Colored Orphan Asylum

Colored Orphan Asylum
SuccessorRiverdale Children's Association
Established1836 (1836)
FoundersAnna Shotwell and Mary Murray
Founded atManhattan
Defunct1946 (1946)
TypeOrphanage
Location
Region served
New York City
Key people
James McCune Smith
AffiliationsHampton Institute

The Colored Orphan Asylum was in New York City, from 1836 to 1946. It housed on average four hundred children annually and was mostly managed by women. Its first location was on Fifth Avenue between 42nd and 43rd Streets in Midtown Manhattan, a four-story building with two wings. The Colored Orphan Asylum was burned down by Irish mobs on July 13, 1863 during the first day of the New York Draft Riots. It was rebuilt by Quakers in 1867 in Upper Manhattan and in 1907 moved to Riverdale in the Bronx.