A House of Refuge for juvenile offenders was established in the Second Municipality of the city by ordinance #1104, dated April 29, 1845. Eight citizens chosen annually by the Council were to serve as its Board of Commissioners along with the Mayor, Recorder, and members of the Council's Committee on the Workhouse and Prison. The Board was to care for and educate the inmates as well as to find suitable work with which to occupy them.

Following consolidation of the city in 1852, this institution became the House of Refuge for the entire city by ordinance #33, dated May 17, 1852. Ordinance #1015 (July 16, 1853) enlarged the citizen representation on the Board to thirteen individuals to be named annually by the Council. They served along with the Mayor. A separate Girls' House of Refuge, governed by the same Board, dated back at least to February 23, 1854, when ordinance #1340 authorized the purchase of a building for such purposes. Ordinance #104 (May 24, 1870) organized the new Department of Police that had been established by the City Charter of 1870. The two Houses of Refuge were placed under the control of the Administrator of Police. The Girls' House of Refuge was abolished by ordinance #2207 (July 1, 1873) and its inmates were transferred to the House of Good Shepherd.

A Board of Commissioners of Prisons and Asylums was created by ordinance #7426 (1881) and given supervisory power over all prisons and asylums, including the House of Refuge. Management remained under the control of the Administrator of Police, but the Prisons and Asylums Board succeeded in securing the establishment of the Board of Commissioners of the Boys' House of Refuge. This was accomplished through ordinance #2272 (May 10, 1887). The new Board was to be composed of seven citizens appointed by the Mayor to four year terms of office.

Following a reorganization and strengthening of the Board of Commissioners of Prisons and Asylums (ordinance #13489, dated July 6, 1897) the name of the institution was changed to the Boys' Reformatory School. In 1902 the Board of Commissioners of the Reformatory resigned, and it was determined that the institution properly belonged under the control of the Department of Police and Public Buildings as provided for in the 1895 city charter.

In 1903, with passage of ordinance #2173, the city turned over care of its delinquent children to the Louisiana Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children. City money was appropriated to assist in paying the expenses of the institution and the Board of Commissioners of Prisons and Asylums continued its supervisory functions. Actual management of the delinquent children, however, passed out of the hands of city government.