Allen County Poor Farm

The Allen County Poor Farm is significant under the National Register within the context of New Deal Era Construction in Western Kentucky, 1933-1943 a historic context that was developed by the Kentucky Heritage Council. In this context, the Allen County Poor Farm meets the registration requirements of the property type government buildings. This property type includes those structures that house either county, city, or other local government activities (e. g. road maintenance buildings), or those which provide necessary government services (e. g. public utilities). In this case, the Allen County Poor House provided the necessary service of housing indigent persons who were wards of the county. Those able-bodied people who were housed there were obligated to work on the surrounding poor farm.

During the New Deal era seven agencies were involved with public works construction projects: the Civil Works Administration, Federal Emergency Relief Administration, Civilian Conservation Corps, Public Works Administration, Tennessee Valley Authority, the National Youth Administration, and the Works Progress Administration, which became the Work Projects Administration in 1939. The Allen County Poor House was constructed by the Works Progress Administration (WPA) between 1935 and 1937.

The general idea behind the Works Progress Administration was to put as many people to work as possible. The agency undertook very labor-intensive enterprises, due to the availability of manpower and conscious efforts to cut materials costs. But the new work relief agency was not only supposed to provide employment but, according to the order establishing it, All work undertaken should be useful -- not just for a day or a year, but useful in the sense that it affords permanent improvement in living conditions or that it creates future new wealth for the nation."

The Allen County Poor Farm was publicly owned and it provided a useful service to the county. While documentation as to the exact number of people employed on the project has not been discovered, the Allen County Poor Farm was the only major capital construction project funded by the WPA in the first six months of 1936. Records also indicate that the WPA operated a quarry and a rock crusher in the county. Chances are that this quarry and rock crusher were used to make the mortar for the poured concrete portion of the building. Also, in order to build the Poor House, a portion of a ridge had to be leveled. Because the WPA rarely used heavy equipment to level land, this was most likely done by hand. Between leveling the land, making the mortar, and the actual construction of the building, several dozen men could have been employed on this project -- accomplishing one major WPA objective.

All construction projects had to be publicly owned and had to contribute to the overall public good. In order to be sure that a maximum amount of the funding went toward wage labor, WPA projects gave budgetary priority to wages over materials. This provision influenced the character and construction of the buildings. Workers also made bricks or concrete blocks as part of some projects. Razing old buildings and salvaging materials from them for use in the construction of a new building was a common practice of the Works Progress Administration. The workers doing all of these tasks were, for the most part, unskilled men who were trained on the job.

The success of the WPA is witnessed by the hundreds of buildings, bridges, parks, and other extant remnants of its massive construction efforts. Once the WPA got underway in Kentucky, it was successful and generally well received.

The County Poor Farm, which was administered by the Allen County Fiscal Court was no exception. The house provided a much-needed improvement to the old wooden frame structure that had been used to shelter the indigent. An inspection of all public buildings in 1939 in Allen County brought this response from County Judge Robert M. Coleman: "The County House is a structure of which every citizen can be rightfully proud. It is reasonable to believe that this building will be entirely adequate to care for the poor and unfortunate of the county for many years to come." The Judge did recommend that the old bedding be removed and burned and that the remaining old buildings be torn down as they were unsightly and fire hazards.

During the Depression, Allen County was in debt and eventually came under a court order to spend no funds except for essential county services. It was during this period that the county obtained WPA funding to build a new "county house." The old one had gotten in such a poor state of repair that it would have cost as much to rehabilitate it as it would for the county's share of the WPA project. The first WPA contract was in October 1935, with additional funding coming in January of 1936. The total of this funding was $15,695.00, while the county had to contribute approximately one-fourth of that amount as its share of the project.

The reported cost of the project varies. An October 23, 1952 article in the Scottsville Citizen-Times reports that the building cost $50,000.00. However, that article also reports that the farmhouse was built in 1934. The figure suggested earlier some $15,000 plus another one-fourth from the county is probably more accurate.
In addition to the Allen County Poor Farm, there were three other major capital improvement projects in the county, and only one of them received more funding than the Poor House. Those projects were: the Allen County High School, the Petroleum High School, and Mt. Zion High School.

The Allen County High School constructed in 1940-41 was a much larger project than the Poor House. The price tag was twice as high, over $30,000.00 in funding from the federal government alone. The building was designed to become the one high school for all of Allen County, and by the school year 1942-43, this was the case.

The other two school projects: Petroleum High School and Mt. Zion High School were much more modest in scale. The two schools cost less than the Poor House, around $12,000.00. Both schools were six-room brick structures with gabled roofs and a small gabled entryway. The two were identical in construction and appearance. They were very institutional/utilitarian with no ornamentation.

In recent years both schools have served their respective communities as small textile factories. The exterior of the old Petroleum High School is relatively unchanged, while the old Mt. Zion High School has been altered considerably. These two buildings were constructed to fill a void in the educational system in Allen County, as well as to give work to a hard-pressed populace.

Indeed statewide, as in Allen County, the WPA built more schools than any other single property type. Between 1935 and 1943 they built 357 new schools, while all other public buildings numbered only 618. This figure includes hospitals, courthouses, fire stations, utility plants, warehouses, and any other type of public building.

The fact that the Poor House was not a school built with WPA funds and was the second most expensive project in the county is significant in and of itself. The Allen County Poor Farm was built as an eleven-room structure that while institutional/utilitarian is more ornate than either of the smaller schools. The Poor House, like the two small schools (the larger school is now an elementary school). no longer serves the function for which it was constructed, however, it continues to sit on a landscape that is agricultural and the feeling of the structure is still that of an institutional structure in a farm setting.

In addition to the "New Deal Construction" context, the Allen County Poor Farm could also be potentially eligible under public welfare in the Kentucky context. Kentucky inherited its poor laws from Virginia, the state from which it was carved, and carried on something of the tradition of English poor laws established in 1601. The basic gist of these laws is that first, the family is responsible for itself. If the family cannot support itself then the local government is responsible, and that same government can use tax funds for the purpose. Local governments typically had an almshouse to house the paupers within their jurisdiction.

The idea of the "indoor" concept of welfare, e. g., the almshouse or poorhouse, by 1936, was very much a Kentucky tradition. The concept of "outdoor" public welfare was just beginning to come of age with the economic disaster of the 1930s. "Outdoor" plans included pensions and other forms of public assistance that did not require the recipients to live within an institution. Yet 1936 was also a watershed year in the direction that public welfare would take.

In 1936 Governor Albert "Happy" Chandler created a Department of Public Welfare that was headed by a single agency head, who was responsible to the governor. The state and the federal governments became the lead agencies in public welfare, where this responsibility had been in the hand of local governments in Kentucky for well over 100 years. The Allen County Poor Farm was one of the last poor houses built by a local government in Kentucky.

Nationally, "prior to 1930 virtually all public welfare costs had been borne by local governmental units, in 1936 only 35 percent of public welfare costs were expended at the local level with 51 percent by the states and 13 percent by the federal government. By 1955 federal expenditures had grown to 49 percent, state expenditures had declined to 39 percent and local expenditures had dwindled to a mere 12 percent."7 The Allen County Poor Farm was reported to have no inmates in 1952 and was sold to a private individual in 1957. This demonstrates that Allen County followed the national trend of relinquishing local responsibility for social welfare programs.

In 1935-1937 when the Allen County Poor Farm was being constructed it was needed. The county was in debt and had destitute people that had to be housed. The WPA project that built the house provided needed jobs and helped the county house its poor. Yet, the concept of public welfare was changing even as the house was being constructed. The Allen County Poor Farm, which may well have been the last locally sponsored poor house built in Kentucky, is important as physical remains of the New Deal in Kentucky and of a welfare concept that no longer exists in Kentucky or the United States.