The History of Saint Joseph Home
The Sisters of Charity of Cincinnati established St. Joseph Infant Asylum in 1873 to serve as a maternity home for young women as well as a foundling home for infants, mostly serving young unwed mothers. It originally included a maternity hospital that also served other pregnant women in its neighborhood of Reading Road and Tennessee Avenue. When the maternity hospital section closed in 1954, the name was changed to St. Joseph Infant and Maternity Home.
In 1967, the Home moved to Sharonville, located in northern Hamilton County. An on-campus high school was opened, where young women waiting to give birth could attend accredited classes.
As the numbers of young women needing services dramatically declined, the Home, sensing the changing needs of our society, initiated a program in 1976 for children with severe/profound mental retardation and motor disabilities. The Home was licensed as an ICF/MR (or an Intermediate Care Facility for the Mentally Retarded) by the Ohio Department of Mental Retardation and Developmental Disabilities, and in 1981, we received Medicaid certification. The services for the maternity home were slowly phased out. Today, St. Joseph Infant & Maternity Home, also known as St. Joseph Home of Cincinnati, focuses on its mission of serving infants, children and adults with mental and physical challenges.
A major renovation that took place in the early 1990s saw the opening of 6 residential cottages and brought our number of residents up to our current limit of 47. Another campaign in the late 1990s enabled us to open the Harold C. Schott Respite Center in 1998, dramatically increasing the reach of our services into the community. Our latest renovation in 2004 increases our living space in the cottages for our growing residents, as well as expanding the number of beds in our respite cottage.