It was a carefully organized, professional case of arson. Nobody was burned alive or died from the conflagration. Like all the best propaganda, this is mostly hokum. In historical pulp-fiction you will sometimes read that the orphanage was burned down with the colored orphans still inside, or that the blaze was started by an “Irish mob” of men who were angry about the new draft call-up, and for some reason decided to take it out on the poor black children. Here was the Colored Orphan Asylum, which was famously destroyed on the night of July 13-14, 1863, during the so-called “New York Draft Riots.” It’s a very posh location, but also a sort of landmark - the site of a watershed event in 19th century New York City history. Nearby, we have the New York Yacht Club, the Century Association, the Harvard Club, the Princeton Club, the Penn Club (formerly the Yale Club, till 1915 when that establishment moved to grander accommodations two blocks away).

Now it’s just an eyesore, but it was occupied by a succession of townhouses and office buildings from about 1866 to 2012. For a long time, a 76-story hotel-condo skyscraper has been scheduled for the site, but the project keeps running into snags. The sidewalk is a popular venue for young urban blacks to do break-dancing (or something) for the edification of passing tourists. It’s just dirt and rubble, surrounded by excavation fences covered with posters.

There is a vacant lot at the corner of West 43rd Street and Fifth Avenue in Manhattan, the only one for blocks around. The hospital continued to manage wards’ care until the last young women reached the age of majority (21) in 1923.This is the story of a vacant lot with a colorful and possibly cursed history. After the convalescent home closed in 1917, all wards of the orphan asylum were placed or boarded elsewhere. While the convalescent home was in operation, a small number of orphan asylum wards continued to live on the premises with a matron the rest were placed in private homes as domestic servants or boarded at other schools or institutions. That facility, The Johns Hopkins Hospital School and Convalescent Home for Colored Children, closed in 1917 due to hospital funding issues.

In 1914, the trustees decided to convert the asylum buildings into a convalescent home for African American children who required orthopedic care. The asylum primarily cared for female children and provided food, housing, medical care, education, and religious instruction, as well as training in domestic service so that wards were fitted for “respectable employment” when they came of age. It was overseen by a standing committee of The Johns Hopkins Hospital Board of Trustees, while day-to-day operations were managed by an all-female Board of Visitors, matrons, teachers, and other staff.

The orphan asylum operated as its own facility from 1875 to 1914.

Colored orphan asylum