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Maryland Historical Society
Library of Maryland History
201 W. Monument Street
Baltimore, MD 21201
Phone: 410-685-3750
Fax: 410-385-2105
E-mail: library @mdhs.org
Buy the Book
Maryland
History In Prints: 1752-1900
by Laura Rice |
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![[image]](http://www.mdhs.org/Library/Images/RiceOnline/Access/Imagea010.jpg) |
Almshouse
Engraved by S. Smith
Printed by J. Cone
Baltimore, ca. 1824
Engraving, hand colored
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In November 1773, "An Act for the Relief of the Poor" in Baltimore County
became law. The Maryland General Assembly passed the act as the "continual
increase of the poor [there] is very great, and exceedingly burthensome.there
shall be an alms and work-house erected." County magistrates and
justices of the peace were charged with committing "any rogues, vagrants,
vagabonds, beggars, and other idle, dissolute and disorderly persons.who
follow no labour, trade, occupation or business, and have no visible means
of subsistence whereby to acquire an honest livelihood, there to be kept
at hard labour for any term not exceeding three months." Those who
violated work house rules or attempted to run away were subject to restriction
or elimination of relief benefits, whipping, or hard labor.
A joint venture between Baltimore City and County, the almshouse served
as a hospital for those unable to afford private medical care. It also
functioned as a home for the mentally ill, and as orphan asylum, prison,
and factory. During times of recession, the almshouse also became a vital
source of economic survival for the working poor. Children were bound out
by the institution to neighboring businessmen seeking apprentice labor.
The treatment of the sick and mentally ill provided an opportunity for
local medical students to treat patients and perform autopsies.
The original building stood on West Biddle Street; trustees relocated
the institution to an estate called "Calverton," in a more rural area,
in 1820. The estate house is the center section pictured here. Bounded
by Pulaski, Presstman, Lexington, and Franklin Streets, the almshouse occupied
this property until 1866. Calverton burned in 1875.
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![[image]](http://www.mdhs.org/Library/Images/RiceOnline/Full/Imagef010.jpg)
