The Marcella Street Home was located on the site of the former almshouse of the City of Roxbury. In 1876-1877, additions and alterations were made for the accommodation of pauper boys and neglected male children. In 1881-1882, new buildings were completed to accommodate the pauper and neglected girls formerly housed at Deer Island. Children were sentenced by municipal and district courts under Chapter 283 of the Laws of 1866. They were also admitted by permit of the Directors of Public Institutions. The home closed on 22 November 1898 when all the children left in the home could be placed at once with families.
When the Marcella-street Home opened in April 1877, it was placed under the control of the Board of Directors of Public Institutions along with the Homes for the Poor at Rainsford Island and Austin Farm as well as all the other public institutions. In 1889, a Board of Commissioners of Public Institutions replaced the Board of Directors of Public Institutions. Hence, authority for the Marcella-street Home also passed to the Board of Commissioners. In 1895, the Board of Commissioners was abolished and a single Institutions Commissioner put in its place. The Institutions Commissioner oversaw all the public institutions including the Marcella-street Home. In 1897, control for all the public institutions was divided amongst individual departments, one for each type of institution. One of these new departments was the Children’s Institutions Department. The Children’s Institutions Department maintained control of the Marcella-street Home from this point until its closing in November of 1898.
The records for the Marcella-street Home consist of only one volume. This volume is a register of those children who entered the Marcella-street Home from its opening in April 1877 through its closing in November 1898. The Marcella-street Home housed only boys from the time of its opening until 1881 when girls were transferred there from the Almshouse at Deer Island. Entries for girls begin to appear in the register in October 1881.
The register recorded a substantial amount of information for each child. This includes: register number, date of birth, place of birth, date of admission, date of discharge, father’s name and place of birth, mother’s name and place of birth, residence when admitted, religion, sentence, to whom the child was discharged, as well as any general remarks. It was often noted if one or both parents were dead. There is also a physical description of each child including eye color, hair color, weight, height, general condition (i.e. presence of scars, disabilities, other markings) and height/weight at time of discharge. The physical descriptions begin to appear intermittently in 1885, however regular use of these columns does not start until June of 1889.