Historic Buildings

The Historic Building Complex can be found on the north side of the farm and contains the following historic structures: the Livestock Barn, the Dairy Barn, the Historic Asylum, and the Granary. The Complex was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2014, and is visually delineated by the newly-built Healing Trail path.

The Historic Building Complex is currently the primary access point for the Historic Poor Farm from Melrose Avenue. Despite its name, it does contain non-historic structures including two corn cribs located near the Dairy Barn, the recently-constructed double-stall bathroom, and the machine shed currently being used by local organizations for food production purposes.

Scroll down to learn more about each historic building and its importance to the site.

Livestock Barn

The monitor-roofed Livestock Barn, built in 1902, originally housed beef cattle, mules, and draft horses. This barn supported the farm's dairy operation as a feeding area with an in-ground brick cistern inside.

The barn has received various additions through the years, one of which being in 1916 after an older section of the barn had burned down. Inscribed in the concrete is “H. ELLIS 1916, Sep 24.” Homer Ellis was the superintendent of the Poor Farm in 1916, and the date was likely when the side sheds were added onto the center gabled section.

In recent years, the barn has undergone restoration to allow it to be used as an event space. This restoration has been sensitive to the barn’s history, leaving original structures intact such as the horse stalls which remain on the southern end of the barn. The barn also has a concrete patio to its south and a gravel patio to its east that have picnic tables and provide gathering space outside. The addition of the commercial kitchen will allow space to stage catered food for events. The retaining wall/gravel patio area to the east provides a space for a food truck vendors to set up as well.

Dairy Barn

The gambrel-roofed Dairy Barn was likely built around 1912. This style of roof has no posts or beams, creating a spacious interior ideal for hay storage. A track under the roof’s spine allowed for the use of a rolling hay carrier.

This barn's centrality to the previous dairy operation onsite is visible in the seventeen extant milking stanchions on the first floor. It was the role of certain residents to operate the automatic milking machines on the farm's 32 Holstein

cows to provide milk for residents and for sale. A cream separator and pasteurizer processed about 30 gallons of milk per day for these uses.

Adjacent to the Dairy Barn is the concrete silo, which was used to ferment plants and field crops to then feed to dairy cattle in the winter months. The silo is likely original to the barn’s construction in 1912; the two structures were once connected, as there is an entry door to the barn across from the silo.

Historic Asylum

The Historic Asylum is the oldest extant building on the property, as it was built circa 1855. The north wing of the building was added in 1861; this addition is visible in the pattern of the floorboards, as the direction of the floorboards is perpendicular to that of the original building. The building saw another, southern addition in the 1860s.

This building housed people until 1886 (those who were referred to as "insane") until a different building was constructed to house the

Insane and Pauper departments. Research has further shown that the building was moved in 1888 to its current location. After the Asylum building no longer housed people, it was used as a hog house for about twenty years; its altered use is likely why it evaded demolition.

The Historic Asylum building was individually put on the Register of National Historic Places in 1978, long before the entirety of the Historic Building Complex. Today, the Historic Asylum building is the centerpiece of interpretive tours of the property. Within some of the cells, there are writings etched into the wooden boards. These etchings and writings certainly warrant further study and documentation, and have been preserved through plexiglass coverings, as initiated by the farm's Disability Advisory Committee.

Granary

The Granary was likely built in the late 19th century and was used to store corn and grain. Within the building, there are two doors set high on the north wall; both doors would have been used for loading and unloading the granary. The door on the south wall would have been used for human access to the interior. The image of the Granary shown here was taken after its external rehabilitation, before which it was painted white.