Good Shepherd Home history

The orphanage continued to grow and in 1905, a building committee was formed and land purchased in newly platted Wallingford.

On September 30, 1907, Papa Raker’s dream of a home for the needy was put on hold as he and his wife, D. Estella Raker, celebrated the birth of their daughter.

And on February 21, 1908, so began the tradition of charity and care that became the Good Shepherd Home in Allentown, Pennsylvania.

Good Shepherd’s Ladies Auxiliary was founded on August 26, 1909.

Charles and Edith Daly (Washington Post, January 19, 1911, p.12)

Most of the white girls were sent to Houses of the Good Shepherd, in either Washington or Baltimore.” “In 1912, Congress changed the name of the school to the National Training School for Girls (NTSG), and in the next few years the board increasingly agitated for a new site.

Finally, Florence Cleland, committed to the sisters by the Board of Children’s Guardians, had previously escaped from the Industrial Home School. (“Defense of the House of Good Shepherd”, Washington Post, August 11, 1913, p.2)

Winfield S. Montgomery, Fifty Years, National Association for the Relief of Destitute Colored Women and Children, 1914 Library of Congress Rare Books

In 1915, Good Shepherd Home purchased the farms.

Leonard Boyle (hands on hips) and laundry crew and delivery truck serving the Home of the Good Shepherd, February 1916

M. J . Henry (Great Alaskan Railway). In 1921, the Seattle Community Fund, a precursor to United Way, designated the Good Shepherd Home as one of their beneficiaries.

In 1924, Good Shepherd opened the first accredited nursing home in the Lehigh Valley.

Opening the sheltered workshop was a dream that Papa Raker first articulated in 1929.

In 1937, the nuns developed a high school program named St Euphrasia School after their founder.

In 1938, Good Shepherd opened a dispensary with a part-time in-house physician on staff.

“Zoning Action On Laundry Is Delayed”, Washington Post, December 14, 1939, p.17

Founder Saint Mary Euphrasia, canonized in 1940, taught an attitude of "maternal devotedness" and that "example is more powerful than words." The nuns were not to use corporal punishment.

John Raker was Good Shepherd’s superintendent until his death in 1941.

The first home visit away from the Good Shepherd was in 1942.

In 1952, when the institution desired to add a five-story dormitory to its campus, this laundry was a sticking-point.

A few Good Samaritans stepped up to appoint a planning committee and on March 7, 1956, The Good Shepherd Home for the Aged was incorporated and chartered.

On December 3, 1958, The Good Shepherd received its first resident, Ms.

Community contributions raised by the Auxiliary financed construction of the outdoor pool in 1959, just west of the building.

In the early 1960’s a wooded, 15-acre site was purchased in Hackettstown.

In 1961, Conrad Raker wrote in Sweet Charity, “Now a vacant lot … soon a modern rehabilitation center.

In 1964, the program that would become known as Good Shepherd Work Services began.

Since opening in 1965, the House has expanded its capacity to increase its services to seniors seeking a sheltered living environment.

The school was phased out starting in 1966.

A resident entrusted with a key to the attic storage room started a fire on August 7, 1967, causing major damage to the south wing's top floor.

The decline in railroad travel and a demand for girls to spend more time in school precipitated the closure of the laundry on September 1, 1970.

In addition to the loss of laundry income, Boeing had suffered financial losses in 1971 and cut back severely on charitable giving as had many others.

The Good Shepherd closed the home and the laundry in June 1973.

The Wallingford community fought and defeated a proposal to turn the site into a shopping center and the city of Seattle bought the property in 1975.

Start Date: August 1977

In August 1980, the Good Shepherd Home – Raker Center opened on Good Shepherd’s south Allentown campus.

In 1983, Good Shepherd opened a 60-bed rehabilitation hospital in Allentown.

In 1987, Good Shepherd Physical Therapy – Kutztown opened its doors.

In 1988, a 15-bed fourth floor was added to the Good Shepherd Rehabilitation Hospital in Allentown.

In 1990, a new owner painstakingly rehabilitated the Hoback Street dormitory and converted it to an artist’s studio.

A private company purchased the Donnybrook Laundry in 1992 maintaining it as a commercial laundry.

In 1993, Good Shepherd opened the Dornsife Pediatric Center on its south Allentown campus.

Start Date: March 1994

The Gloucester Street Laundry shuttered good on 25 October 1996.

Start Date: March 1997

The House of the Good Shepherd was razed to make way for the Reservoir Road campus of the Washington International School, which opened in 1998.

Start Date: April 1999

Also in 2000, Good Shepherd Home-Bethlehem opened its doors.

Start Date: February 2003

In 2004, Good Shepherd representatives presented a plan to Allentown City Council.

Two years later, in 2006, the campus transformation was completed.

In 2008, Good Shepherd Penn Partners, a joint venture between Good Shepherd Rehabilitation Network and Penn Medicine, opened its doors.

In July 2009, Good Shepherd opened the region’s first pediatric inpatient rehabilitation unit.

Start Date: March 2010

Start Date: October 2012

In 2014, an unmarked mass grave was found that contained over 700 dead infant and children buried without ceremony or in a coffin.

Start Date: September 2015

Start Date: August 2016

An application to demolish the laundry and build new apartments was withdrawn in 2017 reportedly due to the “potential for burials being uncovered.”

Start Date: October 2018

Start Date: September 8, 2019