IN the year 1828, several Christian ladies, representing different religious denominations, established a Sunday school in the female penitentiary at Bellevue among those committed for various crimes, and others who required medical treatment. Interesting facts resulting from these efforts were communicated to the public, and such an interest awakened in the community that on the first day of January, 1830, the New York Magdalen Society was organized.

Two years later the society was for some cause disbanded. The interest awakened, however, did not decline, for on the extinction of the old organization three new ones sprang up, one in Laight, one in Spring, and one in the Carmine Street Churches. About the same time a society of gentlemen was organized, called the "Benevolent Society of the City of New York." In January, 1833, these societies were all again disbanded, and the "New York Female Benevolent Society" was organized, its officers and members being largely composed of persons who had given inspiration to the earlier organizations. Subsequently the term "Female" was stricken out, and "Magdalen" inserted. The object of the society is the promotion of moral purity, by affording an asylum to erring females, who manifest a desire to return to the paths of virtue, and by procuring employment for their future support. This society issued its first report in January, 1834, and among its list of members stands the name of Mrs. Thomas Hastings, whose life has been largely devoted to the success of this enterprise, and who, in this, the thirty-ninth year of its operation, is its first directress. The present society began its benevolent work in a hired upper floor in Carmine street, near Bleecker. The inmates did not exceed ten in number at any time previous to 1836. The society early arranged for the permanent establishment of the Institution, and a plot of ground, containing twelve city lots and an old frame building, was purchased at Eighty-eighth street and Fifth avenue, for the sum of $4,000. This location thirty years ago was far removed from the city, but is now becoming a very attractive part of it, and its streets will soon be lined with costly palaces. After occupying the old wooden building nearly twenty years, the enterprising managers (all ladies) resolved to erect a new building, though at that meeting there was not a dollar in the treasury to defray the expenditures of such an undertaking.