"Let today embrace the past with remembrance and the future with longing." The poet/philosopher Kahlil Gibran wrote this reflection in his book, "The Prophet," and it serves today as an ideal motto for the stories of Catholic sites and institutions that were part of the past and have contributed to the future. This week, The Tidings continues its intermittent series that profiles these Catholic places of the past.

Los Angeles Orphanage, 1890

The original four-story red brick building, that was a haven for homeless children, towered above a hill on Boyle Avenue in 1890 when the City of the Angels had some 50,000 inhabitants. The Daughters of Charity who offered loving care to these "orphans of the living" had first arrived in 1856 from Emmitsburg, Maryland, the motherhouse in the United States.

The initial group of five sisters sailed down the Eastern shore through the Isthmus of Panama by donkey and then by ship to San Pedro where a stagecoach transported them over bumpy roads for ten hours to their destination in Los Angeles. They founded their first orphanage on a site near Alameda and Macy Streets (now Union Station). The frame building was transported in sections from New York and assembled by a carpenter who came from the East Coast.

The sisters opened the orphanage with seven children; when that number quickly grew to 120, the original frame structure was replaced within a year by a brick building that was used for 34 years until it was necessary to find a new location. The 917 South Boyle Avenue site opened in 1890 on 12 acres, and for 62 years the majestic structure dominated the surrounding landscape, even surviving the 1933 earthquake. It was the only Catholic orphanage in the city but welcomed all children regardless of race or religion.

Although the sisters at first housed boys and girls, they eventually found other institutions for the boys and cared mainly for girls, either orphaned or from broken homes, from age three to 14. The capacity of the orphanage was 175 children and the rate was $25 a month, or lower, paid by families or welfare agencies.

During the years the girls remained in the home they were taught by the sisters to become "self-supporting, self-respecting citizens of the community." Through the years hundreds of letters from former residents were received telling of their success, and many returned with their children to meet the sisters. The orphanage sheltered more than 8,000 children at the Boyle Avenue house but eventually time and erosion led to structural decay and the building was condemned.

But a tremendous outpouring of generosity from around the city enabled the Daughters of Charity to continue their mission of love and caring when they opened a new institution in 1953, called Maryvale, located in Rosemead. The child caring home continues the devoted care of the pioneer sisters who arrived almost 150 years ago to bring their special charism of charity.

Mount Carmel High School, 1935

One year before the Diocese of Los Angeles-San Diego became the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, Bishop John Cantwell dedicated the new Mount Carmel High School for boys in the Southwest district of the city. Although classes had started the previous November, the Sunday afternoon dedication on Jan. 6, 1935, at 7011 South Hoover Street, officially opened the school directed by the Carmelite Fathers.

The up-to-date high school --- built in the wake of the 1993 Long Beach earthquake --- showcased the newest in construction techniques, designed to resist earthquakes (with classroom floors erected on steel joints) and the entire structure made fireproof. The "F" streetcar tracks bordered the campus until the grounds were later extended and the tracks diverted.

Bishop Cantwell called the Carmelite school "a welcome addition to the educational facilities for the youth in the southwest district of our city." The original enrollment of 56 young men grew to 600 by 1959, serving students from 40 parishes of the archdiocese, and reached almost 700 soon after. During World War II some 450 alumni were serving in different branches of the armed forces.

One of the school's former principals, Carmelite Father Augustine Carter, recently recalled his days as a student, teacher and administrator at Mount Carmel. "My two brothers were in the first class," he said, "and I was a student from 1938 to 1942. It was a great school."

Through 42 years Mount Carmel students excelled in athletics and academics and offered an excellent high school opportunity for youth in the downtown area. But a changing neighborhood eventually eroded enrollment from the surrounding feeder parishes, and the Carmelites closed the school in June of 1976. Father Niles Gillen, superintendent of Carmelite schools, said at the time, "We sincerely regret this decision, but we feel it is due to circumstances beyond our control."

Father Carter --- who taught at Mount Carmel for seven years and served as principal from 1966 to 1971 --- still attends the annual alumni reunion (some 200 former students were at the last one) and the golf tournament that raises funds for retired Carmelite priests.

St. Ann's Home for the Aged, 1908

The Los Angeles institution for the aged, operated by the Little Sisters of the Poor, opened in March of 1908 at 2700 East First Street in Boyle Heights. The offer to find property and build the house came from prominent Bay Area resident Edward J. LeBreton, who had already aided the Sisters since their 1901 arrival in San Francisco in a similar work of mercy. He wrote to Bishop Thomas J. Conaty requesting permission to open the same charitable work in L.A. The bishop readily agreed and a four-story, red-brick, $400,000 building on eight acres was ready by mid-1907.

At the March 25, 1908 dedication, Bishop Conaty described the Little Sisters of the Poor as "sisters who have added to their vows of poverty, obedience and chastity, the fourth vow of hospitality, guaranteeing the kindness of a home to all who obtain shelter with them." The four-story structure consisted of a central building and two large wings with enough rooms to care for 300 persons.

The Little Sisters of the Poor operated "on faith, not cash" and daily walked the streets seeking the charity of people by "begging for food, clothing and money, all day collecting dimes, nickels and quarters." Their model was Jeanne Jugan, a French Breton servant girl and fisherman's daughter, who founded the Little Sisters of the Poor in 1839. She took old, abandoned women into her home and cared for them, going from village to village begging for funds and became known as Sister Mary of the Cross. Other women soon joined her and the community grew. By 1955 there were 6,000 religious worldwide, 800 in the U.S. and 309 homes for the poor in 28 countries.

At St. Ann many of the sisters were as old as the residents but continued to beg to sustain the home and the elderly who also contributed to upkeep and maintenance. The requirements for residence: minimum age of 60, lack of means to live elsewhere and the willingness to be part of the home's hospitality. The Sisters who attended the old folks (some of them quite old themselves; one was there for 54 years) used kind words, patient acts, gestures of love and acts of true charity by seeing Christ in all his wrinkled images. Sister Antoinette was one of the sisters assigned to the duty of begging in order to sustain their ministry. She started in 1915 and for 49 years continued that responsibility to aid St. Ann's and the residents.

For many years Archbishop John Cantwell would visit each year on his feast day, Dec. 27, a custom continued by Cardinal Timothy Manning for 40 years and then by Bishop John Ward who not only followed the tradition but had participated in the annual visit when he was a young seminarian.

"I have very good memories of those visits," Bishop Ward said recently. "We brought gifts for all the guests, going from room to room giving out either cigarettes or candy. It was really an outstanding building and the Sisters were so kind to everyone."

For 71 years the Sisters cared for over 5,500 aged poor, but in 1975 the old building no longer met fire and earthquake codes and was condemned. The archdiocese responded with a major drive that raised more than $5 million for the move to San Pedro at the former campus of Fermin Lasuén High School that had closed in 1971. The Jeanne Jugan Residence now cares for almost 100 persons in a refurbished building at 2100 South Western Avenue in San Pedro, still operated by the Little Sisters of the Poor who last month celebrated 100 years of service in Los Angeles.