Last updated: August 23, 2023
Place
Queen of Heaven Orphanage Summer Camp
Photograph by Edna Fiore, courtesy of the Colorado State Historic Preservation Office
Quick Facts
Location:
20189 Cabrini Blvd., Golden, Colorado
Significance:
Architecture, Social History
Designation:
Listed in the National Register - Reference number 99001666
MANAGED BY:
The Queen of Heaven Orphanage Summer Camp in Golden, Colorado was listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 2000. The camp is significant as an important component of early to mid-20th century institutional care of children in the Denver area.
The first Italian immigrants arrived in Colorado in the 1870s, seeking new economic opportunities. Facing discrimination, undereducation, and a language barrier, many of these immigrants could only find work in dangerous industries, like mining and railroad construction. Industrial accidents and disease took a drastic toll on the adult Italian American population, leaving many children in need of a home.
In 1904, Mother Frances Xavier Cabrini established the Queen of Heaven Orphanage in North Denver to serve these families. During a visit to other Italian American families in the state's mining districts, she discovered the property that would later become the summer camp. She purchased the property with donations of pennies, nickles, and dimes from schoolchildren and adults across the state. Sisters from the Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart of Jesus worked together with orphans under their care to build the camp's main building.
Beyond providing orphans with a summertime retreat to nature, the camp also operated as a small farm. In exchange for milk from the camp's cows, the young campers and their caretakers were treated to a steady supply of ice cream.
The camp was an integral part of the orphanage's program for decades. As the demographics of North Denver shifted, so did the populations that were served by the orphanage and the summer camp, including a number of Cuban children in the wake of the Cuban Revolution of the 1950s. The Denver orphanage and the camp closed in the late 1960s.
The first Italian immigrants arrived in Colorado in the 1870s, seeking new economic opportunities. Facing discrimination, undereducation, and a language barrier, many of these immigrants could only find work in dangerous industries, like mining and railroad construction. Industrial accidents and disease took a drastic toll on the adult Italian American population, leaving many children in need of a home.
In 1904, Mother Frances Xavier Cabrini established the Queen of Heaven Orphanage in North Denver to serve these families. During a visit to other Italian American families in the state's mining districts, she discovered the property that would later become the summer camp. She purchased the property with donations of pennies, nickles, and dimes from schoolchildren and adults across the state. Sisters from the Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart of Jesus worked together with orphans under their care to build the camp's main building.
Beyond providing orphans with a summertime retreat to nature, the camp also operated as a small farm. In exchange for milk from the camp's cows, the young campers and their caretakers were treated to a steady supply of ice cream.
The camp was an integral part of the orphanage's program for decades. As the demographics of North Denver shifted, so did the populations that were served by the orphanage and the summer camp, including a number of Cuban children in the wake of the Cuban Revolution of the 1950s. The Denver orphanage and the camp closed in the late 1960s.