A Project of the Jewish Genealogical Society of Illinois
The Marks Nathan Chicago Jewish Orphans Home
Marks Nathan Jewish Orphan Home operated from (1906-1948)
Marks Nathan Home opened on May 13, 1906 with 29 children on North Woods Street.
They soon realized that they would need a larger facility to meet the need of the community. They moved to a 300 bed facility at 1550 South Albany in the Lawndale community. This facility (shown below) opened on November 17, 1912 with 186 children.
The home had a number of residents who would later become famous including Elmer Gertz, Barney Ross, and Jerome Holtzman.
Our database contains records of children living at the facility in 1920, 1930, and 1940 extracted from the United States census. It may be mssing individuals who stayed a short time and were not residents in these years.
The home closed in 1948.
The Marks Nathan Chicago Home for Jewish Orphans
The former Marks Nathan Home was established by Chicago's Eastern European Jewish Community in the early 1900s.
Started by businessman Marks Nathan, who left $15,000 in his will to create for either an orthodox hospital or orphanage, the home opened on May 13, 1906, with 29 childen admitted, according to a 2006 report, "Orthodoxy as a Means of Becoming Good Jewish Americans: Two Jewish Orphanages in Chicago."
In 1912, the home relocated to a larger location at 1550 South Albany Ave., opening with 189 children. For more than 40 years it served as as "a refuge for Jewish children whom life had handed a lousy deal," according to a Tribune report on a 1992 reunion of former residents.