Center City, Philadelphia’s business and cultural center, is also a vibrant residential community. According to the Center City District’s 2024 report, Center City has 280,000 jobs and more than 200,000 residents. The Pennsylvania Convention Center received more than 860,000 visitors in 2023. There were 2.94 million overnight hotel stays in Center City in 2023. Center City is a hub for higher education and medical care. It is also a mecca for arts and culture with world class museums and musical and theatre programs. For example, in 2023, 53,000 people attended the Nutcracker ballet.
But Center City also attracts poor, addicted and homeless people because many services are here and because public transportation routes end and begin in Center City. These poor brothers and sisters are also at home in Center City and they are as much a part of our neighborhood horizon as the Liberty Bell, the Art Museum or the Academy of the Arts.
Let’s go back to 1963. Center City was even then everything that it is today, Philadelphia’s core for employment, medical care, culture and education. And even then, homeless, addicted and poor people came to Center City seeking sustenance.
Saint John Church has a long history of helping the poor. During the 1930s in the time of the Great Depression, Saint John’s pastor, Monsignor Francis Wastl, began the Saint John’s Bread Line which gave sandwiches to as many as 700 people each day. By 1963, long after the end of the Great Depression, the Bread Line was still giving sandwiches to 350-400 people per day. People lined up along Ludlow Street to get a sandwich at the rectory door.
In 1963, Saint John’s pastor, Monsignor Anthony O’Neill, decided to begin a more organized and comprehensive program to feed and house Center City’s homeless and destitute people. On September 7, 1963, Cardinal Krol dedicated Saint John’s Hospice at 1221 Race Street and placed it under the care of a congregation of religious brothers the Little Brothers of the Good Shepherd.
By 1964, Saint John’s Hospice was serving nearly 30,000 hot meals (no longer just sandwiches) each month and providing overnight housing to about 50 people each night.
Saint John’s Hospice was founded by the pastor of Saint John’s Church. It was Saint John Church’s organized outreach to the poor of Center City. Today, Saint John’s Hospice is part of Catholic Social Services, but we should not forget its origin in Saint John Church.
In 2024, Saint John’s Hospice is still helping poor people in the name of Christ and under the moniker of Saint John’s. Today there is overnight housing for 30 people and longer term housing for 40 more (70 people each night). In addition, there is housing for 12 medically fragile homeless men, mostly with HIV infections. And about 350 people still enjoy a hot meal each day. Saint John’s also provides other day services—case management, mail, showers, clothing.
We are proud of Saint John’s Hospice, spawned by Saint John Church. Saint John’s Church still supports Saint John’s Hospice through our Poor Box and we encourage our parishioners and friends to donate to this outstanding work of charity.
