalized in the 1970s, the role of the mission changed; it finally ended its foster care contracts with the city in 1995, although several small homes for developmentally disabled older children and young adults continue at Mount Loretto.
This morning, Cardinal Edward M. Egan, the archbishop of New York, and Alexander B. Grannis, the commissioner of the State Department of Environmental Conservation, dedicated the Prince’s Bay Lighthouse at Mount Loretto in honor of Cardinal John J. O’Connor, who was archbishop from 1984 to 2000, before Cardinal Egan.
In the late 1980s, while Cardinal O’Connor was still in his clerical office, the state began negotiations with the archdiocese to acquire Mount Loretto for environmental preservation. With help from the Trust for Public Land, a nonprofit conservation organization, the state acquired 194 acres south of Hylan Boulevard at Mount Loretto. The lighthouse is part of that land purchase.
Another 75 acres of woods and wetlands north of Hylan Boulevard, known as North Mount Loretto, is now being sold to the department under an agreement with the Trust for Public Land, using $12.5 million from the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. “The Port Authority is pleased to add this — by far the largest acquisition to-date — to the list of resource acquisitions made under the Port Authority’s Hudson-Raritan Estuary Resources Program,” Christopher Zeppie, the authority’s director of environmental policy, programs and compliance, said in a statement. In the future, the department hopes to acquire another 25 acres, the Sharrotts Road Shoreland parcels, with money from the Jamaica Bay Damages Account.
Cardinal Egan, who has kept a much lower public profile than his predecessor, said in a statement:
During his tenure as Archbishop of New York, Cardinal O’Connor worked tirelessly to enhance and improve the lives of all — Catholic and non-Catholic alike — and providing the Mount Loretto property to the people of Staten Island and the State of New York is just one example of the countless ways the Cardinal accomplished this. Re-dedicating the Prince’s Bay Lighthouse as the John Cardinal O’Connor Lighthouse is a fitting and well deserved recognition of this great Archbishop and true New Yorker.
Although Mount Loretto is increasingly being known as a recreational site, it retains its Roman Catholic heritage. The Mission of the Immaculate Virgin, a nonprofit agency, still receives 1,000 visitors a day, for social services that include day care, a senior center and services for autistic children and for people recovering from substance or alcohol abuse.
November 5, 2007, 4:30 pm
Conserved Woods and Wetlands, Where Orphans Once Romped
By Sewell Chan
For about a century, Mount Loretto, on the southeast coast of Staten Island overlooking the Raritan Bay, was a haven for homeless and disabled orphans. The Rev. John Christopher Drumgoole, himself an Irish immigrant, founded the Mission of the Immaculate Virgin in 1871 to help care for Irish children who had lived on Manhattan’s streets after the Irish potato famine and the Civil War. The mission moved to Staten Island in 1883 and continued, for decades, to provide vocational training and religious instruction for its charges.
As foster care became less institutionalized in the 1970s, the role of the mission changed; it finally ended its foster care contracts with the city in 1995, although several small homes for developmentally disabled older children and young adults continue at Mount Loretto.
This morning, Cardinal Edward M. Egan, the archbishop of New York, and Alexander B. Grannis, the commissioner of the State Department of Environmental Conservation, dedicated the Prince’s Bay Lighthouse at Mount Loretto in honor of Cardinal John J. O’Connor, who was archbishop from 1984 to 2000, before Cardinal Egan.
In the late 1980s, while Cardinal O’Connor was still in his clerical office, the state began negotiations with the archdiocese to acquire Mount Loretto for environmental preservation. With help from the Trust for Public Land, a nonprofit conservation organization, the state acquired 194 acres south of Hylan Boulevard at Mount Loretto. The lighthouse is part of that land purchase.
Another 75 acres of woods and wetlands north of Hylan Boulevard, known as North Mount Loretto, is now being sold to the department under an agreement with the Trust for Public Land, using $12.5 million from the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. “The Port Authority is pleased to add this — by far the largest acquisition to-date — to the list of resource acquisitions made under the Port Authority’s Hudson-Raritan Estuary Resources Program,” Christopher Zeppie, the authority’s director of environmental policy, programs and compliance, said in a statement. In the future, the department hopes to acquire another 25 acres, the Sharrotts Road Shoreland parcels, with money from the Jamaica Bay Damages Account.
Cardinal Egan, who has kept a much lower public profile than his predecessor, said in a statement:
During his tenure as Archbishop of New York, Cardinal O’Connor worked tirelessly to enhance and improve the lives of all — Catholic and non-Catholic alike — and providing the Mount Loretto property to the people of Staten Island and the State of New York is just one example of the countless ways the Cardinal accomplished this. Re-dedicating the Prince’s Bay Lighthouse as the John Cardinal O’Connor Lighthouse is a fitting and well deserved recognition of this great Archbishop and true New Yorker.
Although Mount Loretto is increasingly being known as a recreational site, it retains its Roman Catholic heritage. The Mission of the Immaculate Virgin, a nonprofit agency, still receives 1,000 visitors a day, for social services that include day care, a senior center and services for autistic children and for people recovering from substance or alcohol abuse.