I’ve started to notice a pattern here: I keep showing up just in time. Not at the height of things, and not long after they’re gone, but in that narrow window when a place is still standing, still recognizable, and just beginning to slip away. Indiana’s old county homes seem especially prone to that timing, and that’s exactly how I found the old DeKalb County Home.
Before DeKalb County ever built an infirmary, I’ve read that it tried something much different: in the 1850s, residents could take in their down-on-their-luck neighbors and receive payment from their township for doing so. Some earned as much as $231! That system didn’t last forever, though: in 18652, the county changed course by purchasing 160 acres from Moses Gonser and establishing its first official infirmary3. Eventually, officials acquired another 160 acres across what’s now County Road 404, just north of the Auburn-Avilla Road.
By 1905, it was clear the county’s home for its thirty-five indigent residents was no longer fit for purpose. In truth, it probably hadn’t been for some time. Some residents were reportedly locked in at night, and occasionally during the day5! Inside, the floors were rotting beneath their feet, and the rest of the structure fared no better. One local journalist didn’t mince words, calling the facility “an abominable fire trap6.”
Still, it took several years for change to come. In 1907, Fort Wayne architects Griffith & Fitch were hired to design a $30,000 replacement infirmary7. Completed in 1908, the building featured sixty rooms spread out across a northern wing for women and a southern wing for men. A superintendent’s office and apartment sat between the two, with a kitchen and dining room to the rear of the structure8.
In 1921, brick and stone from the previous DeKalb County Jail were used to build an enormous new barn across the road from the home9. Like many “poor houses,” DeKalb County’s was a working farm! As a matter of fact, its residents canned 7,000 quarts of fruits and vegetables in 192010.
Unfortunately, things changed. County infirmaries didn’t disappear overnight, but they were gradually superseded. Social Security reduced the need for them, Medicare and Medicaid made them financially obsolete, and private nursing homes stepped in to take their place. Still, the DeKalb County Home -by then known as Sunny Meadows- remained in operation for more than a hundred years11.
By 2025, though, the writing was on the wall. A committee assembled to study the infirmary’s future ultimately recommended relocating its seventeen remaining residents to other facilities. Their reasoning painted a bleak picture: deteriorating living conditions, a building in decline, chronic staffing struggles, mounting insurance challenges, and an operational model that simply no longer worked12.
Unfortunately, no one stepped forward to repurpose the building. Last fall, officials sought demolition bids ranging from $140,000 to $300,000 but they were rejected. Instead, commissioners opened the floor to public input. Many spoke passionately against tearing the structure down, but others raised concerns about the building’s poor condition.
Even so, with only minimal asbestos and lead paint reported, the old DeKalb County Home may still have a future yet13. Test results showed asbestos at levels below one percent, the same quantity of lead paint14. Citizens have shared their opinions and demolition is on hold for now.
Today, the building stands as a quiet contradiction. It was born from good intentions but shaped by harder realities. Whether it’s revived or eventually slips into memory, the story of the DeKalb County Home is already etched into the landscape. For me, though, my visit became something more than just another stop on the map. As it turned out, the trip up north was the last time my stepdad Jerry and I spent a lot of time together. I didn’t know it then. You never do. Looking back, though, that trip means more than anything I could’ve written about the place itself. I took all my photos from the window of Jerry’s truck, and I’ll carry that journey with me…