The Sisters of Charity of Saint John was founded in 1854 in response to the demographic impact of the Great Famine upon the port city of Saint John.

The small community occupied a temporary house on Cliff Street in Saint John, until the building of their permanent complex on that street in 1865. This housed the resident Mother General, the professed sisters, the novitiate (novices), the postulants, the orphanage, an elementary school and, by 1892, a high school.

The Cliff Street Motherhouse with its many other functions was the busiest house in the community, modeled somewhat on the physical characteristics of what the founders recalled about the Sisters of Charity Motherhouse in New York.