"From the History of Berks County by Morton Montgomery, 1909: HOUSE OF GOOD SHEPHERD, first established at Fourth and Pine streets, Reading, in.1889, by the Roman Catholic Church, for the care of young girls; and transferred to Glenside in Bern township, where a superior structure was erected, in 1900, on a commanding site along the river opposite North Reading. Inmates in 1909 were 180 girls; 47 Magdalens, and 20 Sisters." It has always been my understanding that the House of the Good Shepherd was a home for unwed pregnant women, who were considered "fallen women" in the 19th and early 20th centuries. The 47 "Magdalens" (named for Mary Magdalen of the New Testament, who was widely believed to have been a "fallen woman") were girls/women who came to the house while pregnant, delivered their babies (which were given up for adoption), and stayed on in a servile capacity. In that era, many women who became pregnant out of wedlock and who did not succeed in getting the fathers of their babies to marry them, were banished from their homes by strict Catholic (or otherwise religious) fathers/parents. They were often considered unemployable and became destitute outcasts of society. Girls/women in such a position (those who had nowhere else to go) remained at the House of the Good Shepherd after the births and adoptions of their babies and worked for the sisters as servants.