Craig County Poor Farm

KH-9

After the Revolutionary War, care for people facing poverty in Virginia ceased to be the responsibility of Anglican parishes and instead was managed by county-appointed “overseers of the poor.” Craig County, formed in 1851, initially assisted the poor outside of institutions but in 1892 established a 250-acre working farm nere here as a residence for those unable to support themselves, often because of age or disability. Residents provided labor as they were able. The property, listed on the National Register of Historic Places, included three cottages, a superintendent’s house, outbuildings, and a cemetery. The county sold the property in 1921, opening a new poor farm north of New Castle.

Department of Historic Resources, 2024

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References/Bibliographic Citation:

Craig County Poor Farm NRHP nomination (2020). Craig County Deed Book G:146. Annual report of the Board of Charities and Corrections to the Governor of Virginia (1909). Arthur W. James, The Disappearance of the County Almshouse in Virginia (Richmond: State Board of Public Welfare, 1926). Elna C. Green, ed., Before the New Deal: Social Welfare in the South, 1830-1930 (Athens: University of Georgia Press, 1999). James D. Watkinson, “Rogues, Vagabonds, and Fit Objects: The Treatment of the Poor in Antebellum Virginia,” Virginia Cavalcade vol. 49, no. 1 (winter 2000): 17-29. Mary Ellen Henry, “Refuge from Want?: Virginia’s Almshouses, 1870-1930,” Ph.D. diss., American University, 2006. Roanoke Times, 21 March, 13 May 1928.