The Wellington County House of Industry and Refuge, located in Fergus, Ontario, is the oldest surviving state-supported poorhouse in Canada.

During the middle to late 19th century, Ontario's transition from a predominantly agricultural to an industrialized economy left many residents, particularly the elderly, in precarious financial positions.

[4] Over a thousand people were admitted to the institution during its first 30 years of operation,[1] predominantly older, working-class men who had previously been unskilled labourers.

[4] At the urging of the House's physician, Dr. Abraham Groves,[5][6] a hospital wing was added in 1893 to accommodate increasing numbers of elderly and infirm inmates.

[8] Inmates were also bound to strict rules: they were forbidden from leaving the property without permission from the keeper of the house,[4] and visitations were restricted to half a day, once per week.

[4] The House's goal of financing itself through agricultural production proved unsuccessful, as the inmates were largely elderly or in ill health; able-bodied young men were deemed unworthy of assistance.

[1] The House of Industry operated as a poorhouse for seventy years from its 1877 opening until 1947, when it was renamed and repurposed as the Wellington County Home for the Aged.

[7] This designation was based on the House's demonstration of 19th century attitudes towards the poor, its role in the genesis of Canada's social welfare system, and the preservation of the site's original buildings and landscape.

[3]: 207  A belfry adorns the central pavilion,[7] and the building's exterior is ornamented with an extensively bracketed cornice and segmental arches over the windows.

[10] During the site's use as a poorhouse, the centre pavilion housed a well appointed, two-storey keeper's residence while separate wings for male and female inmates, laid out in dormitory style with sparse furnishings, were located on each side of the building.

[3]: 209  The interior structure was preserved until the museum conversion, which involved the construction of a two-storey addition linking the main building to the hospital wing.