(Source: Geo Davis via Rosslyn Redux)
Frequently we share a different historic image on the Essex on Lake Champlain Facebook page and invite our viewers to play some Vintage Essex Trivia.
What do you recognize in this photo? Where is this? What has changed? When do you think this photo was taken?
Given the car style I am guessing that this was taken in the early 1900s. The house looks much the same, although that gas pump is no longer there. From the fuel truck on the right, I’m guessing a fuel delivery may be occurring at the time of the photo-taking.
Here’s what the community had to say:
Jolene Hopkins: Old county home? 1920’s or 30’s?
She is exactly right! I drive by this building often on my way through Whallonsburg, but I never actually knew it used to be a former county house until recently. Here’s some information I was able to find online:
Essex County Home and Farm, also known as Whallonsburg County Home and Infirmary, is a historic almshouse and infirmary located at Whallonsburg in Essex County, New York. The property include seven contributing buildings and one contributing site. The core of the complex is a homogeneous cluster of four brick buildings on fieldstone foundations. The largest is the Home Building, a 2-story dormitory originally constructed in 1860. Located nearby are a milk house and dining / kitchen building. The 2 1⁄2-story infirmary building was built in 1899. Farm buildings include an equipment shed / garage, dairy barn, and hog-chicken house. Also on the property is the institution’s cemetery site. The home and infirmary ceased operation in 1980. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1982. —Wikipedia
I also found an old report from an 1857 investigation of what I believe to be the state of the county house at that time. It’s interesting to see the old-fashioned description of the “poorhouse” and its inhabitants. Read the report for yourself here.
Below is the backside of the postcard, although it does not tell us much as there is no date and it was never mailed.
Share Your Essex Artifacts
If you want to share your old photos of Essex (also brochures, postcards, menus, tickets, artifacts, etc.) on the blog please email us at editor [AT] essexonlakechamplain [DOT] com.
From the time I was little, my mother used to tell me this was known as the “Poor House” for those not well off. Sometimes people could be seen sitting on the porch, people who appeared to be old or ill. She said she asked her parents about who lived in that house but was not given a satisfactory answer. Unfortunately at that time, people who lived there were deemed “not worth knowing”. I believe by the time she was old enough to try for herself, it had closed. I have always wondered what it looked like inside and why no one has ever turned it into something else, even a private house.
Eve