Though the building was designed to provide light and air to each resident so as to avoid the spread of influenza and tuberculosis, which was common in the tenements, Drumgoole came to feel that the general environment of the City at the time was not healthy for the younger children, so he sought out a more rural setting. In 1882, he purchased land on Staten Island and founded the Mission of the Immaculate Virgin at Mount Loretto, which he named as a tribute to the Sisters who accompanied him there to teach the children.