The Dead End Kids of St. Louis: Homeless Boys and the People Who Tried to Save Them

Chapter Five - Juvenile Delinquents and the House of Refuge

Chapter Five Juvenile Delinquents and the House of Refuge Edward Donnelly, about 13 years of age, was ordered committed to the House of Refuge yesterday, being fined in the Second District Police Court for stealing candy from a wagon at Twenty-third and Biddle streets the day before. —St. Louis Globe-Democrat, March 2, 1884 A 55 S EARLY AS 1820, REFoRMERS IN EASTERN CITIES took action to rescue wayward children from the life of the streets. During that decade, urban dwellers began using the term juvenile delinquents for youngsters who ran afoul of the law. In 1823, New York City philanthropists formed the Society for the Reformation of Delinquents. Three years later, the New York state legislature authorized construction of the House of Refuge as the official reformatory for youthful offenders in that city. In that same year, Boston opened its House of Reformation for Juvenile Offenders, and in 1828 Philadelphia established its House of Refuge to reform young miscreants while keeping them out of adult jails and prisons.1 More than two decades passed before the idea moved west of these three major cities. In 1849, facilities opened in Rochester, New York; Westborough, Massachusetts; and Baltimore, Maryland. New Orleans lost its first building to a fire, but erected a new one in 1850. During that same year, Cincinnati helped carry the house of refuge idea west of the Allegheny Mountains with the opening of its juvenile-detention facility. In 1854, when New York City moved its House of Refuge to new quarters on Randall’s Island, similar institutions opened in many cities, including St. Louis.2 Supporters and administrators of these facilities possessed, or at least professed, the best of intentions. B. K. Pierce, who served as a chaplain 56 THE DEAD END KIDS oF ST. LoUIS at the New York House of Refuge in the nineteenth century, asserted, “Children have a natural and civil right to be kept from the temptations of the street.” Confinement in the House of Refuge served, he said, to remove impressionable young people “from the pernicious example of evil companions” and keep them away from the “haunts of sin.” Within the walls of these institutions, he believed, youngsters could be schooled in the “habits of industry and the practices of virtue.” Ideally, parents should guide their children, but when the parents fail to do so, society has an obligation to fill the void.3 Foreign observers praised these institutions. Gustave de Beaumont and Alexis de Tocqueville visited the institutions for juvenile criminals in Boston, Philadelphia, and New York in the early 1830s and recommended that France follow the American example. No one could doubt, they asserted, the value of removing young offenders from the dangerous environment of adult prisons. In some cases, boys and girls who had committed no crime at all could legitimately be placed in the House of Refuge to protect them from evil influences in their homes or on the streets. The term house of refuge suggested shelter and protection rather than punishment. Some young people, especially girls who had turned to prostitution and boys who had turned to thievery and drink, might resist efforts to reshape their characters. However, in the opinion of de Beaumont and de Tocqueville, America’s houses of refuge provided an edifying blend of discipline and education that could turn young people away from crime and set them on the path toward honest and productive lives.4 CharlesDickenscommentedfavorablyonBoston’sHouseofReformation and New York’s House of Refuge. In his American Notes, first published in 1842, he affirmed the importance of these facilities. The New York House of Refuge was, he said, “an Institution whose object is to reclaim youthful offenders, male and female, black and white, without distinction .” If anything, he wondered if the managers of this “admirable establishment ” were a little naive in their treatment of streetwise youngsters. Nevertheless, he concluded that the institution was “well conducted,” and he approved of it heartily.5 Houses of refuge developed in the context of a widespread movement to promote the moral and physical welfare of children. In American cities , a vast number of orphanages, missions, hospitals, and schools reached out to the young and the poor. Child savers recognized that young people were physically and psychologically different from adults and that the urban environment had a deleterious effect on children’s development. Historian Marion Hunt has stated the reformers’ case succinctly, noting Juvenile Delinquents...