Like most similar organizations the Hervey Institute rose from humble beginnings, little idea being in the minds of the group of ladies who began the work of the magnitude of the scale of future undertakings. It now has accommodation for eighty-five persons.
Miss Hervey, for whom the Home is named, was born in 1807 and came to this city from Scotland in 1846. The following year she started the home in a small way, calling it an industrial home. She was led to do this by the extreme need for such among the poor—for at that time there was little organized relief among the Protestants other than that given by the churches—and the mother left with her small children to support, owing to the death of the father, was in a sad plight. Miss Hervey and her associates gathered these children together, taught them to sew and also the elementary subjects of education as well as the performance of domestic duties.
Among well known names connected with the Home in those days were Mrs. John Stirling, Mrs. John Redpath, Mrs. Neil MacIntosh, Mrs. John McDougall, Mrs. Hannibal Whitney, Mrs. John Lovell—the last mentioned still showing an active interest in the Home—Mrs. (Doctor) Scott, another member of the original committee, worked unceasingly to accomplish a piece of work desired by Miss Hervey, that of a separate Home for the tiny children and young babies, as it was found impossible to continue the reception of children of all ages. Thus the Protestant Infants’ Home was established, as an offshoot in 1870, by this same untiring worker, Miss Hervey.
The following ladies have been the presidents of the institution:
| 1847-75 | Miss Hervey |
| 1875-78 | Mrs. H.L. Routh |
| 1878-81 | Mrs. J. Ross |
| 1881-82 | Mrs. James Tasker |
| 1882-86 | Mrs. J.H. Moody |
| 1886-92 | Mrs. Alex Murray |
| 1892-96 | Mrs. Langlois |
| 1896-1904 | Mrs. G. Summer |
| 1904 | Mrs. J. Henderson |
The Home was incorporated in 1875 when Mrs. J. Routh was president, other signers of the charter were: Mrs. Holmes and Mrs. M.L. Clarke, the last mentioned being at present on the committee of management. The original intention of caring for, teaching, and training in domestic duties half orphan girls, has been carried on, but more than that, the special provision made for boys in the comparatively new Home on Windsor Avenue, Westmount, shows the result of many anxious thoughts directed to the problem of the growing boy without a home. Boys as well as girls are now trained for their work in the world; boys are kept until fourteen years of age, girls until sixteen.
In receiving girls and boys into the Home, the idea is to keep family life as nearly normal as possible, so the mother or father may place their children in the same home knowing they are at school and may play together.
Half-orphan children, between the ages of five and fourteen, are received, qualified teachers are in attendance, one children’s trained nurse and other nurses and over all a superintendent.
The parent pays whatever possible; all other cost of maintenance is met by the voluntary subscriptions.
A development of late years has been the purchase of a summer home at Morin Heights in the Laurentian Mountains, in healthy and beautiful surroundings. It is owing to this annex, to which the children have been sent for two months for nine years, that the directors owe the wonderful record of no annual drug account over $25.00. This for a home of seventy-five children is a record, as is the fact there have been but four deaths in the sixty-eight years in which the Home has been in operation.