York County Almshouse, 1878–Part Three
Here is the last, and most disturbing, part of the lengthy article from the March 12, 1878 York Gazette article on recent improvements to the York County Almshouse. These links will take you to the first and second installments.
Again, I want to emphasize that, although the York County Nursing and Rehab Center at Pleasant Acres can trace its roots back to the almshouse, there is absolutely no resemblance of today’s modern institution to the one of the past.
The 1878 article ends:
Improvements have also been made in the hospital building, chiefly in the attic, which has been divided into rooms for the accommodation of the increased population, as well as for the better accommodation of the demented whose quarters have been vastly improved as of aforetime. One feature of the hospital improvement, which struck us as particularly commendable, was the means adopted to separate the vicious of both sexes whereby a great amount of vice is suppressed and an enforced degree of virtue maintained, which cannot fail to be appreciated by the more refined of the inmates.
Other improvements have been made but as we have enumerated those which chiefly concern the unfortunate inmates, we will not dwell upon them. Suffice it to say that what has been done has been well done and reflects credit upon the good judgment of Messrs. Reigart, Sayers and Kohr, aided by the good counsel of Mr. Keech, the Steward, and the mechanical skill of Messrs. Bucher & Laumaster, Mr. Gallagher, Mr. Hildebrand, and the other mechanics who have contributed to the success of the work.
After more research, I plan to do an upcoming York Sunday News column on the history and evolution of the almshouse.
