Johnson County Poor Farm and Asylum Historic District | |
Location | 4811 Melrose Ave, Iowa City, IA 52246 |
---|---|
Area | 110 acres (45 ha) |
NRHP reference No. | 14000668 [1] |
Added to NRHP | September 22, 2014 |
The Johnson County Poor Farm and Asylum Historic District is a nationally recognized historic district located in Iowa City, Iowa, United States. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2014. [1] At the time of its nomination it consisted of 11 resources, which included three contributing buildings, two contributing sites, four contributing structures and two non-contributing buildings. [2] It also includes the First Johnson County Asylum (c. 1861), which was individually listed on the National Register. The remaining buildings and structures are agricultural in nature, and were built from the late 19th century to the early 20th century.
The original facility to care for the poor and mentally ill was built in 1855 (no longer extant) and wings were added around 1861. The remaining wing of the first asylum building was moved to its present location in 1888 and used as a hog building after a new residential building had been completed two years prior. That later building is no longer extant and Chatham Oaks, a mental health facility, was built on that site in 1964. The second contributing site, apart from the location of the agricultural buildings, is where the cemetery for this facility is believed to be located. Archaeological studies of the area indicate that there may be hundreds of burials in that location. [2]
In the Spring of 2016, Johnson County was awarded a Certified Local Government grant to prepare an Adaptive Use and Rehabilitation Plan for the Johnson County Poor Farm and Asylum Historic District. [3] The Plan was presented to the Johnson County Board of Supervisors on June 14, 2017 and there was discussion of three "proposed future concepts". [4] The Board of Supervisors voiced support for the "Proposed Future Concept 3", named the "Name Century Farm" in planning documents, on June 23, 2017 in a 3-2 vote. [5]
Under the supervision of the Johnson County Board of Supervisors, Astig Planning and Iowa Valley RC&D guided the implementation of the 10-year Johnson County Historic Poor Farm and Asylum Master Plan. [6] Major upgrades to the site included soil health improvements, signage, the establishment of a 15.5 acre pollinator habitat, restoration of the 1916 "West Barn", restoration of the Asylum building, and the construction of a "Cultivation Station" - a building designed for use as an educational center.
In 2018, Johnson County launched the Land Access Program at the Historic Poor Farm. [7] This program
"provides 3-year land use agreements to area farmers with different farming experiences and scales. The use agreements include land, irrigation water, and storage. LAP tenants sell their produce at local farmers markets, grocery stores, and through Community Supported Agriculture (CSA)." - Official Johnson County Historic Poor Farm website. [8]
Johnson County has partnered with Grow: Johnson County [9] and IC Compassion's Global Food Project [10] to utilize land at the Historic Poor Farm for agricultural production, training and education.
Rappahannock County is a county located in the northern Piedmont region of the Commonwealth of Virginia, US, adjacent to Shenandoah National Park. As of the 2020 Census, the population was 7,348. Its county seat is Washington. The name "Rappahannock" comes from the Algonquian word lappihanne, meaning "river of quick, rising water" or "where the tide ebbs and flows." The county is included in the Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, DC-VA-MD-WV Metropolitan Statistical Area.
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The Insane Asylum at the County Poor Farm is a historic building located north of Andrew, Iowa, United States. It is one of over 217 limestone structures in Jackson County from the mid-19th century. Built in 1872, this 2½-story structure is composed of stone blocks that vary somewhat in shape and size, and they were laid in courses. Because of its late date compared with the other historic stone buildings in the county, it features segmental arches instead of lintels. By the time it was built limestone construction in the county had already reached its peak. Adam Strasser and Frank Schlecht were contractors from Bellevue, Iowa who were responsible for its construction, as was local stonemason John Weis. The other 19th-century buildings from the poor farm have been removed, and replaced by the county care facility across the highway. This building is now part of a demonstration farm. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1992.
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Farm No. 1, Iowa Men's Reformatory, also known as the West Farm, is located west of Anamosa, Iowa, United States. It was listed as a historic district on the National Register of Historic Places in 1992. At the time of its nomination the district consisted of 10 resources, including seven contributing buildings, and three non-contributing buildings. When the property for the reformatory was acquired by the State of Iowa in 1872 it included 61 acres (25 ha) of farmland. Farming at the facility did not become a significant enterprise here until the turn of the 20th century. Before then the prisoners maintained a vegetable garden within the walls, and they raised sixty-five hogs. The state bought 80.31 acres (32.50 ha) of land in 1904 for farming operations and built a hog house and a stone barn, both are no longer extant. Minimum security prisoners did the farm work. The historic buildings were built between 1912 and 1939. They are all stone structures built in a simplified Romanesque Revival style. The influence of the style is found in the "heavy massing, texture of the stone, and the window, door, and corner treatments." The buildings were built for the following uses: South barn, barn granary (1915), root cellar (1919), North barn, slaughter house (1921-1922), processing plant (1922), and the seed house, dining hall, cold frame (1939).
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The First Johnson County Asylum is a historic building located on the far west side of Iowa City, Iowa, United States. The first facility Johnson County built to care for paupers and the mentally ill was a four-room cabin in 1855. Two wings were added to the original building six years later. All that remains of this structure is this wing that housed the mentally ill. The single-story wood-frame structure with a gable roof was used by the county for this purpose until 1886 when a new facility was completed. It was initially thought that it was built in 1859, but later research revealed that it was built in 1861 and that it was moved a short distance to this location in 1888. This building served for many years as a hog building on the Johnson County Poor Farm. It is now part of an education-based farm program called Grow:Johnson County. The building was individually listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1978. In 2014 it was included as a contributing property in the Johnson County Poor Farm and Asylum Historic District.
The Josias L. and Elizabeth A. Minor Farmstead District is an agricultural historic district located northwest of Ely, Iowa, United States. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2000. At the time of its nomination it consisted of five resources, which included four contributing buildings and one non-contributing structure. The historic buildings include a 1+1⁄2-story, T-plan, half-timbered house (1856); gabled barn #1 ; gabled barn #2 ; and the summer kitchen (1850s). The corncrib is the historic structure. Family lore says that Josias Minor settled here in 1846, but an 1878 biography of him gives September 1855 as the settlement date, which is used here for dating the buildings.
The Hardin County Home Historic District, also known as Hardin County Poor Farm, Hardin County Farm, and the Hardin County Care Facility, is a nationally recognized historic district located northwest of Eldora, Iowa, United States. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2010. At the time of its nomination the district consisted of six resources, including three contributing buildings, one contributing site, and two non-contributing buildings. Beginning in the mid-19th century county homes were established across the state to take care of less fortunate residents. That care then extended to the end of the 20th century. The Hardin County Home operated at this location from 1877 to 1996. The historic district encompasses the buildings, farm fields, and cemetery associated with the home. The first burial in the cemetery, located on the southwest corner of the property, was in 1877. The graves are marked with simple stone markers. The last burial was in 2008. Farm fields surround the buildings and extend to the north.
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