St. Joseph'S Care Ctr. history

In 1853 she joined the Anglican Sisterhood.

The year 1861 brought Mother Clare to Kenmare in Ireland, where she founded the first convent of the Poor Clares in the west of Ireland.

Mother Francis Clare had founded the order in England in 1884.

Seeking funds to support her sisters' work with women and children, in 1885 she set off for America.

On August 3, 1890, two members of the fledgling Sisters of St Joseph of Peace left their convent in Newark, N.J. bound for Fairhaven, Wash., a remote logging community in the country’s far northwest corner.

The Sisters of St Joseph of Peace have founded healthcare in small communities throughout the Pacific Northwest since 1891.

The Sisters came to California from Illinois in 1912 on the invitation of the Bishop of Sacramento to begin a new foundation and start a Catholic school in Eureka.

By 1916, the spirit that defined and launched the health care ministry in Fairhaven had grown to include five hospitals in Washington, Alaska and British Columbia.

In 1920, the old Northern California Hospital becomes St Joseph Hospital and opens with 18 Sisters and one lay nurse.

In 1922, the Motherhouse of the Sisters was moved to Orange in Southern California where the Sisters continued their health care ministry and became officially the Sisters of St Joseph of Orange.

In June of 1940, the Franciscan Friars of the Atonement purchased the property known as Rumsey Cottage in Saranac Lake, NY to establish a friary and a novitiate.

In 1954, St Joseph Hospital opened in its present location, on Dolbeer St in Eureka.

Then, in 1957, building of Redwood Memorial Hospital in Fortuna was completed after the Renner family donated the land, and the Sisters provided the funding.

St Joseph’s School of Philosophy, as the institution became known, continued until St Pius X Seminary opened at Graymoor in 1960.

To facilitate the graduates’ return to society, a half-way house was established in Poughkeepsie in 1973, followed by houses in Schenectady and Syracuse.

Until 1975, all costs of the program were borne by the Friars, and by gifts from able graduates.

In July 1976, two Sisters of St Joseph of Carondelet, together with a few volunteers, began providing advocacy and referrals and assisting families with such basic needs as food, clothing, and job readiness on in a small storefront on Rose Avenue in Venice.

Emil Tomaskovic arrived in 1981 to assume the role of Executive Director.

In 1986 the Sisters stepped down from the leadership and St Joseph Center became a separately incorporated non-profit 501(c)(3) organization.

In 1989, Father Emil was called by the Friars to serve as the Minister General of the Friars of the Atonement.

The name of the organization was changed to PeaceHealth in 1994 to better reflect our mission and heritage.

Since change and adaptation are well known to the Sisters, in March 1997 the system Board of Trustees received the status as a Pontifical Private Juridic Person.

St Joseph’s continuum of care extended further with the opening of Joseph’s House Supportive Living Facility in 1998 in Poughkeepsie.

Atonement Father Arthur Johnson, CASAC, arrived in the North Country from Los Angeles that October to become the agency’s third CEO. Father Art served as President and CEO of St Joseph’s until 1999.

By 2005, the Fellowship, St Joseph’s alumni organization, enjoyed a membership in excess of 4,000 men and women.

St Joseph’s became an independently governed agency, with full authority succeeding to St Joseph’s Board, in 2008.

Also in 2009, St Joseph’s was one of only three addiction treatment facilities in the State to receive funding to construct an addicted veterans Community Residence for service men suffering from both addiction and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.

In 2013, St Joseph’s opened its sixth Outpatient Clinic in the town of Keeseville in recognition of, and to meet the needs of, the transportation difficulties many clients faced while seeking treatment.

Also in 2014, the Saranac Lake Chamber of Commerce designated St Joseph’s as the community “Best Business of the Year”.

And, in March of 2016, St Joseph’s received a $5.5 million capital grant from the New York State Homeless Housing and Assistance Corporation to establish an 18-unit supportive housing facility in Malone, NY.

In 2017, in response to both the increase in need for care for younger residents, and the economic advantages of combing services under a single entity, Massena’s Rose Hill Adolescent Residential Treatment Program became a new service of St Joseph’s continuum of care.

In the fall of 2019, St Joseph’s opened our Open Access Center which provides, among other services, members of the community in need the opportunity to begin to discuss receiving care for themselves or a family member from a Certified Recovery Peer Advocate.