Father Drumgoole’s Catechetical Playland: Education as Refuge in Nineteenth-Century New York

A growing body of literature on child welfare services, particularly under Catholic auspices, suggests plenty of room for more particularized studies of the principal developers of these agencies. Their methods and challenges provide an important perspective on the growth or limitations of social welfare generally, but also on how poverty or youth were treated in urban areas such as New York City. The case of Father John Drumgoole is notable in this regard, for not only was he a product of an urban slum, he was reviled as a Catholic in many quarters of the city’s population. Nevertheless, he was able to overcome this bigotry for the good of New York’s children. His popularity and efficacy won him many followers around the world, allowing him to grow an organization still in existence today, albeit in dramatically reduced form. Drumgoole’s vision of an educational and healthful haven for the betterment of needy children was coupled with a strong catechetical influence – a combination that saved thousands of children from the unsavory influences of New York’s streets.