Whether it’s every historic courthouse in the state, all the old schoolhouses in my area, or the full lineup of Indiana’s Long Line towers, I’ve always been drawn to big, sweeping projects. There’s something irresistible about trying to see the whole picture! It looks like old county infirmaries are up next.
Infirmaries. County homes. Poor farms. Almshouses. The names varied, but the reality didn’t: every county in Indiana had one; a place set aside for those who had nowhere else to turn. Beginning around 1840, commissioners realized they needed to provide for the indigent, the elderly, and people suffering from physical disabilities or mental health issues.
Many counties struggled to keep their poor farms afloat, and some began shutting their doors as early as the late 1930s and early 1940s. The arrival of Medicare and Medicaid ultimately sounded the death knell for most infirmaries, but a few managed to hang on far longer than expected. Remarkably, a handful of counties still operate their own today!
I always wondered about visiting all of Indiana’s county homes, but that idea came to a head Monday when a Facebook friend asked me if I had an exhaustive list of them. I didn’t, but said that, if he gave me a day or two, I could probably cook one up. I already knew the locations of maybe ten or twelve county homes offhand, but that turned out to be just thirteen percent of the whole picture! The rest had to be chased down the hard way, by leaning on social media groups, combing through old newspaper articles, and cross-referencing cemetery listings.
A handful of stubborn, rural outliers refused to give themselves up until I pulled out plat maps and started digging in earnest. That said, every lead -no matter how promising- had to pass one final test: confirmation through historic aerial imagery that traced each site from the late 1940s right up to today…