Holy Family Institute at Brightside
The original Catholic orphanages were in the downtown Holyoke area. When the Sisters of Charity nuns arrived in 1873 from Ontario they were teachers and ran a tiny orphanage. The first one was in the Providence Hospital in South Hadley that had been used as a hospital for one year and then as an orphanage for a year. The orphanage was then moved to a house in Holyoke for about a year. Then it was moved into the top floor of the Providence Hospital for a year. Then into the second floor of the Saint Jerome Institute (on Hampden Street) for a few years. Finally, in 1880, into the Ingleside area at the Mount Saint Vincent Asylum.
Brightside was the name of a farm along the West Springfield and Holyoke border. That name Brightside was the name taken on by the orphanage for boys. Its formal name was Holy Family Institute at Brightside. Most people then and now call it Brightside. Brightside was owned by Warren Wilkinson. When he died in 1892 the bishop purchased the property and land (123 acres in all) in order to build an orphanage.
The boys orphanage stayed at this location until 1954 when they moved a quarter mile to the south into a newly built Brightside homes. From 1954 to 1991 it was called the Sisters of Providence Children’s Home and was for both boys and girls. Then the name was changed back in 1991 and then Brightside closed in 2009. Adjacent to Brightside housing was their school and administration. This is now the new Hillside Residence is a 34-unit affordable elderly housing facility and also the refurbished de Paul Center which was the school. The entire campus is called the Hillside at Providence.
LIST of boys at the Holy Family Institute School in 1911.
Between the motherhouse and Brightside is a new place called Mary’s Meadow (IMAGE) and it opened in 2005. It is a 40-bed, small house concept skilled nursing and rehabilitation facility.
