The Irish Mission at Watson House: Reopened After Hurrican Sandy
April 7, 2014
Facing the harbor and Staten Island, and across from Battery Park, Watson House is one of the very few colonial buildings still standing in the City of New York. The front columns built from ship masts were expressive of the successive sea merchant owners, starting with import/exporter and civic leader, James Watson. The United States government used the building during the Civil War and after the war the Harbor’s Pilot Commissioners made their headquarters there. On December 4, 1885 the house was sold to Rev. John J. Riordan who established the Home of the Mission of Our Lady of the Rosary for the Protection of Irish Immigrant Girls on the site.
The post-famine (1845-52) Irish custom of giving the land to one inheriting son and dowering one daughter meant that many non-inheriting sons and daughters emigrated. Irish emigration was unique in that it was an emigration of siblings with women frequently outnumbering the men. A second agricultural depression that began in 1879 further stimulated emigration and created conditions that led to the creation of a mission to serve young women who emigrated alone. Mission agents met Irish immigrant women when they landed, assisted them with meeting relatives and friends and brought those who needed further assistance or accommodation to the Mission.
Click here to view the exhibition’s brochure
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