The Magdalene Asylum for Aged Prostitutes
Last night, I was watching the magnificent documentary, New York, with my roomates. We're on the second DVD, which covers from the 1840s-the Civil War. During the section on the 1863 draft riots, the narrator mentioned that there was damage done to the Magdalene Asylum for Aged Prostitutes. Of course that caught my attention. To the Internet!
I first decided to check the New York Times archives, and came across this article about Magdalene Asylums in Ireland, the topic of the film The Magdalene Sisters.
"The Magdalene Asylums were set up in the 19th century as a refuge for prostitutes and other so-called fallen women. Operated by the Sisters of the Good Shepherd and other orders of nuns, the asylums financed their operations by functioning as commercial laundries providing service to schools, prisons and other institutions across Ireland.
The asylums soon became places where families -- under pressure from the Catholic Church and the stringent code of morality in place -- could send daughters who, for whatever reason, had brought shame on them.
The women worked long hours and received no pay. They were required to pray virtually nonstop. If they were unwed mothers, their babies were put up for adoption or sent to orphanages. Many of the women were so cut off from the outside world that they never left the asylums, and lived and worked there until they died. "
The last of the Ireland asylums didn't close until 1996.
As far as period articles, I only came across this short article from 1867:
And then finally, this slightly more uplifting article about a modern home for aged sex workers in Mexico city:
"Elderly former prostitutes have found a refuge from their tough street lives in a Mexico City retirement home, a first in a country where deep-rooted machismo has little sympathy for aging sex workers.
The refuge, named Xochiquetzal after the Aztec goddess of beauty and love who was also the patron of prostitutes, houses 25 former sex workers over the age of 60.
Most were still working until recently, having no other source of income, often for just a few dollars a client."
More Googling revealed a few period sources on Magdalene Asylums in general, but nothing about the Asylum for Aged Prostitutes in New York. In the latter half of the 19th century, New York was a difficult place in which to build a life; I hope it was a place of some relief for women who had lived their lives on the streets.
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