Jefferson County Home
| Jefferson County Home | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Construction Began | 1953 |
| Opened | 1954 (second location) |
| Closed | 1980 |
| Current Status | Preserved |
| Building Style | Single Building |
| Location | Madison, IN |
| Alternate Names |
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History
The first county-operated poor farm was built here in the 1830s. By 1858, the poor farm, which was on Ryker’s Ridge, was deemed inadequate. A new house was built on county-purchased land — “the house of the seven chimneys” — and in early 1859 the inmates and their possessions were moved via oxcarts from the Ryker’s Ridge infirmary, through Dugan Hollow, to the Hanover Hill Road. A report published in the Courier in 1892 of a state inspection of the farm said it was “found very clean, and in good condition as its awkward and inconvenient construction admits of.” A new bathhouse afforded the inmates the opportunity to take “a full bath once a week,” it noted approvingly.
In 1938 a visit to the poor farm by a local writer revealed that there was still no central heating. The seven chimneys were a necessity: Each dormitory, or living area, had its own fireplace. Each room was allowed a bucket of coal a day for heating; a second bucket was handed out when the weather was very cold. At the time of that visit, the only electricity in the building, other than in the superintendent’s office, was in one dormitory. Consequently, most of the inmates went to bed by 6 p.m., especially in the winter. In 1938 there were three staff members and 24 men and women housed there. About half the inmates had mental problems, according to the report; this caused frequent friction with the other inmates.
On Oct. 28, 1952, it was announced that the Indiana-Kentucky Electric Co. was going to build a huge electricity-producing plant in the bottoms just southwest of downtown Madison and along the Hanover Hill — and the poor farm property was part of what the electrical company wanted to purchase. The Jefferson County Commissioners and County Council debated the problem of what to do with the 23 inmates currently housed there — almost exactly the same number as in 1938, but only a third of the 1879 population. It was decided they would probably have to be “farmed out” to poor farms in neighboring counties until a new location could be found and a building erected.
On February 1953 they bought 260 acres of farmland from Clarence Dryden on S.R. 7, south of Dupont. The new house for the destitute was built in the shape of an “H,” with male inmates housed in one wing, female in the other, and communal areas of a dining hall and a chapel. All tools, implements, and livestock had been moved to the new location by Feb. 3, 1954, with the inmates transported there on Feb. 28. The new poor farm lasted only about 26 years. It was closed by order of the county commissioners in February 1980, due to the high cost of maintenance relative to the small number of residents.
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