Color me shocked when I figured out that there are still buildings standing from the old County Poor House and Chronic Hospital just south of Arsenal and east of Hampton. The oldest building has its back to 59th Street, seen above. The building below looks to have originally faced Arsenal Street and attaches to the other building via a modern connection added when the complex was renovated for its current use.

Coming around from the southeast, you can see there are a series of porches that would have provided ample light for those housed here. I suspect there was a staircase in the tower.

But its appearance has changed little since the Nineteenth Century.

The residents were apparently brought out front to be photographed for some sort of survey by the City.

The newer building continued the same porch configuration.

But as can be seen below, in the map from 1903, there were many more buildings and uses, and in fact most other structures have been torn down.

First and foremost, by the Twentieth Century, the “Poor House” had taken on the role of handling overflow from the Lunatic Asylum to the east, which was filled far over capacity. So while it might have still been called the Poor House, it really was de facto a psychiatric facility by this point.

For example, note the bars on the porch of the building below, which may be the “Male Hospital” by matching its appearance with fire insurance map above.

Now long gone, and labeled “Female Insane Ward” on the map from 1903, this building facing Arsenal also served as a government hospital, perhaps due to World War I or the flu pandemic.

The interiors were photographed, as well. A spartan existence, at least presented to the photographer, is shown in each photograph.