According to an original history of Nebraska from the 1900s, inmates at the poor farm were "limited in their accommodations to ill furnished rooms in an old and dilapidated shanty, where they were huddled together in a manner devoid of comfort.
A boom in real estate in the vicinity led commissioners to the idea of platting the east fifty acres of the poor farm and selling the lots to raise the necessary funds for the new county hospital.
The commissioners adopted a resolution stating, "the proceeds arising from the sale of said lots shall be appropriated to the erection of a suitable building for the care and protection of the county poor and insane."
Shoddy workmanship led to a large portion of this building falling apart within months of opening, and forcing the county to rebuild it at a significant cost.
[3] In another trial that went to the Supreme Court of Nebraska, the City of Omaha and Douglas County were forced to issue bonds to pay claims against the sale of the land.
A bill was sent to the state legislature, but was defeated by a Representative Miskovsky of Omaha, told critics of the institution, "conditions there... were not so bad, in fact, the Douglas County poor farm... was just as good as any in the middle west, if not better.