Poorhouses

There are 62 counties in NYS. At one time, most of them had poorhouses. Here you will find current photos of what remains of each county’s important social institution as well as its corresponding cemetery.

It was the summer of 2013 that Tina said she wanted to check out Chenango County’s poorhouse cemetery. We stumbled over a stone wall and were confronted with a jungle of trees, shrubs, golden rod, rose bushes, grape vines and blackberry briers. It was hard to believe there was a cemetery here. It took us five years to clear that cemetery so we could start to mow it. We discovered there were nearly 250 burials there.

During this time, we did a little research to discover more about the poorhouse system and its inception and history. In 1824 NYS passed a law that provided for the establishment of county poorhouses which would house the destitute or anyone unable to take care of their basic needs. In time, nearly every county had a poorhouse, a poor farm to help support it and a cemetery to bury those that died there. Through taxes, towns within the county would pay for those that they sent to the county poorhouse.

We wondered what remained of the other county poorhouses and their cemeteries in NYS. In 2019 we set out in earnest to find out what remained. For three years our travels focused on this goal. We have visited the remains in 57 of the state’s 62 counties, excluding the New York City and Long Island areas. What follows is what we found.