The History of Sacred Heart Home and School

The property at 600 S. Main Street in Coopersburgh, PA as been through several incarnations in its nearly 130-year history: the estate of a cattle merchant, an orphanage and most recently, Pinebrook Junior College.

Now, an Allentown developer would like to put it to one more use: posh condominiums.

Tom Williams, owner of Cityline Construction of Allentown, bought the former college campus in 1997. He subdivided the property into three parcels: one including the now-refurbished Cooper mansion, one with three homes and the last with the college buildings.

It is the three-story college building that Williams hopes to renovate into 20 to 25 upscale one- or two-bedroom condominiums, his attorney, John Roberts, told Coopersburg Borough Council

The Cooper homestead at 600 S. Main Street became famous for the annual Jersey Cattle Sales, nationally and internationally. During those events, the town was filled with buyers from all over the globe. The Linden Grove Sales Pavilion across the street from the house was constructed to allow sales to continue during inclement weather.

When cattle sales were seriously curtailed during the Depression, the large property with its buildings and fields was sold off. The main house, occupied by Tilghman Cooper, Sr., at 600 South Main Street, was built in the mid 19th century. In 1903-1904 it was remodeled in the Queen Anne style with the addition of towers, a new roof, new porches and several annexes.

The mansion became a Catholic orphanage. It later found new use as Pinebrook Junior College. This old landmark of the Cooper family has been fully restored in 2001.

History of Orphanges:
exceprts from Legends

Orphanages are real and did exist. In fact, some still exist today in the 1990s. Not all of them are the same as Dicken’s image in Oliver Twist and not all orphans are as well-adjusted as Anne in Anne of Green Gables. There are three main eras where we see an upsurge in orphanages:

1. mid-1700s
2. mid-1800s
3. World War I and immediately after (1914-1930)

During each of these time frames society addressed the issue: what do we do with the overpopulation of unclaimed children?

In the 18th century we first see orphanages in England and Europe. People did not live long lives as we do now and many woman died during childbirth leaving a number of uncared for children. Many women also carried illegitimate children that they could not provide for and consequently these children learned to live on the streets at a very young age.

North America saw a few orphanages creep up in different areas of the United States: Georgia, Mississippi and New York. In most instances, orphaned children were sent to relatives or given over to almhouses. At this time in North America, orphans remained in relatively small numbers. It was not until the mid-19th century that they really burgeoned. There were several reasons for the overpopulation of unclaimed children during this time.

The mid-1800s brought the industrial revolution. With the increased urbanization came big city problems: long working hours, crime, unhealthy living conditions, poverty and relaxed morals. In addition, the Civil War took the lives of many family breadwinners. At a time when countries conceived prisons and insane asylums, it also sought to institutionalize the overpopulation of children on the streets. By 1850, New York state had 27 orphanages run by both public and private funds and yet there was still an estimated 10,000 street kids with no home or guardian. By 1870 society was looking for additional solutions to clean up the number of street kids.

Churches were great advocates of Orphanages. They already housed many adults faced with poverty so it was a natural step for them to rescue the youth of the country and correct moral order. Not all denominations executed this concept in the same manner. Child care, education, amenities and access to relatives varied greatly among all orphanages, but particularly amongst the church-run orphanages.

Orphanages provided an immediate solution to the bothersome symptom of parentless children. It did not solve the problem of the overpopulation of street kids or the bulging population in these new orphanages. New York city decided to try adoption. Initially it was not a popular idea and would-be parents were slow to accept it. Orphan Trains became the more romantic alternative to the warehouse-style orphanages of the big city. Boys and girls alike were give a train ticket and sent to the mid-west. Many were adopted by farming families in Texas, Arkansas, Nebraska, Iowa and other states. While not all placements were successful, it was a fresh approach to solving the real problem for minimal cost.