I was recently asked to do some research on St. Gabriel's Home and Hospital here in Baltimore. St. Gabriel's was one of the few places in the area which cared for children with rheumatic fever, and allowed them to stay for months so that they could fully recover from the disease. Much of that time would be spent quietly in bed, with a gradual increase in activity.
As you may know, untreated strep throat can lead to rheumatic fever, which eventually damages the heart. Because the anti-biotics that are common to us now, were virtually unknown at the time, homes like St. Gabriel's were essential to stopping the spread of the disease and allowing children the time and space they needed for their full recovery. Rheumatic fever accounted for 90% of heart disease in children.
Most of the girls at St. Gabriel's were from impoverished families in Baltimore City. For them to recover from rheumatic fever at home, where there was frequently no heat or hot water, and poor nutirtion, was basically sentencing them to a slow death.
St. Gabriel's was located near Catonsville and was run by the Sisters of All Saints of the Protestant Episcopal Church. In 2009, the nuns converted to become Roman Catholics, as they thought the Episcopal Church had become too liberal. The stone convent was built in 1921, and replaced an earlier shingle home, The Country Home for Children, which had burnt to the ground several years earlier.
It was originally a home for "consumptive" children, but later expanded its mission.
In 1926, a new building was added to the property, paid for by a bequest the Sisters received. It was a two-story stucco building for 26 girls, their nurses and the supervising sisters. Girls from age two to fourteen were admitted, with no length of time stipulated for their stay. It was a convalescent home which operated for almost 50 years, closing in 1972, and re-opening a year later as a retreat house.
Dr. Helen Taussig, who worked with Dr. Alfred Blalock on the "blue baby" surgery, specialized in childhood rheumatism, and worked with the nurses and Sisters at St. Gabriel's over many years.
In the 1940s, St. Gabriel's was the only convalescent home to admit Black girls at a time when there were more than 700 children in the city suffering from rheumatic fever, while there were fewer than 50 long-term beds, which were mainly for white children.
For decades, women from churches, temples and clubs in Baltimore would host bridge parties, luncheons, fairs, and dances to support St. Gabriel's. These women also went to St. Gabriel's and entertained the girls at seasonally-themed parties.
As mentioned, St. Gabriel's ceased accepting children in the early 1970s and became a convent and retreat center nestled in the middle of Patapsco State Park, high above the river..
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