Location: Baltimore, MD

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Almshouse. Engraved by S. Smith. Printed by J. Cone. Baltimore, ca. 1824 Engraving, hand colored. . Maryland Historical Society	MS 194 – Dr. Stedman R. Tilghman Scrapbook; “Inmate of the Baltimore Almhouse,” ca. 1845, Page 68. . Maryland Historical Society
Baltimore Almshouse. Maryland State Archives

Additional Information

• Dates: 1776/09/18
  Notes: Almshouse at Baltimore burnt down, but rebuilt and west wing afterwards added (September 18).
  Source: Cordell, Eugene Fauntleroy, Medical Annals of Maryland 1799-1899 Baltimore: The Medical and Chirurgical Faculty for the State of Maryland: 659
• Dates: 1789/09/11
  Notes: Drs. S.S. Coale, Andrew Wiesenthal, George Buchanan, Reuben Guilder, James Wynkoop, Edward Johnson, George Brown and Miles Littlejohn appointed physicians to Almshouse (September 11).
  Source: Cordell, Eugene Fauntleroy, Medical Annals of Maryland 1799-1899 Baltimore: The Medical and Chirurgical Faculty for the State of Maryland: 664
• Dates: 1792
  Notes: Almshouse grounds increased by the purchase of ten additional acres at a cost of £167 (used as a cemetery when Howard Street was extended in 1802).
  Source: Cordell, Eugene Fauntleroy, Medical Annals of Maryland 1799-1899 Baltimore: The Medical and Chirurgical Faculty for the State of Maryland: 666
• Dates: 1801/05/01
  Notes: Dr. James Smith, of Baltimore, vaccinates with virus procured from the physician of St. Pancras Hospital, London, by Mr. John Taylor, and sent by him to his brother, William Taylor, of Baltimore, who gives the supply to his family physician, Dr. Miles Littlejohn, and he, to have it tested, gives it to Dr. Smith, who makes successful trial of it at Almshouse (May 1), first on the person of a child name Nancy Malcolm, and later upon others (Dr. Smith publihsed the history of these cases in the Baltimore Telegram, December 5 and 8, 1801, and also in the Vaccine Inquirier, 1822.
  Source: Cordell, Eugene Fauntleroy, Medical Annals of Maryland 1799-1899 Baltimore: The Medical and Chirurgical Faculty for the State of Maryland: 673
• Dates: 1836
  Notes: “The sum of $13,794 83, arising from sales of old Alms House property, referred to in the last annual report, the trustees regret to state, has not been available as they were led to expect. Suit has been instituted for the recovery of same, and the trustees entertain a hope of being in receipt of the money some time during the ensuing year; which sum, when received, as before stated, will be applicable, according to law, to the erection of necessary buildings for the more effectual securing and keeping to labor a certain description of paupers.” See: Report of the Trustees for the Poor of Baltimore City and County, 1836, p. 38.
• Dates: 1840
  Notes: In addition to the productive employment specified in document (C), the following useful alterations and additions have been made, mostly by pauper labor.
  1st. An addition to the spinning room, making it large and commodious, and providing a room under it large enough to accommodate an engine and fire apparatus.
  2d. The improvement of the house, formerly occupied as a coal house — the upper rooms are now occupied by the colored men as a hospital — the room heretofore a deposite for coal, is now converted into a convenient work room, occupied by weavers, tailors and shoemakers.
  3d. The alterations of the basement story occupied by the colored men as sleeping rooms, viz.: by digging areas 63 feet on each side, walling up and paving the same, also providing two large cells; by this improvement this department is made light, dry and comfortable: the white and colored male insane are now kept separate from each other.
  4th. The alterations to the rooms, “called the Children’s Department;” by this improvement the children are not only benefitted by a removal from the immoral influence of vicious adults; but they have a school room, two sleeping rooms, and a room for eating, &c.
  5th. Providing ten rooms in the Female Wing, one occupied as the lying in hospital, the other for the reception of syphilitic patients — by this alteration the above named hospitals have been removed from the centre building.
  6th. Preparing and erecting 550 feet in length by 8 feet high of board fence, tonged and grooved, in the rear of the main buildings and attached to them: by this improvement, yards are provided for the accomodations of the insane and children.
  7th. Preparing and erecting 1150 feet in length by 5 feet in height of paling fence, inclosing all the plats in the rear of the Institution. Many other valuable improvements have been made in addition to the above, but a detailed statement of them appear unnecessary.
  It will therefore be seen that the Alms-House, under its present organization, is considerably improved, which it is believed greatly promotes the value of the establishment.
  See: Report of the Trustees for the Poor of Baltimore City and County, 1840, pp. 99-100.
• Dates: 1841/01/01
  Notes: “It is my wish to induce you to devise or co-operate in measures to provide all our pauper lunatics with suitable accomodations in the Maryland Hospital. The idea of asking the State to direct that Institution — which has been erected at a cost of not less than $175,000, of which sum the State Treasury has supplied from fifty to sixty thousand dollars — to be wholly devoted to her Insane Poor, is suggested under the conviction that the present embarrassed condition of the State Treasury will forbid the large expenditure which must become necessary under any other immediate suitable disposition of them.It is only in an Institution exclusively devoted to the management of insane individuals, that the friends and physican of the invalid can be encouraged to hope for success, — for there alone can the patients be judiciously CLASSIFIED, and an opportunity be afforded of so modifying the moral and physical treatment, as to render it appopriate to each case, and best calculated to afford relief.” See: Report of the Lunatic Department of the Baltimore Alms-House…., 1841, letter of the attending physician, Alexander C. Robinson.
• Dates: 1843
  Notes: Since our last annual report, the water works, then in progress of erection, have been completed, and the entire establishment, including the stables and barn yard, are now abundantly supplied with pure spring water of the very best quality. The labor expended upon this improvement has been performed by the inmates of the institution, excepting that of one hand to superintend the laying of the iron pipes, and of a plumber to fix up the leaden pipe, &c. The water is conducted from two springs, through leaden pipes a distance of fourteen hundred and twenty-five feet to a reservoir in the mill, thence it is forced by a pump driven by the mill power, through cast-iron pipes to another reservoir in the garret of the centre building, which is at an elevation of one hundred and eighteen feet above the reservoir in the mill; — from the garret it is conducted through cast-iron pipes to every building of the establishment, embracing a length of eighteen hundred and twelve and a half feet, and then conveyed through leaden pipes to every room in the institution, and to all the newly erected water closets; making the whole length of leaden pipe laid, two thousand and thirty-nine feet.There are two hydrants in the back yard, and thee at the stables and barn yard; besides which, there are four fire plugs at different points around the principle buildings and two near the mill and barn. The works are so arranged, that by turning a stop cock at the mouth of the main pipe leading into the reservoir in the garret, and attaching a hose with a nozzle to any one of the fire plugs, and starting the mill, we have at once in operation a powerful fire engine, with a constant supply of water.The sanguine anticipations of the board, as expressed in their last annual report, of the beneficial results to be derived from the erection of the mill, the water works, and the water closets, have been more than realized by experience. The mill as proved to be capable of doing much more work than is necessary for the demands of the institution, besides driving the pump, which will force up four thousand gallons per hour. Since the water has been carried to the water closets, the atmosphere of the hospitals have been rendered as pure as it is possible to make it in a hospital in any establishment; as all offensive matter of every description, that unavoidably accumulates in hospitals, is at once emptied into the water closets, and a jet of water turned upon it, which instantly carries it off beyond the outer walls into a receptable prepared to receive it; from whence it is regularly removed to the fields.There ahs also been built during the present year, a new coal house, capable of holding three hundred tons of coal; two new stone lodges for the gate-keepers, at the eastern and western gateways, and a Mac-Adamized pavement made through the enclosure from the eastern to the western gate, with brick pavement side walks.The baker has been rebuilt upon an improved plan, besides sundry repairs and improvements to the old buildings.

  It is found impossible in wet spells of weather to dry a sufficient quantity of clothing and bedding for the inmates of the institution. To remedy this inconvenience the overseer has commenced the building of an addition to the wash-house; the lower story of which, to be used as a work shop, and the upper story as a place for drying clothes in wet weather by heat; which improvement will be erected at a trifling expense, and will doubtless overcome this inconvenience.”
  See: Report of the Trustees for the Poor of Baltimore City and County, 1843, pp. 121-122.

• Dates: 1843
  Notes: Agreeing most hearily with the recommendation of the late Grand Jury of Baltimore county, in relation to the establishing of the Alms House of a Library of useful and entertaining books for the benefit of a class of individuals in the house, who having once been in circumstances in which they enjoyed all the comforts and even luxuries of the world, feel the vast difference which the mutations of life have brought upon them; and who now need all the comforts and enjoyments possible under their changed condition. The trustees have called the attention of the community to the matter by a publication in all the newspapers of the city; and now again mention the subject, trusting that in addition to what has already been received, much more may be added, until the plan be fully consumated.
  See: Report of the Trustees for the Poor of Baltimore City and County, 1843, pp. 123.
• Dates: 1843
  Notes: It is found to be impossible to carry into effect the law in relation to vagrants, for the want of a suitable building for that purpose. There is a vast difference between the character of vagrants, and that of the virtuous poor; and not only the law, but humanity and sound policy require, that there treatment should differ as widely as their characters. We want a “Work House,” with a wall around it to prevent escapes, into which vagrants could be put and kept at work till they serve out the term of their commitment.For want of such a house, the vagrants under commitment are mingled indiscriminately among the poor, unavoidably receive the same treatment, and elope at their pleasure — thus putting the law at defiance.To such an extent is the practice of elopng carried (and it is impossible now to prevent it) that it is by no means a novel case for vagrants to be recommitted a third and fourth time before the expiration of their first sentence, and they invariably return in an extremely debauched condition — have to spend from one to two weeks in the hospital under medical treatment; and when reported for duty, have to receive at least a new pair of shoes, and in a great majority of cases, other new clothing before they can be set to work.It is believed that the hack hire (one dollar each) and the new clothing they elope with (for when they runaway, the always sell the clothing they can dispense with) would pay the interest on a sum sufficient to erect a suitable building for their receiption; besides, the chances for their reformation would be increased four-fold, by confining them at wholesome labor for two or three months; and this is not a minor consideration in favor of such a buildings; for even now, with the impossibility of preventing working hands from eloping, we could point with pleasure to cases of the most abandoned inebriates, being perfectly reformed in the Alms House; and who are now respectable and useful members of society.See: Report of the Trustees for the Poor of Baltimore City and County, 1843, pp. 122.
• Dates: 1844
  Notes: [During the past year], the mode of conveying paypers to the Alms House was altered, and it is believed with great benefit to the institution. All vagrants committed by magistrates and many infirmed paupers, has cost the city $1 for each conveyance, and the trustees believing that in many instances gross impositions had been practiced, resolved, with the consent of the Mayor, to send a carriage twice daily to the police office for the transportation of these classes of individuals, and by reference to the annexed tables, it will be seen, that not only has the expenses been saved, but that the number of admissions, each month since September, has been less than in the corresponding periods of last year, a result attributed entirely to the adoption of this measure.
  See: Report of the Trustees for the Poor of Baltimore City and County, 1844, pp. 176-177.
• Dates: 1844
  Notes: Since the last annual report, several valuable improvements have been made upon the premises, among which may be mentioned a large basin for the fountain in front of the main building; a sewer 250 feet in length; a straw barrack adjoining the mill 90 feet long and 40 wide, capable of containing from 60 to 70 tons of straw; a piggery 53 feet in length and 16 in width, to which is attached a yard, 40 feet square, well paved, and all built of stone; connected with this piggery, a house 30 feet by 12 has been erected to receive the slops which are constantly accumulating, and which by the aid of a steam boiler, may be converted into a valuable food for the hogs.There has also been erected on the foundation of an old building, stabling sufficient for 24 cows and 12 horses, which is also of stone, and measures 157 feet long and 19 wide, and having an upper story to contain about 20 tons of hay, so that the stacking will be unnecessary as well as exposure to inclement weather — a large proportion of this work has been done by paupers.
  See: Report of the Trustees for the Poor of Baltimore City and County, 1844, p. 177.
• Dates: 1844
  Notes: The situation of the lunatic poor, also requires consideration; there is no part of the institution which can be adapted to render them even comfortable, and although every kindness and care, which the situation admits of has been extended to them, yet under the circumstances, a cure is utterly hopeless; it is, therefore, earestly recommended that an application be made to the Legislature for the passage of a law, providing for the maintenance of all the lunatic poor of the state in some institution specially designed for the reception of this class of unfortunate persons, and that, the expense be charged to the cities or counties to which they may respectively belong.
  See: Report of the Trustees for the Poor of Baltimore City and County, 1844,, p. 178.
• Dates: 1849
  Notes: Cholera at Almshouse; 669 inmates, 155 cases, 86 deaths, but as soon as its source, a foul sewer, was discovered and removed, the disease ceased. Thos. H. Buckler and H. W. Baxley, physicians.
  Source: Quinan, John Russell, Medical Annals of Baltimore from 1608 to 1880, including Events, Men and Literature to which is added a Subject Index and Record of Public Services Baltimore: Press of Isaac Friedenwald: 39
• Dates: 1849
  Notes: Cholera at Baltimore Almshouse (July 11). Of 669 inmages, 155 are attacked and 86 die. One-half of the male inmates are attacked while only 4 per cent of the females suffer. As soon as its source, a foul sewer, is discovered and removed, the epidemic ceases (Buckler). Only four cases in the city, the measures suggested by Dr. Buckler and enforced by the city saving it. There are also 83 cases of typhus fever at the Almshouse and 39 deaths.
  Source: Cordell, Eugene Fauntleroy, Medical Annals of Maryland 1799-1899 Baltimore: The Medical and Chirurgical Faculty for the State of Maryland: 701
• Dates: 1850
  Notes: During the year, six hundred pannels of new post and rail, and one hundred and ninety-two pannels of pailing fencing were put up on the road margin of the farm, and but a small portion more will be required to render the whole fencing new and substantial. There were also twenty-seven hundred bushels of lime and a large quantity of compost and other manure spread upon the farm, which have greatly contributed to enrich the soil. These items being greater than usual, have augmented the expenses of 1850.
  Source: Baltimore. Trustees for the Poor., Report of the Trustees for the Poor of Baltimore City and County. In Ordinances of ther Mayor and City Council … 1851 Baltimore: Printed by James Lucas: 53
• Dates: 1850
  Notes: The hazard to which the inmates of the institution are subjected, from various causes, from infectious diseases, induced the trustees during the last summer, to erect outside of the wall which encloses the buildings of the institution, an infectious hospital, capable of containing forty patients. This building is sufficiently distant from the other departments to render the inmates of the latter secure against contagion from the former source, and said hospital is already occupied by typhus or ship fever cases.
  Source: Baltimore. Trustees for the Poor., Report of the Trustees for the Poor of Baltimore City and County. In Ordinances of ther Mayor and City Council … 1851 Baltimore: Printed by James Lucas: 54
• Dates: 1850
  Notes: During the year, about four hundred perches of gray stone were quarried, and are in readiness for the construction of a male insane hospital, or such other building as the more immediate wants of the institution may require. The stone was quarried for the purpose of erecting a building for the insane male imates of the institution, but the threatened approach of the cholera, and also of the smallpox, in the summer of 1850, induced the trustees to abandon, for the time being, the erection of such building, and to appropriate the Calverton funds, then in hand and in anticipation, to the construction of the infectious hospital before referred to. There are at present to the credit of the Calverton improvement fund, about sixteen hundred dollars; but this not being deemed sufficient to justify the trustees to contract for the erection of a building for the insane, of dimensions commensurate with the increase of that class of inmates which must continue to grow out of the increasing population of the city, and being unwilling to burthen the county of Baltimore with one half of the residue which might be required for such purpose, without the consent of the county trustees, they have declined to embark, under the circumstances, in the further prosecution of the original design.The insane males are but poorly accomodated, and every consideration of humanity appeals in behalf of that afflicted class. The city trustees, being a majority in the board, would not have hesitated at any period within the past four years, to incur the responsibility of putting up on the premises a building in every manner suitable for the accommodation of the insane, and under the authority vested in them by the legislature, to lay the city under the obligation to pay one half the expense thereof; but the trustees on the part of the county have resisted such a measure as unjust to the latter because its citizens would be burthened with the other half of the cost of the same, while the number of inmates of the institution from the county were less than one-sixth of the number from the city. From the latter consideration, the city trustees have hesitated to perform an act calculated to disturb the harmony which has characterized the deliberations of the board. This brings the trustees to the discussion of a subject, which is not a new one in Baltimore county, which must sooner or later be forced upon your notice, and therefore cannot at too early a date be the subject of your consideration. That subject is the dissolution of the partnership of the city and county in their joint ownership of certain property.
  Source: Baltimore. Trustees for the Poor., Report of the Trustees for the Poor of Baltimore City and County. In Ordinances of ther Mayor and City Council … 1851 Baltimore: Printed by James Lucas: 54-55
• Dates: 1850
  Notes: Sixteen hundred and ten persons were admitted into the alms house during the year, of which number but three hundred and thirty-six were natives of Baltimore city and county. One hundred were natives of the balance of the Western Shore, and one hundred and seven were born on the Eastern Shore of the State. The facilities for reaching Baltimore from the surrounding country, continue to make the alms house institution the receptacle of many that should be supported by the public charities of the counties. There is not it is believed, any alms house in Alleghany county, and the afflicted who had been employed on the works of improvement in that county, as well as others who should find an asylum there, are daily despatched or find their way to our city, to become the recipients of Baltimore city and county benevolence. In most of the states north of Maryland each county or township has to pay the expense of supporting its poor. Such a system in Maryland would materially lessen the expenses of the alms house of Baltimore city and county.
  Source: Baltimore. Trustees for the Poor., Report of the Trustees for the Poor of Baltimore City and County. In Ordinances of ther Mayor and City Council … 1851 Baltimore: Printed by James Lucas: 57
• Dates: 1851/03/13
  Notes: Dr. Thos. H. Buckler publishes not only a clear narrative of the facts connected with the visitation of cholera at the Almshouse, but makes an able showing of what science, guided by common sense, can do to suppress the disease. His book is one of the most eloquent sermons on sanitation extant.
  Source: Quinan, John Russell, Medical Annals of Baltimore from 1608 to 1880, including Events, Men and Literature to which is added a Subject Index and Record of Public Services Baltimore: Press of Isaac Friedenwald: 39
• Dates: 1856
  Notes: The Board would most respectfully ask your early attention to the propriety as well as necessity, of having workshops erected within the enclosure, so as to enable them to confine such vagrants as may be committed to the institution, and compel them to labor, in order that they may, by their earnings, be made to bear at least a portion of the expense of their support. It is the opinion of the Board that if they had workshops and places of punishment erected, by which vagrants could be compelled to labor, their number would in a short time be greatly reduced, as they would naturally seek more congenial quarters, where the earning of their bread by the sweat of their brow did not enter into the policy of the establishment.
  Source: Baltimore City Trustees for the Poor., Report of the Trustees for the Poor. In Ordinances of the Mayor and City Council of Baltimore… Baltimore: Printed by George W. Bowen & Co.: 181-182
• Dates: 1856
  Notes: The Board most earnestly call your serious attention to the condition of the apartments allotted to the insane imates of the institution. These, from the very nature of the buildings, have always been defective, incompetent, and ill-suited to their safe and comfortable accommodation. While the security of such unfortunate creatures — while the the restraining them from doing injury to others in their moments of paroxisms — should be looked to with much sedulous care, their accommodations should be of a nature to allow of such medical and other treatment as would justify the hope of restoring them to reason, which have been found so salutary elsewhere. All that can be done for the insane with us, by able and humane physicians, has been done to alleviate their suffering; but the defects in the buildings themselves, the want of proper accommodations, preclude the application of that enlarged system of treatment, and the exertion of those curative means, which, under more favorable appliances of better adapted establishments have proved so beneficial.
  Source: Baltimore City Trustees for the Poor., Report of the Trustees for the Poor. In Ordinances of the Mayor and City Council of Baltimore… Baltimore: Printed by George W. Bowen & Co.: 182
• Dates: 1861/02/14
  Notes: Notice, Sun (Baltimore), Feb. 14, 1861

Bibliography