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This series contains records that document the history of the Community House mission at the corner site of Queens Avenue and Williams Street in London by the Congregation of the Sisters of St. Joseph of London, Ontario. Different groups of Sisters of St. Joseph lived together in a housing complex on a site that comprised two addresses, 534 Queens Avenue and 471 Williams Street. The records document the activities of individual Sisters assigned to a range of ministries and various community outreach projects that operated within the house. These activities were in the fields of education, health care, social services, and pastoral work. There are short essays, summaries, and visual records that document the seven iterations of the Community House at 534 Queens Avenue: Fontbonne Hall Home for Children, Madame Vanier Children’s Services, Internos, Withdrawal Management Service of the St. Joseph’s Detoxification Centre (also known as Detox Centre/Clinic), Women’s House (also known as Women’s Residence, Home for Women in Need, Home for Women in Transition, and the Women in Transition House), Streetscape, and My Sisters’ Place (also known as My Sister’s Place). There are records that document the ministries of the Sisters in their service of establishing and managing each of the seven community outreach projects undertaken at the Community House.

This series also contains the chronicles of Fontbonne Hall Home for Children, Madame Vanier Children’s Services, Internos, and the St. Joseph’s Detoxification Centre (Detox Centre), lists of Sisters stationed at the Community House, speeches authored by Sister Nancy Wales, correspondence regarding the administration of the various community projects, promotional pamphlets advertising the types of social services the Sisters offered at the Community House, and newspaper articles related to the official opening and closing events of the different social programs. There are invitation cards related to the farewell celebration of the Community House, artworks portraying the Community House and surrounding landscape, and an architectural blueprint plan of the property.

In addition, there are photo albums and loose photographs and negatives. These photographs depict the interior and exterior of the Community House. The photographs also depict the Sisters of St. Joseph interacting with staff members, professional colleagues, and guests who are participating in various activities and attending events at the Community House such as: celebrations, holidays, committee meetings, spiritual retreats, day trips, and regional outings.

This subseries contains a printed copy of a newspaper article “Detox Centre refuge for reforming alcoholics,” written by Pat Currie. The news article relates to the ministry of Sister St. Patrick Joyce (Monica Mary) of the Sisters of St. Joseph of London, Ontario. The news article documents the work of Sister St. Patrick Joyce in her role as the founder and director of St. Joseph’s Detoxification Centre. The Detoxification Centre was also commonly referred to as the Withdrawal Management Service and known simply as the Detox Centre or Clinic. The Detox Centre was in operation from 1979 until 2005, at 534 Queens Avenue in London, Ontario.

This subseries contains a written history of the first three operations of the Community House at 534 Queens Avenue in London, by the Congregation of the Sisters of St. Joseph of London, Ontario. This includes Fontbonne Hall Home for Children orphanage from 1951 to 1965, then Madame Vanier Children’s Services, a psychiatric residential treatment centre, from 1965 to 1972, and when it became a group home for teenagers named Internos from 1972 to 1979. The records in this subseries also document various business developments related to the management of the building and operations of the orphanage including the formation of a Fontbonne Hall Board of Directors in 1954, an Advisory Board, the Fontbonne Auxiliary, the Fontbonne Hall Orphanage Building Fund, and various Committees (Finance, Programme, Public Relations, Property and Maintenance, Nominating and Executive) to advise and assist in all issues in childcare. A new Board of Directors named the Catholic Charities of the Diocese of London formed in 1964, and the Fontbonne Hall Board of Directors and Advisory Board disbanded on June 20, 1965. In addition, this subseries contains photographs that depict a group of Sisters of St. Joseph on the front steps at Fontbonne Hall, Mother Julia Cecilia Moore and Madame Pauline Vanier at the opening of the Madame Vanier Children’s Services, the all-female Presidents of the Fontbonne Auxiliary, the chapel at Fontbonne Hall, and the front exterior of the Community House at 534 Queens Avenue in 1951.