The tie between St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Norfolk and Jackson-Feild Behavioral Health Services in Jarratt dates to one of the darkest periods in Virginia history.
It relates to the yellow fever epidemic that began in the summer of 1855 and killed one-third of the population of Norfolk and Portsmouth. While many children survived, their parents did not.
That prompted the rector of St. Paul’s to start a temporary home for children, the roots of what is today a residential mental health recovery and treatment center for youth. The 170-year-old connection between the two will be commemorated during a Sunday, Oct. 26 morning worship service at the church, which is the city’s oldest building, built in 1739…