page_title: St. John's Orphanage
section_title: Interior
hierarchical_section_title: St. John's Orphanage / Architecture / Interior
caption_attribution_description: English: Orphanage entrance archway. Note damage inflicted on the glass in the background.
context_page_description: St. John's Orphanage, sometimes referred to as the Goulburn Boys Orphanage, is a decommissioned orphanage located on Mundy Street in Goulburn, a town located in New South Wales, Australia. The architect of the building is EC Manfred. The foundation stone was laid and blessed on 17 March 1912 by Bishop John Gallagher of Goulburn, who also blessed the building during its opening ceremony in late 1913. It is two storeys high, and several extensions were added to the building throughout its early history. The orphanage amalgamated with St. Joseph's Orphanage for girls in 1976, and the remaining orphans were placed into group homes. As a result, the orphanage was closed in 1978 and rented out to the Youth with a Mission Base until they left in 1994. Since then, the orphanage has remained abandoned.
  Run by the Sisters of Mercy and the Catholic Church until its closure, the orphanage housed males from the ages of 5 to 16 initially. Its capacity was intended to be 100 children, but this peaked to more than 200 during the Second World War. By the 1970s, the orphanage began taking in female orphans from St. Joseph's because of declining numbers of males.
context_section_description: The entrance hall is 2.45 metres (8.0 ft) with a tiled floor. The reception room is located on the right-hand side of the entrance hall. A moulded archway leads to the staircase hall, with the stairs being at right angles to the entrance doors. Rooms and areas that can be accessed from this hallway include the cellar, a sitting room which is 3.65 by 3.04 metres (12.0 by 10.0 ft) in size, a children's study room that is 6 metres (20 ft) by 6 metres and a children's refectory that is 9.1 metres (30 ft) by 6 metres. A back door leads to verandahs that are found at the back of the building that allow access to various other rooms. A second staircase, surrounded by brick walls, can act as an escape route in case of a fire. The staircase floor is the colour of cement and is made out of hardwood with iron risers. The staircase also provides access to the chapel room, which is 6.7 metres (22 ft) by 6 metres.
  Other rooms on the ground floor include a clothes room, a 6 by 5.5-metre (18 ft) community room, a 6 by 4.2-metre (14 ft) kitchen, a 2.13-metre (7.0 ft) by 2.1-metre pantry and a 7.6-metre (25 ft) by 3.65-metre lavatory. Bathrooms and shower bathrooms are fitted with hot and cold showers that are controlled from the lavatory. The laundry is 6.4 by 3.3 metres (21.0 by 10.8 ft) with copper and tubs; the laundry also has a heater that supplies the whole building with hot water. The block which contains the sanitary requirements for the building is connected by a covered way and is well ventilated by air shafts, latticed doors, and louvres. Underground, a brick, cemented tank was built to collect and store rainwater.
  The second floor of the building contains a number of dormitories: a large, 18.2-metre (60 ft) by 6-metre dormitory is present with a 3-metre-wide (9.8 ft) balcony on one side and a 1.83-metre (6.0 ft) wide balcony on the other. A smaller, 9.1-metre by 6-metre dormitory is also present, as well as a 6-metre by 4.2-metre isolating room. Four bedrooms were designated for the Sisters of Mercy who were in charge of the building; these rooms were 3.65 metres by 3.04 metres and 3.96 metres (13.0 ft) by 2.74 metres (9.0 ft) respectively. The Sisters also had their own private bathroom. Almost every room in the building had a fireplace, surrounded by either bricks or a marble mantel and cement shelf. The ceilings on both floors are 3.96 metres high, and the whole building is fitted with electric light. The ceiling on the second floor is made out of plaster, whereas the ceiling on the first floor is made out of stamped steel.
caption: Entrance archway
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