Almshouse

An almshouse (also known as a bede-house, poorhouse, or hospital)[1][2] is charitable housing provided to people in a particular community, especially during the Middle Ages.

They were often targeted at the poor of a locality, at those from certain forms of previous employment, or their widows, and at elderly people who could no longer pay rent, and are generally maintained by a charity or the trustees of a bequest.

[4] The first recorded almshouse was founded in York by King Athelstan; the oldest still in existence is the Hospital of St. Cross in Winchester, dating to about 1132.

Many of the medieval almshouses in England were established with the aim of benefiting the soul of the founder or their family, and they usually incorporated a chapel.

The Maryland legislature created almshouses in Anne Arundel County, financed by property taxes on landowners throughout the state.

In the United States, aid tended to be limited to the elderly and disabled, and children had to sleep in the same rooms as adults.

[11] Before the American Civil War, local officials regulated almshouses and did not ensure the people inside them were being cared for in the proper way or given the time they needed for help.

Patients were committed to the Newark State School by superintendents of the poor as well as judges who declared them insane or feeble-minded in court.

[12] Many of the patients of the New York Custodial Asylum for Feeble-Minded Women were falsely considered to be mentally ill. Mary Lake was the daughter of a young woman who had been sentenced to 10 years in a state prison.

Dix sought to remove children, the mentally ill, and the developmentally disabled from all almshouses and increase the number of institutions, hospitals, and asylums for them to reside in.

As her movement gained momentum, she played a vital role in the establishment and expansion of over 30 hospitals for the treatment of the mentally ill.[14] Her efforts removed specific groups from almshouses, leaving the elderly to remain.

[17] The Bakewell Almshouses in Derbyshire, England – dating from 1709 – were six separate homes, hence the six front doors visible today.

The most famous almshouse in literature is probably Hiram's Hospital, the centrepiece of Anthony Trollope's novel The Warden, which is also featured in the sequel Barchester Towers.