House of the Angel Guardian, Vernon St., Roxbury, Mass.

Description

An exterior view of the House of the Angel Guardian at 85 Vernon Street in Roxbury, Massachusetts. Rev. George F. Haskins established this orphanage and reformatory wayward boys in 1851 and, when the institution outgrew its original locations, purchased land at Vernon Street and built this structure. Two years after his death in 1872, a group of the Brothers of Charity from Montreal assumed the management of the House. The central division of the building is four stories high and is flanked by two-story wings. Above the arched entrance way is a pedimented niche with a sculpture of an adult and a child. A cupola with narrow arched windows and a Latin cross tops the roof. Several people sit against the fence that surrounds the building and several figures stand at the top of staircase leading to the front entrance.