A Street Of Dreams In Orangetown

This is not intended to be a scholarly treatise, just a short story worth sharing.

In 1884 a group of Dominican Nuns who were serving orphaned and homeless children in New York City decided they would be better served in the clean, healthy ,fresh air of an agrarian county and in 1884 bought a farm on Route 340 in the wee hamlet of Sparkill in the Town of Orangetown, County of Rockland.

And before you know it there was a Motherhouse/Convent and the St. Agnes Home & School For Boys, the latter which was at one time home to 900 boys, closed in 1979. But the Convent remains to this day to create the following landmarks:

St. Thomas Aquinas College, one of the Northeast of America’s most respected and affordable highly-awarded small colleges came into being in 1952 and keeps growing.

Albertus Magnus High School in Clarkstown, the first Catholic School in Rockland County, opened in 1957 and going strong.

Rosary Academy For Girls across the street from the Convent opened in 1964 and closed in 1981 to become Camp Venture’s [a not-for-profit human-care provider] largest facility serving its most dependent intellectually and developmentally disabled care receivers to this day. Moreover the Kathy Lukens Independent Living Center and the “Pond Of The 200,000”, a memorial the the disabled murdered by the nazi government as “Useless Eaters” were built on the High School’s footprint.

Thorpe Village, a 200-unit Affordable Senior living community, an acclaimed model by any yardstick, opened in 1981. Probably the largest affordable senior housing in the County.

Dowling Gardens, a 111-unit Affordable Senior Citizen Living Community opened in 1995.

From serving homeless children to educating at the High School, College,Graduate levels to serving our Senior Citizens and facilitating Camp Venture’s venue for the Day Care of our intellectually and developmentally disabled brothers and sisters starting with a farm purchase 130+ years ago screams volumes about the historic power of nuns to do great meaningful things that changed the lives of thousands for the better.

There are many oases of enlightened compassionate humanity but its really nice when it’s in your backyard.