"The Orphan Asylum Society in the city of New York" is the oldest and one of the best endowed of its class in the United States. Mrs. Joanna (Graham) Bethune was the original proposer of its plan, and has been pronounced the mother of the institution. This lady, before the Orphan House was planned, had been deeply interested in a society that cared for widows and young children, and as these widows died leaving helpless little ones, her kind heart often grieved that these, by rule, should be excluded from the assistance of the society, which they now more than ever required. Hence the step between a widows' society and an orphan asylum became to her natural and necessary. The first call for the Orphan Asylum Society was from the pen of Mr. Divie Bethune, written at the request of his wife. Mrs. Bethune continued her earnest exertions in behalf of the society for more than fifty-four years, serving successively as trustee, treasurer, second directress, and first directress. She died in peace July 28, 1860, aged ninety-two years.

The act of incorporation passed the Legislature April 7, 1807, granting privilege to hold personal and real estate to the amount of $100,000, for the legitimate uses of the society. The power to bind out children was granted by a special act passed February 10, 1809, and in 1811 an act was passed granting the society $600 per annum from the fund arising from auction duties. This annuity was continued forty-two years, but was discontinued in 1853. The original charter was limited to twenty-one years, and has since been twice renewed. The business of the society is conducted by a board of (lady) trustees, annually elected by the society, of which all ladies contributing one dollar and fifty cents per year are members. The operations of the society began in a small hired house in Raisin street (see Reason St. at Forgotten NY ), and in April, 1807, the society held its annual meeting in the City Hotel, on Broadway. The orphan children, more than twenty in number, were presented to the view of the public on this occasion, and an appeal made for means to provide enlarged accommodations. The public generously responded, four lots of ground in Greenwich were purchased, and the same year a brick building fifty feet square, and designed to accommodate nearly two hundred children, was completed, at an expense of $15,000. Mr. Philip Jacobs bequeathed to the society two houses and lots on Broadway, a house and lot in Warren street, one in Pearl street, and a tract of wild land, the annual income of all amounting to about $4,000. The litigation attending the acquisition of this property cost $15,000, but in 1833 the court confirmed the bequest, which laid the foundation of the permanent prosperity of the society, and forms still the basis of its invested resources. The devastation produced by the cholera in 1834, which swept away the female teacher and a number of the children, induced the society to abandon the city and build an asylum in the country. Nine and a quarter acres of land were purchased west of Broadway, between Seventy-third and Seventy-fourth streets, and the corner-stone of the new edifice laid with appropriate services June 6, 1836.

The building was one hundred and twenty by sixty feet, with three stories and basement, and cost $45,000. In 1855 two spacious wings, corresponding in size and style with the first building, were added at a cost of $40,000, affording accommodations for more than have ever been received. The buildings are of brick, stuccoed in imitation of yellow marble; the yards and play-grounds are ample; the location being on high ground, and near the Hudson, is one of the finest on the island.

The land purchased for $17,500, with the growth of the city and the laying out of the new Public Drive, has increased in value to at least a million, and the managers have recently sold three and a half acres of their grounds for the handsome sum of $300,000.

The society has purchased thirty-seven acres of land at Hastings, and contemplates the removal of the Asylum to that place at no very distant day.

Orphan children under ten years of age are admitted from any locality; they are clothed, boarded, educated, and trained to habits of industry, the girls in the several departments of the house, and the boys in the garden and yard. None admitted are allowed to depart until they have spent one year in, the Institution, and have made some progress in reading, writing, and arithmetic. Children are indentured to Married persons, keeping house in the State of New York, regular attendants of Protestant churches, and duly recommended by their pastors.

During the first thirty years of its existence the society received 931, and had an annual average of 170 inmates, which were supported at a trifle less than $42 per annum for each child. Its family has at no time since much exceeded two hundred, but the doors of the Asylum have never been closed against a proper applicant. One room is devoted to infant orphan children, who are reared with great carefulness. No death has occurred in the Asylum in three years. The invested funds of the society bringing an income of about $10,000, less than half the annual expense of the Institution, while on the one hand a blessing, have nevertheless proved a bar to shut away the donations of the benevolent, leaving the managers to annually struggle with their expenditures. The Superintendent, Mr. Charles S. Pell, is an educated gentleman, formerly principal of Public School No. 8, New York city, and has successfully conducted the affairs of the Asylum for twenty years.