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This is not your grandfather’s Poor Farm. What once was the Barton County Poor Farm is now a well-cared for building on the Faith Community Church campus just west of Great Bend.
The church’s sanctuary and family center are housed in the metal building there on the left.
That building looks much larger than the Lyon County Poor Farm building, as I remember it.
What do they use the building for? Sunday School classes?
Love to see old buildings put to good use. Hate to see them unused and falling down – such a waste.
Suzanne
What is a Poor Farm?
A county residence facility for indigents, particularly the elderly before Social Security. In this part of the country most were literally farms. Residence, if able help produce food and crops, etc.
Where was our Poor Farm building? I would love to hear more of the history on it.
It was about a half mile south of the intersection of South Ave and Prairie St., east side. Today it is a compound for Lyon County materials and equipment. The building was torn down maybe 15 years ago. That is where Mary White took the Thanksgiving and Christmas dinners mentioned in the editorial.
It’s been a bit more recent than fifteen years ago. We moved here fifteen years and four months ago. At some point several years ago we got to go see the downstairs of the Poor Farm while they were having a garage sale of sorts.
As I recall, someone had bought it months or maybe a couple of years (not sure) before that day. They had planned on fixing it up, and had turned the top floor into living quarters as I recall. But then for some reason they decided to sell it. I imagine it was extremely expensive to heat. And maybe the renovation costs were too high, who knows?
I felt sad when it was later torn down. What a loss of such a historic building.
I believe you are right Roger, that the Lyon County one was smaller. BUt it may have gone further back. Still, was probably smaller. I hope someone someplace has a recorded history for that building from the day it was built to the day it was torn down.