334-834-5590 bwithers@fatherpurcell.org

History

Father Harold Purcell came to Montgomery, Alabama in 1934 and founded The City of St. Jude. A center for disabled children was one of Father Purcell’s final dreams for the St. Jude campus. He recognized the need for a quality, loving and long-term care institution that would serve the health and social well-being of children with severe physical disabilities. During his time, no other such program existed in Alabama, and even today there is only one other program. This lack of service prevented many disabled children and their families from receiving the medical care, support and attention they required.

Father Purcell did not live to complete this dream but his supporters and the community took it on and finished his work, opening the facility in 1958.