The West Peoria landscape certainly changed in 1914 when then-Bishop Edmund Dunne built Guardian Angel Home on a 28-acre piece of property owned by the Catholic Diocese of Peoria. Dedicated on Thanksgiving Day of that year, Guardian Angel Home began a mission that has served diverse populations over these last 96 years.
Guardian Angel Home was originally opened as an orphanage for nearly 100 homeless children. As typical of those times, the boys and girls at Guardian Angel rarely interacted—sleeping in separate rooms, eating their meals in separate dining rooms, and even playing at different times.
The years of the Great Depression and World War II showed a gradually diminishing need for long-term residential care for children. Therefore, the Heading Avenue Franciscans continued to operate Guardian Angel Home, but for smaller numbers of children. Over the years, special annual diocesan collections had funded the addition of other buildings on the West Peoria campus, including a school, a convent for the sisters, living quarters for the resident priest, as well as a swimming pool adjacent to the main building.
Catholic Charities has always had a special concern for the plight of refugee peoples, beginning with Hungarian families in 1956 and Cubans in the 1960s. Refugee work became a major effort beginning in 1975 with the end of the war in Vietnam and the consequent flood of people heading to the United States. Responding to those needs, Catholic Charities established the Tha Huong residential program to care for many Southeast Asian children who came to the Untied States, unaccompanied by their parents. Tha Huong, which means “home away from home” in Vietnamese, welcomed over 800 children during the twelve years of the program’s existence. Throughout these years, Guardian Angel Home added many new traditions as they celebrated such events as the Chinese New Year with the residents, an event that included a parade with a paper dragon that the children spent days making.
Today, Guardian Angel Home—whose mission changed with the times— serves as a residential treatment center, serving each year nearly 18 emotionally troubled boys ranging in age from 5 to 18. While at Guardian Angel Home, the boys are provided counseling, education, recreational activities, medial care, and spiritual enrichment to help each of the young men regain his enthusiasm for life and open up his potential. The boys often enjoy playing a game of basketball together on the campus basketball court or riding bikes through the West Peoria campus.
As has been its practice during its long history, Catholic Charities continues to make plans to update its programs and to restore sections of the 96-year-old building, including the recently restored chapel. As history has proven, Guardian Angel will undoubtedly adapt in the future, as it has in the past, to continue to serve as a harbor of hope for those in need at the time—whether it be young children, those from another country, or those who need assistance to improve their lives.
Anyone interested in learning more about the history of Catholic Charities as well as current services offered by the agency is cordially invited to join the agency for a one-hour tour during the months of March through October. Please visit the agency’s website at
www.ccdop.org or contact the Communications Department at 636-8000 for a list of tour dates and times.
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