New-York tribune., 1904-10-30
ITS NEW HOME.
Country Cottages for Boys and Carl
of Nezc-York Juvenile Asylum.

To ,oova Oh. ordinary small family from one
rooftree 10 another and adjust IL 20 HS H"
environment without friction or delay is an Opo'-
alton that severely tasks the powers OF the average
housev,fe but how about moving a family OF over
one thousand souls and not the distance OF le"
city blocks merely but all the way from Manhattan
70 Dobbs Ferry?
This Is what the trustees OF the New-4ork JuVe-
nile Asylum planning to do
For years their great brick building at Amster-
I dam-ave. and One-hundred-and-s ty-seventh-st.
has been q landmark in the northern part OF the
city. When It erected, land in thar sectloh
was comparatively cheap. and there was plenty OK
air and space for the boys and girls OF the nsttu-
ton But the resstless tide OF human life long ago
overlook the asylum and swept past it, New streets
were cut through. apartment and FIAT houses rose
upon the empty lots. destroying one by one the
Fairgrounds Of the pupils and bringing the city
into what had been the country. Assessments
for improvements Increased till they have reached
an almost prohlbtive figure.
There were other reasons, too. which influenced
the directors in their decision to move as soon as
they could. For several years the consensus of
opinion among leading philanthropists and pencil
ogists has been that institution life is bad for
children and young people. However wisely ana
kindly and firmly the institution may be admins
tered children who are brought up In 1t are bound
TO start life handicapped. In the great dormitories
In the miles of bare corridors, in the irnpersonal.
unhonelike life Of the place they have somehow.
lost some hing they ought to have had Ihey nave
beaD dome out of what they had a right to. Instt-
tuition life leaves its imprint a child When one
is known as Nc. I26 and sleeps In Dormitory ID
with forty-nine others, and is made 20 dress Ike
the other forty-nne and feel like the other forty
nine and do what they do at the same time they do
~ when every impulse and faculty Is restrained 20
the exlgencies of the other forty-nine and all his
problems are solved Tor him and all his tempta-
tons met for him, how much Of character and
Initiative and the push up is left to child?
Phllanthropsts are returning to the family idea
They no longer corral their young charges by
the hundred in great barracks. They try to form
them into little family groups. giving them artl-
dcialiy the pleasures, annoyances temptations and
dlHculties which meet the normal boy and girl
naturally in the average. normal family
In changing from the institution form TO the
cottage colony form the directors of the New-York
Juvenile Asylum have given one more indication
Of their desire TO keep the asylum in the front
ranks of its class and avail themselves or
everv advance made by the spirit of modern. sci
entihc philanthropy
The new village which is rising on the wooded
uniands above historic old Dobbs Ferry on the
Hudson will not be ready for occupancy till the
snrine but enough is nearing completion TO give
tho trustees and friends of the institution VINO
roada formal inspection last Wednesday falr
idao ~ what the settlement is going to oe, The
old C,bauncey estate on Echo Hills, numbering
ohort two hundred and ninety acres of unduiatlng
o,,ptrv hack of and above the town OF DoDbs
I-ar-v has baen purchased. Sewage, heating light
d., and water services have been installed under
o,nd roads have been built. fifteen cottages for
bovs ara under way while one Of the large sehool
buildings is nearly finished. BY the close OK the