THERE is a somewhat forlorn sign on a rusty lamppost on Frankfort Street half a block north of Gold Street beneath a ramp connecting East River Drive and the Brooklyn Bridge, marking a small fenced-off green area with a couple of park benches. You can tell it’s been there a few decades because the sign is blue. Blue was formerly the color of Bronx street signs, but that ended in 1984 after which most NYC street signs turned to green; thereafter, blue became the color of honorific signs, but those too were converted to green a few years later.
Who is the Drumgoole on the sign? John C. Drumgoole (1816-1888) immigrated from County Longford, Ireland, in 1825 to join his mother in America after his father’s death, and took work as a shoemaker when he became of age. He became the sexton and janitor of St. Mary’s parish in Manhattan’s Lower east Side in 1844, the third oldest NYC parish, and took a special interest in the thousands of homeless and orphaned children wandering the streets after coming to America in the aftermath of Ireland’s potato famine of the 1840s, or were left parentless during the Civil War. He provided food and shelter to these destitute youth in the basement of St. Ann’s for 21 years. Many of those children worked as newsboys: I’ll get back to that later.
Drumgoole had always aspired to the Catholic priesthood and after attending St. John’s College in the Bronx, now Fordham University and the Seminary of Our Lady of Angels near Niagara Falls, he was ordained at age 53 in 1870. He continued to help homeless children in the succeeding years.
In those days tuberculosis and influenza ran rampant in the city’s poorer sections and it was thought that fresh air played a large part in recuperation and recovery. Thus, Fr. Drumgoole sought property well outside of town and in 1882 purchased the land in southwest Staten Island that is now known as the Mount Loretto orphanage.
Fr. Drumgoole was a great innovator in the field of childcare. The layout of the Mission was designed to provide plenty of light and air to each resident so as to avoid the spread of influenza and tuberculosis, which was common in the tenements of the day. Fr. Drumgoole felt that the general environment of the City at the time was a great threat to younger children, so he sought out a more rural setting. He looked to the Borough of Staten Island and found a farm for sale that must have reminded him of his earliest years in County Longford, Ireland. With the purchase of this and several adjacent lots, Fr. Drumgoole founded Mount Loretto, named as a tribute to the Sisters who accompanied him there to teach the children on a completely self-sufficient farm. [Mt. Loretto]
Why is Drumgoole Square, or Drumgoole Plaza if you go by the Parks sign on the fence, located here? It’s just south of the former Newspaper Row on Park Row. Newsboys were a main distribution method for newspapers printed in the 1800s and into the 20th Century.
New York City names are distributed over miles. In the south end of Staten Island, a major road was built in the 1940s and named for Mount Loretto’s founder; later, the main road became Richmond Parkway and later, Korean War Veterans Parkway, where the Drumgoole name is retained on the service roads.
That’s not all you’ll note in the photo! Look at the bus stop sign, which claims the stop is at Frankfort and William Streets. However, William Street isn’t here. Its north end is at Spruce Street. When 1 Pace Plaza was constructed in the late 1960s, William Street was cut back. The street used to extend north to Pearl, but was truncated over the decades by construction of the Brooklyn Bridge and Police Plaza.
Check out the ForgottenBook, take a look at the gift shop. As always, “comment…as you see fit.” I earn a small payment when you click on any ad on the site.
8/15/25