Mount St-Patrick's

Organizations / Mount St-Patrick's

Saint Patrick's Orphanage and Mount St-Patrick

Father Patrick Dowd

The History of Mount St-Patrick

In 1851, Father Patrick Dowd (1813-1891), who had immigrated to Montreal in 1848, founded the Montreal St. Patrick’s Orphan Asylum with the help of the Sisters of Charity. The outbreak of typhus fever in 1847-1848 had resulted in many orphaned children in need of care. The first orphanage was located on Lagauchetière close to Old Montreal. By 1900, the orphanage had already admitted up to 5,000 children. Eventually the orphanage was moved to Deom Avenue, just off Côte Ste. Catherine.

In the late sixties, the orphanage was closed and renamed Mount St. Patrick and the children were moved into a new building on the old orphanage property. By then, the orphanage was being run by the Sisters of St. Joseph, an order from Ontario. Fire destroyed the original orphanage building on the Deom site in the late seventies.

In 1982, the board of St. Patrick’s Orphanage informed the board of Mount St. Patrick that they had decided to sell the land to a developer. Mount St.Patrick was informed that they would have to move. Over the next 2 years, three group homes, as well as a day treatment program, were opened to house the remaining children and offer services to new children in need.

The land that had contained the old orphanage and MSP building was eventually sold and the latter demolished to make way for construction of Le Sanctuaire du Mont Royal.

Mount St. Patrick was one of the agencies that merged to form Batshaw Youth and Family Centres in 1993.

Images of Mount Saint Patrick

Saint Patrick's Orphanage Stamp

Saint Patrick's Orphanage Stamp.