they
purchased four lots of ground in the village of Greenwich, on a
healthful, elevated site, possessing a fine prospect. The corner-stone
was laid on the 7th of July, 1807. They erected a building fifty feet
square; from time to time they proceeded to finish the interior of the
building, and to purchase additional ground as their funds would
permit; and such was the liberality of the legislature and of the
public, that the society soon possessed a handsome building and nearly
an acre of ground, all of which must have cost them little short of
twenty-five thousand dollars. In that house Mrs. Graham and Mrs.
Hoffman spent much of their time; there they trained for eternity the
children of those whose widowed dying mothers they had cheered with
the hope that when they should be taken away, God would fulfil his
gracious promise and preserve their fatherless children alive.

Mrs. Hoffman survived Mrs. Graham seven years. Her end, like that
of her friend, was peace. But though God removed those mothers in
Israel, their prayers are still before him, and the institution
continues to prosper. In 1836, the city having extended to where the
asylum was situated, and the property at the same time increased in
value, the society became desirous to remove where the children would
enjoy purer air, and have greater convenience for a garden and pasture
for cows. With the advice of their patrons, they sold the property for
about thirty-nine thousand dollars; purchased nearly ten acres of
ground at Bloomingdale, and on the 9th of June the same year laid the
foundation-stone of their present beautiful building.

In the Thirty-fourth Annual Report of the society for 1840, we
find the following record of God's goodness:

"On no former occasion has the board of direction been privileged
to make to the friends and patrons of this institution a more
favorable report than the present. The orphan's home is completed, and
the beautiful building on the banks of the Hudson is alike an ornament
to the city and a memorial of the liberality of its inhabitants.
Within it are found, not only ample accommodations for a numerous
family, but a place for the Lord, a habitation for the orphans' God.
On the 19th of November last the chapel was opened for religious
worship; the services were performed by reverend clergy of different
denominations; and a highly respectable and apparently gratified
audience attended. All the children, one hund