Holy Cross Children's Services, founded as Boysville of Michigan, Inc,. was officially dedicated on October 24, 1948 by His Eminence Edward Cardinal Mooney with assistance from the Bishops from Grand Rapids, Lansing, Marquette and Saginaw. The program began as a boarding school for Catholic boys with a serious home problem and was a joint project of Michigan’s five dioceses. The need to help these wayward youth was close to the heart of Cardinal Mooney and the other bishops. Boysville was constructed on land sold to the Archdiocese of Detroit by Henry Ford near the site of the first Ford mill outside of Saline, Michigan.