Our History

As a priest in Buffalo, NY, Msgr. Thomas J. Walsh had founded a social services agency to provide assistance to the needy of that city. When he was assigned as Bishop of Trenton, he was interested in establishing a similar organization in Trenton. That opportunity came in 1920 with the dissolution after World War I of the National Recreation Service, which had been created as a diversion for the armed forces.  

At the end of the war when the service was dissolved, the residual funds were divided equally among the Jewish, Protestant, and Catholic faiths. Bishop Walsh received a grant from the National Catholic War Council, which was responsible for the portion awarded to the Catholic Church.  With that money, he purchased a beautiful, Italianate structure on North Clinton Avenue to serve as headquarters for Mount Carmel Guild of Trenton.

Within three months of its founding, the membership of the Guild had risen to 600 people organized into as many as 26 departments, each serving the community in a different way. Services included visiting patients in hospitals, sponsoring various lecture series, visiting inmates in prisons, collaborating with the USO, providing legal assistance, and contributing to both secular and religious education.

From the beginning, the vision of Mount Carmel Guild has been “the cure of poverty – head, heart, and spirit.” Since that time, the Guild has served poor and needy people of Mercer County, holding true to its original mission, and, as the current logo depicts, continues to provide “a helping hand” to ailing seniors and impoverished individuals and families.

In 1941, the Guild began operating its visiting nurse services. Originally staffed by four Sisters of the Congregation of the Holy Infant of Jesus, the program is continued today by registered nurses who visit the elderly, allowing them to age with grace and dignity in their own homes.

Today the Guild continues to operate its two core programs: Home Health Nursing (aiding older individuals) and the Community Support Program (providing emergency food, limited emergency prescription assistance and utility assistance to prevent homelessness). Our current mission statement reads: Through relationships and collaborations forged with dignity and hope, the Guild assists the community to overcome challenges to decent health, nutrition, housing, and education.

(Photo used with permission and is courtesy of the Trentonianna Collection, Trenton Free Public Library.)