Abandoned Orphanage Photo Print, Lafon Home For Boys New Orleans, Black and White Wall Art

This is the front door of the historic Lafon Home for Boys in New Orleans which we stayed next to multiple times while living in a New Orleans RV Park.  The Sisters at Lafon Home For Boys taught enslaved children when the education of slaves was illegal. The mission of the Sisters of the Holy Family was to bring comfort and care to children, the poor, the powerless, and the elderly. They provided shelter, education, healthcare, and bright futures to many Black orphaned boys and girls in Louisiana. In 1853, a yellow fever epidemic struck New Orleans killing 8,000 residents. By the summer of 1878, the death toll had reached nearly 20,000. As a result, many children became homeless orphans. New Orleans was in desperate need of housing for children so, in 1892, the St. John Berchman’s Orphanage for Girls was founded by the Sisters of the Holy Family. The following year, in 1893, Thomy Lafon, a wealthy philanthropist, bequeathed a building on St. Peter Street to the Sisters for the purpose