In 1843, two years after Sister Catherine McAuley, RSM died, Mother Frances Warde, RSM established the first Mercy foundation in the United States in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. In 1861, she sent sisters to Philadelphia from the Manchester, New Hampshire foundation. The establishment of the Philadelphia (Merion) Sisters of Mercy began on August 22, 1861 when Mother Patricia Waldron, RSM, and nine other sisters arrived at Assumption B.V.M. Parish at Eleventh and Spring Garden Streets to staff the parish school. In a few days, the sisters were teaching not only in the parish school but also in the academy and night school for working girls which they opened in the convent. They visited the sick in homes and hospitals and inmates at Moyamensing Prison. They moved to St. Malachy Parish where they continued their work. In 1863, Mother Patricia rented a house at Broad Street and Columbia Avenue. Eventually, six more houses were bought to house the sisters, the Academy of the Sisters of Mercy, and St. Mary's Home for Working Girls. The academy was re-located to Gwynedd Valley in 1947 and is now Gwynedd-Mercy Academy. Mercy Technical School opened on Broad Street 1950. It was later relocated to 29th Street and Allegheny Avenues and as Mercy Vocational High School. In 1884 Mother Patricia bought a small house on Montgomery Avenue in Merion Station. The community's doctor insisted that the sisters have a country house where they could go to recover from illness and get much needed rest. A few days after they arrived at the country house, the sisters began teaching the neighborhood children. St. Isidore's Village School and Mater Misericordiae Academy, forerunner of Merion-Mercy Academy and Waldron-Mercy Academy, were quickly established. The Sisters of Mercy expanded to other parishes in the city. They gradually took responsibility for parish schools in the Merion area. They established schools of nursing and Gwynedd-Mercy College. They were pioneers in special education. Sisters of Mercy also established Miseracordia Hospital and what has come tio be known as the Mercy Health System. The Sisters established a health care plan that was so effective in caring for the poor, that it was eventually "bought out" and implemented by Independence Blue Cross of Philadelphia. Mother Patricia died at the Motherhouse in Merion Station, Pennsylvania.