In January, 1847, a committee of ladies met in a private parlor to prepare a petition to the Legislature of Pennsylvania for the Abolition of Capital Punishment and to make arrangements for calling a public meeting of women to encourage them to do the same. At the last meeting of the committee, one of the ladies mentioned a subject that had been resting upon her mind to which she desired to call their attention: the formation of a society to open a house for the reformation, employment, and instruction of women, who had led "immoral lives," similar to the Magdalen Society, which had been founded in 1800.

As the women organized the institution, the subject of what to call their society was brought up. An objection was made to the adoption of any name that might be considered a term of reproach to those who might come under their care. At one meeting, a sketch was read of the life and labors of Rosa Govona, who had founded several institutions in Italy for poor and unfortunate girls, where they were taught to labor, and qualified to earn a respectable living by the labor of their own hands. And so, the home was constituted as the "Rosine Association of Philadelphia," as it "commemorated an excellent and virtuous woman whose whole life was devoted to benefit the poor and unfortunate of her own sex."

The society's mission was "to secure from vice and degradation, a class of women who have forfeited their claim to the respect of the virtuous, to prepare and maintain for them an asylum, which, by its system of religious instruction, shall elevate their moral nature, to teach them how to gain an honest living 'by the work of their own hands,' and, eventually, to render them useful members of the community."

In furtherance of that mission, they leased a building on Germantown Avenue in October, 1847, for a period of five years, with the option to purchase the building outright after that time. In 1852, the Society succeeded in purchasing their Germantown Avenue, and the Rosine Institution received many women into their care who were living in less-than-desirable situations.

Some infant children were born at the Home or were brought there by there by there mothers — and some died. Many of those that died were buried on the grounds of the institution.

The Rosine Home Association remained in their Germantown Avenue home until 1920, when they sold the building to the Pennsylvania Tract and Missionary Society. It eventually became a notorious motel. It has since been demolished and replaced by affordable housing.

It not known if the burial ground was moved prior to construction.