In 1896, Rose Hawthorne Lathrop, convert daughter of Nathaniel Hawthorne, left the luxury and ease of the intellectual society into which she was born for the poverty stricken society of cancer sufferers in the slums of New York. With Alice Huber, who soon joined her, she worked, nursed and suffered, sometimes almost beyond endurance, yet always with a firm trust in God and a deep interior peace. Slowly and with great difficulty their charitable work grew from four rooms on Water Street where three patients were accommodated. At the present we have two modern, fully equipped Homes where hundreds of Christ's poor are cared for until God welcomes them into His eternal kingdom.
Our Lady of Perpetual Help Home was established in 1939. Originally the Hebrew Orphan's Home, Our Lady of Perpetual Help Home served for over thirty years as a spacious and comfortable haven for the many who came to spend their last days in peace and security. In 1973 the original building was replaced. The new Home was dedicated, a monument to the generosity of a sympathetic public. The sisters, whose legal title is Servants of Relief for Incurable Cancer, continue to serve in the spirit of the two courageous women who gave all they had to God through the care of His cancer sufferers.
Through the liberality of the public, this home has not only brought relief to thousands, but has been to them a real home in every sense of the word.