The receipts for the establishment and maintenance of the home during the first fiscal year were $6,033.80.
The work of the home was conducted in the house at 340 South Front street until 1871, when, through the munificence of Rev. Stephen Smith and his wife, colored persons of considerable means, one acre of ground on the corner of Girard avenue and Belmont avenue was given the Board, together with a magnificent four-story brick building, valued at $40,000. The inmates of the home on Front street moved to West Philadelphia. This building was opened June 29, 1871, since which time it has stood there as an ornament to the city and an enduring and fitting monument to the memory of its noble donors, and with ever-widening influence, power and helpfulness, standing for and fulfilling all that is involved in the term "Home" for that worthy and deserving class of Aged and Infirm Colored Men and Women.
Mr. Edward T. Parker, of Philadelphia, who died October 3d, 1887, gave $85,000 to the institution for the purpose of erecting the annex to the old building. Additions have been made to the home in recent years at a cost of $85,000, thus making the entire plant cost upward of $150,000, with capacity for the maintenance of a family of near 200 persons, and giving us a home at once the most complete, extensive and far-reaching in its benefits of any institution of its kind in the city, and for the class whom it is designed to bless, possibly in the world. The total number cared for by the home has been: men, 116; women, 427; total, 543, while the present number in the home is 138; or the whole family, help and all, 160; the maintenance of which requires an expenditure monthly of from $1,500 to $1,600, or near $20,000 per annum. With the enlarged facilities come greatly increased demands and largely increased outlays.
The chief need now, therefore, is more means, that the Home may always be able to extend the hand of help to worthy applicants, and comfortably maintain this large and most interesting family of worthy aged and infirm colored persons, up to the full capacity of the building to accommodate.
This noble charity has been supported largely by members of the Society of Friends, they constituting the principal portion of the Board of Managers. Yet the colored people themselves have contributed to this institution between $175,000 and $200,000 since its establishment.