Hope Haven

Hope Haven began as the vision of Father Peter Wynhoven, a Dutch-born priest serving in the Archdiocese of New Orleans. In 1911, Wynhoven founded St. Vincent’s Hotel to provide shelter and support for jobless and homeless men. The project’s success led him to focus on what he believed was the deeper issue: the lack of stability and opportunity for orphaned and abandoned boys. In 1916, he established Hope Haven as an industrial cooperative farm, what he fondly called his “school farm.” What started as an ambitious dream quickly gained broad community support and soon became a reality. The farm functioned as a home, a school, and a place for practical, hands-on training for boys who had aged out of traditional orphanage care.

Local enthusiasm for the mission was strong. Throughout its early years, the Times-Picayune chronicled a steady stream of benefits and fundraisers through movies, dances, vaudeville shows, parades, even automobile and air shows, all held to support Hope Haven and the boys who lived there. Once the seed money was secured, Wynhoven found a “stretch of overgrown wilderness” just outside of New Orleans in nearby Marrero, Louisiana. He summoned a number of dairy farmers and craftsmen from Holland to offer their expertise. By 1921, nearly 250-acres had been cleared for cultivation of crops, as well as for the raising of pigs, sheep, and dairy cows. A handful of humble, utilitarian buildings went up to house its young farmers. In 1924, when the Catholic Orphan Asylums in New Orleans announced plans to close all of their sites, Wynhoven knew his mission would grow and a proper school was in the works.

Established in 1925 as a residential youth facility to provide vocational training and moral guidance for boys, Hope Haven included a self-sustaining dairy farm. The centerpiece of the campus, the three-story Mrs. John Dibert Administration Building, was dedicated by Archbishop John W. Shaw in April 1927. The first two floors used as a school and the third floor housed the Franciscan brothers teaching there. It was accompanied by a similar designed two-story cottage, one of several eventually built to foster a family feeling among the boys living in them, and an ornate roadside fountain. Both still stand today.

The Saenger Gymnasium was added in 1930, and a year later, the Murnan Agricultural Unit and the Marcus Feingold Mechanical and Arts Building, where 12 trades were taught, were completed. The complex of chapels, dormitories, and classrooms were built in a Baroque version of the then-fashionable Spanish Colonial Revival style with Churrigueresque ornaments surrounding the major entries.

On the east side of Barataria Boulevard, Madonna Manor was established in 1932 for boys and girls under the age of 12 including students from the Chinchuba Institute for the Deaf. Madonna Manor was built to the highest standards of construction and in the same architectural style as the other buildings. The grand building included dorms, an infirmary, a swimming pool, dining and recreation halls, and more. It was overseen by the Sisters of Notre Dame.

Hope Haven was owned and operated by the Archdiocese of New Orleans and staffed by nuns, priests, and volunteers from the Catholic church and is the largest ensemble of Spanish Colonial Revival buildings in Louisiana. Next door to Madonna Manor is the Churrigueresque-styled St. John Bosco Chapel, which was built in 1940 and dedicated in 1941. The exterior was designed by Jack Kessels to match the Spanish look of the other buildings on campus, but much of the interior woodwork, including the pews and confessional, were crafted by Hope Haven boys in their own shop. The stained glass windows depict the life of Saint John Bosco and were created by Dutch craftsman Joep Nicholas, who fled to New Orleans to escape the Nazis. Many of the children were sent to live at the orphanage by court order as wards of the state. Some children were placed there because their parents were unable to raise them for reasons including mental and emotional instability.

Behind its beautiful facade, Hope Haven holds a much darker past. In the early 2000s, the institution was tarnished by revelations of abuse. Beginning in the spring of 2005, adults who lived at Hope Haven and Madonna Manor in the 1950s and 1960s began to surface with accounts of mistreatment and sexual abuse at the hands of staff members. Collectively, the lawsuits described a harsh psychological and physical environment in which disobidient children as young as 4 were sometimes told they were worthless and unloved. They alleged the environment included harsh beatings at the hands of nuns, including one who favored a collapsible military shovel. Some plaintiffs said they were sexually humiliated or abused by priests, nuns, or staff members at the two Marrero institutions.

In 2009, the Archdiocese of New Orleans announced it was settling 20 lawsuits for $5 million filed against it by an unknown number of adults who alleged they had been beaten, berated, and sexually molested in the 1950s and 1960s at Hope Haven and Madonna Manor. At the time of the settlement, none of the priests were named. In 2018, The Archdiocese of New Orleans released a list of 57 accused priests and deacons who served in its jurisdiction. Eight Roman Catholic priests who were members of the Salesians of Don Bosco order who were assigned to Hope Haven were on the list as being credibly accused of sexually abusing children. The Archdiocese learned of the allegations against the eight between 2006 and 2011. Six of the accused are now deceased.

The residential portion of Hope Haven closed in the 1980s, but the institution continued offering services for at-risk youth and housing other ministries well into the 21st century. The last ministry left in 2014, and although the chapel received a $1.6 million restoration, much of the Hope Haven campus was eventually vacated and has fallen largely into disrepair. In 2017, with the support of an array of elected individuals, Jefferson Parish entered into a 99-year lease agreement with the Archdiocese of New Orleans that cleared the way for the parish to occupy and preserve the site for a $1 a year.

In 2020, crews finished $1.2 million of work on the roughly 30,000-square-foot Feingold Center building by gutting it down to the studs, removing asbestos, and securing the windows. The next project is the $2.4 million Dibert Administration Building expected to begin in July 2021. The administration building will get the same treatment as the Feingold Center building. Also planned is the parish-funded $1.3 million walking trail, which will include an adult exercise area, a playground, restrooms, and a 30-vehicle parking lot. The work is expected to be complete by early 2022. Later phases, which have yet to be funded, could see an extention of the walking path around the property and conversion of area to the rear of the property into an outdoor event venue for concerts or weddings.

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