The condition of many virtuous and worthy women, left homeless and friendless, in the most critical period of their history, led several humane physicians and a number of excellent women, in 1822, to organize a society for the purpose of establishing a lying-in asylum. Then, as now, desertion from intemperance, destitution arising from long sickness, the unkindness of some husbands, or the loss of a partner by death, made such an asylum necessary. A ward had been devoted to these patients for twenty years in the New York Hospital, but a more private asylum was considered desirable. The act of incorporation passed the Legislature March 19, 1827. The business of the society is conducted by a board of thirty-three female managers, annually elected by the society, which is composed of such females as contribute the sum of $3 per annum toward the support of the Institution. The work of the society began in some rooms in Orange street, leased for $275 per annum, where it continued eight years. The sixth annual meeting of the organization was held in the lecture-room of the Brick Church, on the 12th of March, 1829, and the report was read by Dr. James C. Bliss. In this he stated that thirty-four patients had been received during the year, that their accommodations were entirely inadequate to meet the wants of the class they were seeking to benefit, and recommended the plan of building a suitable asylum. Rev. Dr. Macauly and Dr. Cock followed with addresses, in which they approved of the plan of erecting a new building. A subscription paper was immediately prepared, and the sum of $550 subscribed during the day. Three lots were purchased far out of the city, and in 1830 the Asylum now standing at No. 85 Marion street was. erected. The three lots cost $2,750; and the building, which is a substantial three-story brick, forty-five by sixty feet, capable of accommodating fifty patients, $8,707. The Asylum, has been supported by private subscriptions, with small exceptions. In presenting their sixth report, in March, 1829, the managers gratefully acknowledged the reception of $200 from the corporation, which is a singular paragraph to read in these days, when millions are donated to similar charities. To remove a debt, at a later period, $1,500 were granted, and during the half century of its operations about $7,000 have been received from the city, and nothing from the State.

The hospitalities of the Asylum are given without charge to virtuous, indigent women only, evidence of bonà fide marriage being invariably required.

The Institution was established when foundling hospitals were not appreciated in this country, and when many believed such institutions calculated to encourage vice. It has been the opinion of the managers that to throw the Institution open to all who should claim its assistance would unavoidably very soon confine its operations to the vicious alone, as virtuous married women would not become the associates and fellow-pensioners of the degraded and abandoned. Hence, to make the charity of value to the most worthy class, for which it was chiefly undertaken, none but the virtuous could be received. But in declining to receive those considered improper subjects, they did not abandon them to absolute destitution, for about the year 1830 a system of out-door charity was established. The city was divided into nineteen districts, and a physician appointed to each, who visited gratuitously by day and night all persons not admitted into the Institution, whenever application was made at the office in the basement of the Asylum. This arrangement, with some modification, still continues. Since the opening of the Asylum, 3,600 inmates have been received, and over 12,000 out-door patients have been attended by the district physicians. The number of applicants is not as large as in former years, 85 only being admitted during the last twelve months.

The Institution is the most purely charitable of any on the island, as no board or other fee is required; yet, situated in a retired nook at the head of Marion street, though one of the oldest, it is really the least known of any in the city. The managers, unwilling to be entirely supplanted by other institutions, are now considering the propriety of removing the Asylum to a better locality. The matron, Mrs. Hope, has taken charge of the Asylum over fifteen years, and proved herself an intelligent and. conscientious Superintendent. The Asylum has furnished hundreds of wet nurses to families in need of them, and situations to hundreds of others, who would otherwise have gone back to abodes of destitution, if not to ruin. Mrs. Mayor Hall is one of the active managers of the Institution.