{"nrhp_refnum":"82003357","name":"Essex County Home and Farm","other_names":["Whallonsburg County Home and Infirmary"],"category":"building","location":{"address":"SW of Whallonsburg on NY 22","address_restricted":false,"city":"Whallonsburg","county":"Essex County","state":"NY","lat":44.25632663250005,"lon":-73.40994280377228,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1982-09-23","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Architecture","Social History"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A complex of seven institutional and farm buildings plus a cemetery site, located about .8 mile south of Whallonsburg in the town of Essex, Essex County, New York. It served as the county poorhouse, with brick buildings dating from 1860 to 1899.","why_significant":"The nomination argues the complex is a well-preserved, representative example of nineteenth-century rural almshouses in New York State, few of which remain. Its brick buildings, farm structures, lands and cemetery show how local governments cared for the indigent for more than a century. It is also significant for its role in the history of social welfare.","narrative":"Set on about twenty-four acres just south of Whallonsburg, this former Essex County poorhouse and farm is a cluster of brick institutional buildings with supporting farm structures and a cemetery site. The county established its poorhouse in 1832 on a 45-acre farm. The oldest surviving building, a two-story brick home built by Dowling and Prescott of Keeseville, was finished in 1860, and an east wing followed in 1874. A milk house and kitchen were added in 1873, and an infirmary was completed in 1899. The farm supplied hay, grain, vegetables, dairy products, candles and soap for an average of about 100 residents, and it turned a profit for the county until the 1950s. Over time the home sheltered orphans, paupers, the elderly, the physically handicapped and the insane. The county sold the barns and much of the land in 1959, and the home closed in 1980. Its consistent scale, materials and workmanship make it a rare surviving example of a New York county almshouse.","period_of_significance":"1800-1899","architect_builder":"Dowling and Prescott of Keeseville, NY","architectural_style":null,"criteria":[],"status_note":"County use ended in 1980 when patient care moved to Elizabethtown; the form lists the property as unoccupied and vacant and says the complex remains substantially intact.","vacant_flag":true,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:50:42.699885-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_NY/82003357.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/82003357/1ab657ec7c-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/82003357/1ab657ec7c-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 3.0","author":"Bryan Nelson Elder","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Essex_County_Home_and_Farm.JPG\" rel=\"noopener\">Bryan Nelson Elder</a>, <a href=\"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0\" rel=\"license noopener\">CC BY-SA 3.0</a>, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Essex_County_Home_and_Farm.JPG"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/75317769","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Essex_County_Home_and_Farm","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q5399698"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/new-york/essex-county/essex-county-home-and-farm-82003357/"}