Refuge from want? Virginia's almshouses, 1870--1930

The rural county poorhouse as it appeared in a southern setting focuses this study analyzing the institution's role during a period of enormous change in poor policy administration. Almshouses, commonly called poorhouses, existed in almost every county and city in Virginia by 1870. Despite their ubiquitous presence and remarkable longevity, these facilities have remained relatively invisible in the historical landscape. Progressive Era reformers seeking their demise effectively used a pejorative rhetoric that pictured filthy, wretched places inhabited by the "dregs of humanity." An unsavory reputation associated with large urban institutions served to further cloud their role in sparsely populated country communities. In order to determine what, if any, useful purpose the poorhouse served, this study examines the institution and how it functioned in six Virginia localities representing the five geographical regions of the state: Alexandria, Caroline County, Highland County, Mecklenburg County, Rockbridge County, and Shenandoah County. Census data, county records, and annual reports to the General Auditor from the Overseers of the Poor, among other sources provide a look inside the facility, what was actually a poor farm, to determine its relative value to the community it served. In the late nineteenth century, almshouses functioned variously as hospitals, homeless shelters, and long-term care facilities for the aged and feeble-minded. In addition they provided temporary haven and relief for families and single mothers, both widowed and unwed. Essentially a paternalistic institution run by the superintendent and his wife, these farms, meant to be self-sufficient, developed their own sense of community. In the complicated southern racial picture, these rural poorhouses uniquely created a space open to both blacks and whites. Progressive reformers in the early twentieth century sought to close the poorhouses in favor of consolidated institutions for the aged as well as new state institutions for the epileptic, feeble-minded, and tubercular. Counties persuaded by their arguments, closed their almshouses beginning in 1926. However, these state measures served to harden racial lines with strict segregation, denied the feeble-minded basic rights, and left many poor in rural counties to shift for themselves.