Episode 1: The History of The House of the Good Shepherd, Part 1
Inaugural House of the Good Shepard Podcast!
“The History of the House of the Good Shepherd Part 1” by Sue Lanza and Rev. Shawn Carty. Released: 2021. Track 1. Genre: podcast.
Transcription
Sue Lanza:
Welcome to this episode of House Guest. I’m Sue Lanza, the CEO of the House of the Good Shepherd, a retirement community in Hackettstown, New Jersey, and co-hosting with me today is the Reverend Shawn Carty, our chaplain at the house. We’re so glad you’re joining us today as we discuss the beginnings of our very rich history at the House of the Good Shepherd. Hi Shawn.
Rev. Shawn Carty:
Hello Sue.
Sue Lanza:
It’s good to see you.
Rev. Shawn Carty:
It’s good to see you too. Here we are on our maiden voyage on the podcast.
Sue Lanza:
Yes. So, welcome to our first episode of House Guest, where we talk about all things having to do with the House of the Good Shepherd. One of our first topics that we wanted to talk about is the history of the House of the Good Shepherd, and I know you’ve been instrumental in doing a lot of research having to do with that.
Rev. Shawn Carty:
I have done a bit of research and I’m still learning along the way. Yes indeed.
Sue Lanza:
There’s so much history. When you have a place that’s been around for coming up next year on 140 years, and there aren’t that many places that could say that, we have so much history that, you and I were talking about this, we said we have to figure out a way to divide this out so that we can make sense of it for people who are listening and also not bore people to death.
Rev. Shawn Carty:
That’s usually a good idea. I try to do that with my sermons, not make people fall asleep.
Sue Lanza:
That is a good idea. One are the first things that we talked about, because we go all the way back to 1882, which I know some people will find hard to believe but it really is true. We wanted to talk about what was the spark or how did this all start that we even began as an organization? Because the House of the Good Shepherd, the name and the whole mission and intention has been there, but it’s evolved a little bit over the years. So, what do you think was the beginning or the spark of this whole organization?
Rev. Shawn Carty:
Well, I think one of the things to keep in mind of course is that in that period of American history, there were all kinds of organizations and institutions being founded. Think, for example, about some of the universities in our area or some of the other institutions that we know well, hospitals and things like that. So, it was a time when particularly church folks were doing some of that, and the Episcopal Church was particularly known for that. Lehigh University was founded by Episcopalians, St. Luke’s Hospital System, St. Barnabus Medical Center, all those places. So, we’re kind of in that family if you will.
And of course the other aspect of American history at that point was that it was the Gilded Age, and there was great inequality between folks who had a whole lot of money and folks who were really living on the edge. And I suspect, from my reading and from some of the things that you and I have looked at together, that part of it was that they realized there were folks who were really in need and at a time when other institutions were being founded and put on the map, the House of the Good Shepherd was in that same category.
Sue Lanza:
Yeah, no, that makes sense. I never thought about the whole idea of the Gilded Age and the big class differences maybe that there came this need for some of the folks that maybe were not receiving as many services because they were overlooked would have to have other people kind of looking out for them, and I think that probably was a good reason to look at the start of it. What do you know about the whole beginning? Some of it is sketchy, but there is some information. In 1882, what was going on besides you setting the stage the way you just did very nicely?
Rev. Shawn Carty:
Well, one of the things that we’ve discovered is that we’ve done a little bit of reading, was someone named Sister Sylvia. I am fascinated by her, but we have very little information about her. Apparently she started something like what the House of the Good Shepherd became actually in the years preceding 1882, 1880, 1881 it seems. And there was a great effort, well meaning, but not particularly well organized. And so that didn’t work.
And one of the things that we discovered is something that was in the archives called the Rainbow Bazaar.
Sue Lanza:
Oh, tell me.
Rev. Shawn Carty:
The Rainbow Bazaar was a fundraiser that was meant to really put the dream into reality, and even though it had sort of failed with Sister Sylvia, again we don’t know much about her, fascinated by this thought of this person. But with the efforts of a number of other people along the way, that was kind of how things came to be. And in particular there was a handful of Episcopal churches in and around Orange, which is where the house was founded and started.
Particularly one character, a priest who was serving a congregation and his name was Anthony Schuyler, S-C-H-U-Y-L-E-R.
Sue Lanza:
Yeah, I think that’s it.
Rev. Shawn Carty:
And he was sort of the driving force in trying to put her vision into action, and rallied people around and in particular the other Episcopal churches of that area, and he was successful. And so what initially happened was that they rented a place, and I’m forgetting exactly when that year was.
Sue Lanza:
I know. The years start to roll together. Yeah, it was probably about three years into it. They stayed in the rented space for three years I think. In 1882 they started, but they were only there for about three years, and it’s hard to say exactly where they were or what they were doing, but yes, eventually found a more permanent location.
Talk a little bit about if you will, because our roots with the Episcopal Church are deep because even after 139, 140 years almost, we still have that affiliation. Why is it that the Episcopal Church, having five churches come together, they might be in your minds a group that would be open to these kinds of ideas?
Rev. Shawn Carty:
Well, so, first, yes, I’m very glad for our Episcopal roots because I wouldn’t be here as an Episcopal chaplain obviously. But one of the things that was happening in the Episcopal Church and the Church of England across the pond, as we say, was something called the Oxford Movement. And it was a movement among Anglican churches, Anglican is the umbrella for Church of England and the Episcopal Church here in the United States and other places. In the Anglican tradition there was a desire to kind of reclaim some of the historic roots of the church.
And to those who were from a more Protestant review, it looked a lot more like the Roman Catholic church. And there was a real desire to kind of reclaim some of the rituals. We joke about the smells and the bells.
Sue Lanza:
I love that phrase. It’s just great.
Rev. Shawn Carty:
So, you get the idea of fancy vestments that the clergy are wearing and incense and bells that are ringing at different parts of the liturgy. But paired with that was a desire to make a change in society for the better and particularly for those who were the most vulnerable. In the biblical stories, one of the particularly strong ones, is at the end of Matthew’s gospel Jesus comes back and the sheep and the goats are being separated, that’s the story that most people know. And the question was, when did we see you, Lord? And the answer was whenever you saw somebody who was in need, who didn’t have clothing or food or housing.
And so the Oxford Movement, which is also known as the Anglo-Catholic movement, wanted to make a difference in the lives of people. And, again, this is the Gilded Age, so there are folks who have a whole lot and then there are folks who quite honestly don’t have much at all. And the desire of the church at that point was to really put its faith into action and make life better for folks.
And so part of our spark, if you will, is that we’ve got a history where we started out with really folks who had nowhere else to go. They were widows and women, in particular, in the early years of the history of this place, who did not have any financial resources of their own and they needed a place to live. They needed someplace to call home. And that was the genesis of it.
So, it’s embedded in our name when you think about it. House of the Good Shepherd. Well, the shepherd who comes back and separates the sheep from the goats wants to know how well did you treat the people that you saw. And then the whole idea of house.
We’ve often, in my short time here, I hear people talk about this place as a home, as a place that’s homey or has that feel to it. And that goes way back into our early years.
Sue Lanza:
It does. I think it goes all the way back, and this is one of the things that we struggle with here is we’re in a whole different age so many years later, but it’s so important to still have that homey house feeling that so many people comment on. And it’s hard to define exactly what are we doing that makes that happen, but I think one of the things underlying everything is that the mission may have changed by specifically which groups we’re serving, but the mission is still the same. That we’re trying to serve people that perhaps would not have another place to go or just need a little helping hand. They are okay, but just want to be with like-minded people who aren’t looking for the fanciest and the best and just want a safe and comfortable place to be.
So, the group started out. They decided they were going to meet, and then at some point after a few years they decided, well, we’re going to look for a more permanent space. So, what happened next? It sounds like they went to a place where they were closer to a hospital. Is that what happened?
Rev. Shawn Carty:
Yeah, from what I’ve been able to read. They definitely wanted to be close to medical care. And so, again, another little interesting connection with our current situation of course, because we’re just down the street from Hackettstown Medical Center. But there was a sense early on that they wanted to be close to some medical support.
And so they found some property on Henry Street in Orange, and that was purchased. They built a house, which at the time I believe it was able to accommodate 18 people, and then later on it was expanded, I think, to 30. Which is what it was before moving here to Hackettstown back in the 60’s. So, early on it was never a big place to be quite honest. And that may be partly by design. If we think about the desire to keep it as a place that’s a home place, not necessarily a big institutional sort of place.
And they purchased some property. The Rainbow Bazaar that I was telling you about that was, I think, they may have gotten a little bit ahead of themselves in terms, which organizations do that. They got ahead of themselves and decided that, okay, we really better put the finances in order in order to make this work.
What’s curious is that of course we have the flyer from when the Rainbow Bazaar was being promoted. I don’t know that we’ve found anything that tells us exactly what happened.
Sue Lanza:
No.
Rev. Shawn Carty:
Did they raise a bunch of money or not? It’s hard to tell.
Sue Lanza:
It’s a beautiful brochure for its day. It’s probably quite elegant. I don’t know that in our archives, we’re going to have to keep looking to see if we have anything that tells us did they make money? How much did they make? Because it looked like they splashed out some money on the preparations for it.
And I know that life back then was very different than it is in our layout today because we’re still considered a very small CCRC, a continuing care retirement community, but it looks like they were very small. With 18 people they only, I think, we saw five staff members. And what do you remember in seeing that? I guess they had the five or six employees, but then there was someone who was a matron or a house mother? [crosstalk] I was going to bring it up so that you didn’t so that I could tell you that I’m not a house mother here.
Rev. Shawn Carty:
Well, just outside the chapel here, at the current House of the Good Shepherd, was a whole series of plaques that got brought with when the house moved here in the 60’s. And my assumption, having been a parish priest for 20-something years, is that when they moved they realized that they couldn’t just leave the plaques. And so they brought them with them.
And, as often happens in churches and other places, somebody gives something and they make a plaque and they put it up. Somebody else does something. Next thing you know you’ve got a whole bunch of plaques. So, they brought them here and one of the plaques, and I don’t remember exactly all of the details, but it was in memory of the first matron of the house.
Sue Lanza:
Oh no, no, no. I won’t have it. I won’t have it. Don’t even think about it.
Rev. Shawn Carty:
We’ve joked about a title that you sort of reclaim perhaps.
Sue Lanza:
No.
Rev. Shawn Carty:
But you’re clearly not interested.
Sue Lanza:
No, I’m not interested at all. And thank you for bringing it up.
Rev. Shawn Carty:
But you get the idea. When you think of a matron, that’s a motherly word, right? And so if it’s a house and you’ve got a house mother, I think of it akin to those of us when we went to college and there was a dorm mother or dorm parent.
Sue Lanza:
Right, right. Somebody who kind of watched over the flock a little bit.
Rev. Shawn Carty:
Exactly. So, the matron was the one who did that. And the other thing that we do have in some of our archives are some of the rules about what to do when you’re living in the house.
Sue Lanza:
Oh, I know.
Rev. Shawn Carty:
And some of them are quite-
Sue Lanza:
They’re kind of comical and some of them are true to this day.
Rev. Shawn Carty:
Well, they are. So, let people know if you’re going out so we don’t wonder where you are.
Sue Lanza:
Exactly. Could you please tell us if you’re leaving with your family so we’re not looking all over the place for you?
Rev. Shawn Carty:
Exactly.
Sue Lanza:
Yeah, that hasn’t changed.
Rev. Shawn Carty:
Some that are about where you can do laundry and early rules prohibiting any sort of alcohol whatsoever in those days, which I know is not the rule we have nowadays. But, in any case, all of it just common sense sort of things that your mother would have taught you I suppose.
Sue Lanza:
Yeah.
Rev. Shawn Carty:
Your parents would have expected of you as you were growing up.
Sue Lanza:
Yeah, and I think we have to give props to these folks because just to get this thing going back in those days, to get people interested in this project. First at a rental then trying to purchase and own, and then even making the more ambitious plan of moving to another location. It’s pretty amazing that all of that happened because none of that is easy. We’re finding it a struggle in these times, but then they had so much less in terms of resources. What do you think was getting them going? Was it a couple of people who were very dedicated? What do you think was the impetus there?
Rev. Shawn Carty:
Well, I think some of it has to do with some of the role of the Episcopal Church quite frankly because in those days the Episcopal Church would have been seen as the church predominantly of the wealthier folks in a place. And thankfully that’s a legacy I think we’ve, in the Episcopal Church, laid aside or begun to lay aside. Unfortunately it used to be the church that was kind of a refuge for snobs unfortunately.
But the flip side of that, of course, is that that means you’ve got folks with some deep pockets, who have some money. And so when there’s a need and you make that known and you’ve got connections and resources, then things happen sometimes.
Sue Lanza:
Things are possible.
Rev. Shawn Carty:
One little example of that, and I know I’ve shared this with others, but the Episcopal Church’s pension fund exists because, as I understand the story, in those days, and it would have been 1910, so a little later than the house would have been founded, but right around the times that it would have kind of been more established. The Episcopal Church noticed that its clergy were retiring and didn’t have any resources and didn’t have homes because they had always lived in church homes.
Sue Lanza:
Sure.
Rev. Shawn Carty:
And at the time the bishops of the Episcopal Church had the sort of clout that they were able to call up people like J.P. Morgan, not the company but the man himself, and say, “J.P., we’d like you to solve this problem for us.” And he being a good churchman officially did what he needed to do, and he called in some friends and established the church pension fund. Those are the kinds of days when bishops could just send a letter or make a phone call eventually. And those kinds of things would just happen.
In some ways I’m kind of glad those days don’t exist because I think it means that there was a lot of power in small numbers of hands.
Sue Lanza:
Very much. Yes.
Rev. Shawn Carty:
But there were some good things that happened as a result of people who had the good intentions to make things happen, like the House of the Good Shepherd or church pension funds or hospitals getting founded.
Sue Lanza:
Yeah.
Rev. Shawn Carty:
All of that was happening.
Sue Lanza:
And what’s interesting too is that that pension fund is still in existence and so it’s not just for clergy. There are non-clergy laypeople, like myself, if you work in certain environments like this one you have access to it. So, it’s really lived on and will continue to live on as its own legacy.
Rev. Shawn Carty:
I have to give some credit to the folks who are on our board of trustees because they were the ones who made that decision.
Sue Lanza:
True.
Rev. Shawn Carty:
The House of the Good Shepherd’s relationship with the Episcopal Church is such that it’s sort of an unofficial one. There are some things that would be considered more official than others in terms of our relationship, but the house could have probably not necessarily followed into that path to use the church’s pension funds, but they have.
And I think that’s one of those things that I believe institutions matter. Now that may not be much of a surprise coming from the mouth of a priest who works for, as I’ve sometimes joked, one of the world’s oldest nonprofit institutions, the church. But institutions can make a difference. We’re in an era now where institutions are kind of being questioned.
Sue Lanza:
Sure.
Rev. Shawn Carty:
Whether or not they can continue to exist in the form that they have and is there the support for them and all that.
Sue Lanza:
Sure.
Rev. Shawn Carty:
This is one of those places where that makes a big difference I think.
Sue Lanza:
I think so too. I agree with you on that. When we got past they rented a space for three years, then they were in a space for a number of years, and then I guess when it got closer to … 30 years went by, I know, flip the calendar and off it goes. They were pretty stable next to the hospital and enjoying not so much a relationship per say with the hospital, but I think it afforded them the ability to have access to care and some services for the people that they cared for there. First the 18, and then it went up to 30.
What do you think happened that made them decide to come here? I know the coming here is a whole story in itself, but what do you think was the drive behind that?
Rev. Shawn Carty:
Well, it seems like, at least from what I’ve read, there was a desire to be in a place that was of some scenic beauty. And it might seem strange to us now to think about Orange, New Jersey, being a place of scenic beauty because it’s a highly developed area. Lots of buildings.
Sue Lanza:
Sure.
Rev. Shawn Carty:
But one of the things that I think was probably part of the spark for us moving here was to be in a more rural area, a more scenic area. As we think about Orange, New Jersey, now, it’s not a particularly scenic place. It’s highly built up and lots of development and certainly not as much green space as we have here in Hackettstown. But, in its day it actually was.
To me one of the interesting little indicators of that is going back to this Rainbow Bazaar, when that pamphlet was put together, there were a whole series of little advertisements that got put into it, including for livery stables and other sorts of things. So, granted this was before the so-called horseless carriages. I think that was part of the desire to be in a place that would have a little more greenery than Orange would have had back in the 1950’s and 60’s, as it was being built up.
And I think obviously expansion was part of it too. So, moving here there was instant expansion. And I know we’re going to talk more about that later when we talk about the move to come here. But there was a desire to have a place that was beautiful. I think that’s one of the things we encounter now when folks come visit the campus here is they realize that there are very few places where you look out your window and you see a river like we do.
Sue Lanza:
Yeah.
Rev. Shawn Carty:
One of our, I don’t know if competitors is the right word but, one of the other places here in Hackettstown where you can go for senior living looks out on a highway, and that’s not like looking out on the Musconetcong River.
Sue Lanza:
No.
Rev. Shawn Carty:
So, I think that’s a big part of it was a desire to be in a place like this.
Sue Lanza:
And I think you’re right too about the idea of they started out and they moved next to the hospital, and they probably in all those intervening years, and we’re talking 40, 50, 60, more years, they’re watching the area grow around them and become … Like the horseless carriage and then the cars. Everything kind of changing so rapidly around them that some of the scenery that they were used to slowly faded away. So, it’s natural, many of us do this where we start out in one place and then we say, “You know what? We want a little bit quieter spot.” And I think for the mission of trying to have rest, relaxation, healing, with all the bells and whistles were that they were looking for. This afforded them a huge leap. It was a really big leap to go from the Orange’s out to here, but they did it very successfully.
So, Shawn, what was the mission back then? What were they looking to do? I remember hearing something about widows and orphans and providing them some care.
Rev. Shawn Carty:
Yeah, and of course that phrase, widows and orphans, is one that comes straight from biblical texts, particularly the prophets in the Old Testament telling people that they should take care of widows and orphans. And the reason for that is that historically widows and orphans did not have property. They couldn’t own anything.
Sue Lanza:
Right.
Rev. Shawn Carty:
And so they needed the support of others who did have the resources. And that’s very much a part of the early years of the house before moving here to Hackettstown. It was started out as a place where folks who did not have the resources they needed could still be taken care of.
I was thinking back to something, and again this goes back to that brochure from the Rainbow Bazaar, one of the things, and this is in the introduction of that. Maybe I can just read a little bit of it.
Sue Lanza:
Sure.
Rev. Shawn Carty:
The writer, it’s not entirely clear to me who it is.
Sue Lanza:
Who put together the brochure you mean?
Rev. Shawn Carty:
Well, who’s writing this particular text.
Sue Lanza:
Sort of like a little blurb of history.
Rev. Shawn Carty:
Yeah, it’s meant to be kind of a description of what is the house and why would you want to support it.
Sue Lanza:
Right.
Rev. Shawn Carty:
Back in 1889, the Rainbow Bazaar itself happened on February 21 and 22 in 1889, in East Orange, and it was at the Harrison Street Rink. And I suspect most of us when hear rink we think of an ice rink, but I don’t know that that’s necessarily the case here. I think it may be more of-
Sue Lanza:
An event space.
Rev. Shawn Carty:
Yeah, an event center. We might think of it in those terms. In any case, this is one of the descriptions that is in there. The fact that the house has survived for seven years, during which it has been taking root and vegetating is proof enough that it is a germ of genuine charity. It has given very practical proofs of its worthiness as the surviving inmates-
Sue Lanza:
Inmates. Oh.
Rev. Shawn Carty:
Interesting use of the word, yeah. Inmates of the house and the friends of those who are gone can testify. I’m sure inmates meant something very different back in 1889.
Sue Lanza:
Oh, it had to because right now we’re both cringing.
Rev. Shawn Carty:
I know.
Sue Lanza:
It’s so politically incorrect.
Rev. Shawn Carty:
Well, it just sounds like a prison, which of course it was not. It was not meant to be that and that was not the sense of it back then.
Sue Lanza:
But the flowery language too that this is all written in is also so much of the times.
Rev. Shawn Carty:
Right. Once we get past the word inmates, such testimony is reliable. The old people themselves and their friends know what they need and know too when that need is supplied. They know also, and their intimate friends know still better than they, at what cost and trouble they are properly cared for. Still there are not many with the ability to care for the aged and disabled of their own families and who retain the proper affection for them willing to trust them to strangers and least of all perhaps to a charitable institution. The world at large, to use a common expression, has no use for old people. That’s the kind of commentary of the harshness of that day.
Sue Lanza:
Yeah, and some things haven’t changed in all these years unfortunately.
Rev. Shawn Carty:
No, we bump into that too often.
Sue Lanza:
Yeah. Some ageism things for sure.
Rev. Shawn Carty:
Absolutely. So, I think the sense of it was that they saw this problem and they knew they could fix it, and that’s what happened.
Sue Lanza:
Yeah. The one thing I didn’t touch on with you too that was an important part of this in the beginning was there were five churches, five Episcopal churches, that were involved with this and I’m not 100% sure of exactly how they were part of it, but I think different members perhaps were involved maybe with Sister-
Rev. Shawn Carty:
Sylvia.
Sue Lanza:
Sylvia, yes.
Rev. Shawn Carty:
Let’s not forget her.
Sue Lanza:
Sister Sylvia, and using, if she was connected to one of the churches, that connection probably brought her some like-minded people who wanted to be part of something larger. Can you tell us a little about the churches? Because I think you said a few of them are not in existence still, but-
Rev. Shawn Carty:
Yeah, and of course that happens.
Sue Lanza:
That’s the way it goes.
Rev. Shawn Carty:
Churches open and close. I think at the moment, I’m trying to remember now, I think we have two or three churches in that area now. There probably would have been more like six or seven. Of course the other thing to keep in mind back then was everybody walked to church.
Sue Lanza:
Right.
Rev. Shawn Carty:
You didn’t get in the car and drive half an hour to get to church.
Sue Lanza:
Yeah, of course.
Rev. Shawn Carty:
So, that’s part of it. The one thing I did come across, this was from Episcopal Diocese of Newark newsletter from 1958. The instigator of the movement which established the House of the Good Shepherd was the late Reverend Dr. Anthony Schuyler, rector of Grace Church.
Sue Lanza:
Yes.
Rev. Shawn Carty:
Who in 1880, began to work toward providing a residence for aging women who preferred living together to being solitary.
Sue Lanza:
Okay.
Rev. Shawn Carty:
In 1882, an organization was started and in August of that year, through efforts of local Episcopal churches, a house was rented and the work begun. 1885, House of the Good Shepherd was incorporated under the laws of the state of New Jersey, and the present location, remember this is 1958, so it’s on Henry Street in Orange. Present location was acquired and building erected to accommodate 18 people.
And then this is one place where we do actually have a name. In 1904, the generosity of a Mrs. William Barr enabled enlargement of the building to its present size, which at the time was around 30.
Sue Lanza:
Right, which is pretty amazing. That had to be a substantial donation and assistance to almost double in size. Yeah. No, and so the other churches, they don’t say exactly how they were connected, but of course they were connected because they were Episcopalian, and they would have some similar connections that way.
But Shawn, I know we want to tantalize everybody with what’s going to come up in our next episode. And the main thing we’re going to talk about is how they actually made the move to Hackettstown and what that was all about. Because there’s a lot of interesting information there of how that happened, and then how it got to be where we are today.
We hope to have you join us very soon, and we thank you all for listening. We’re going to be signing off. This is Sue.
Rev. Shawn Carty:
And this is Shawn.
Sue Lanza:
Thank you so much for listening to House Guest. Thanks.
Thank you for joining us for this episode of House Guest. To learn more about the House of the Good Shepherd community in Hackettstown, New Jersey, please visit us at www.hotgs.org. See you next time.
