New York’s Emigrant Savings Bank and Catholic Welfare, 1870–1910

New York’s Emigrant Savings Bank (ESB), founded in 1850, served the needs of Irish immigrants fleeing the Great Famine. Of the bank’s 500 largest loans, 42 percent were used to build Catholic churches, orphanages, and hospitals. These loans totaled $32 million and helped create an extensive Catholic welfare infrastructure. While many banks operated in New York during this period, the Emigrant Savings Bank provides a uniquely well-documented case study of how immigrant savings were channeled into Catholic charitable institutions.

The history of public welfare in New York was a complicated mix of public workhouses, so-called “lunatic” asylums, and private charities. In 1875, New York State passed the “Children’s Law,” allowing the city to pay public funds to Catholic institutions. Example: The Sisters of Charity built the New York Foundling Asylum on East 68th Street using loans from the Emigrant Savings Bank. By 1880, the New York Foundling Hospital cared for 1,470 children in residence. In 1879, the hospital received $188,026 from New York City—62 percent of its total income—while the Sisters of Charity paid $26,000 in interest to the Emigrant Savings Bank.

Public funding of Catholic institutions drew sharp opposition, including an October 1875 New York Times article titled, “Sectarian Schools: How the People of the City Support Them—Tammany Hall Giving Millions to Catholic Institutions.” This class explores how Irish immigrant savings, private banking, and public funding intersected to shape New York’s Catholic welfare system and provoke public controversy.

Kurt Schlichting, Ph.D., is the E. Gerald Corrigan ’63 chair in humanities and social sciences emeritus at Fairfield University. Kurt served as the dean and associate dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, and he is a member of Phi Beta Kappa. His academic research leads the field of historic geographical information system, HGIS, which he used to study the Irish in Newport. He has lectured for the Newport Museum of Irish History and presented at academic conferences in the United States and abroad. Kurt was a visiting fellow at the Moore Research Institute, National University Ireland, Galway.