An almshouse is charitable housing that is provided to enable people to live in a particular community.
An almshouse is charitable housing provided to people in a particular community. They are often targeted at the poor of a locality, at those from certain forms of previous employment, or their widows, and at elderly people who can no longer pay rent, and are generally maintained by a charity or the trustees of a bequest. Almshouses were originally formed as extensions of the church system and were later adapted by local officials and authorities.
Specific places named Almshouse include:
In the United States (by state then city):
- Greene County Almshouse, Carrolton, Illinois, listed on the NRHP in Illinois
- Carroll County Almshouse and Farm, Westminster, Maryland, listed on the NRHP in Maryland
- Almshouse (Cambridge, Massachusetts), listed on the NRHP in Massachusetts
- Rockland Almshouse, Rockland, Massachusetts, listed on the NRHP in Massachusetts
- Almshouse (Stoneham, Massachusetts), listed on the NRHP in Massachusetts
- Poughkeepsie Almshouse and City Infirmary, Poughkeepsie, New York, listed on the NRHP in New York
- Bedford County Alms House, Pennsylvania
- Almshouse Farm at Machipongo, Machipongo, Virginia, listed on the NRHP in Virginia
- The Almshouse (Richmond, Virginia), listed on the NRHP in Virginia
The Greene County Almshouse is a historic poorhouse located in Greene County, Illinois, along a township road northeast of the city of Carrollton. The almshouse was built in 1870 in accordance with an 1839 state law which provided for each county to establish its own almshouse or poor farm for welfare recipients. Prior to passage of the law, public welfare in Illinois had taken the form of "outdoor relief", in which the poor worked on farms in exchange for basic support. Under Illinois' county almshouse system, the poor were intended to receive shelter and necessities in the houses, often in exchange for farm labor on the property. By 1903, all but two of Illinois' counties had established an almshouse or poor farm.
Carroll County Almshouse and Farm, also known as the Carroll County Farm Museum, is a historic farm complex located at Westminster, Carroll County, Maryland. It consists of a complex of 15 buildings including the main house and dependencies. The 30-room brick main house was originally designed and constructed for use as the county almshouse. It is a long, three-story, rectangular structure, nine bays wide at the first- and second-floor levels of both front and rear façades. It features a simple frame cupola sheltering a farm bell. A separate two-story brick building with 14 rooms houses the original summer kitchen, wash room, and baking room, and may have once housed farm and domestic help. Also on the property is a brick, one-story dairy with a pyramidal roof dominated by a pointed finial of exaggerated height with Victorian Gothic "icing" decorating the eaves; a large frame and dressed stone bank barn; and a blacksmith's shop, spring house, smokehouse, ice house, and numerous other sheds and dependencies all used as a part of the working farm museum activities. The original Carroll County Almshouse was founded in 1852 and the Farm Museum was established in 1965.
The Almshouse is an historic almshouse located at 45 Matignon Road in Cambridge, Massachusetts. It is now the site of the International School of Boston's main campus. It was built in 1850, and is a prominent example of institutional residential architecture in stone, resembling prisons of the era. The building was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1982, where it is incorrectly listed at 41 Orchard Street.
