The Erie County Almshouse at 23rd and Pittsburgh Ave. was one of the most formidable structures in the county at the time.

Pictured is the first Erie County Almshouse, built in 1871 and open until 1918, with enough space for 250 “paupers.”

This Second Empire-style building was four imposing stories tall. It sat near what is now W. 23rd and Pittsburgh Avenue, and its property boundaries stretched from W. 26th Street to W. 21st Street.

A “Potters Field”/burial ground which was located just east of the Almshouse property fell to ruin and was discovered in 1977 when that area was being cleared for redevelopment.

According to “Lost Erie” by John Claridge: “The court gave permission to the Coroner’s office to remove only those remains which did not lie under 23rd Street or the utilities running alongside, and 70 bodies were re-interred in the Fairview cemetery…the graves of 185 of its inmates still rest in the ground near the place where it once stood.”

In 1918 a new County Almshouse opened in Fairview Township, in a structure that still stands today as Pleasant Ridge Manor on Route 20.

As stated in “History of Erie County,” 1884: “Every inmate is obliged to be in bed by 9 o’clock P. M., and to rise by half past six in the morning. Those who are over thirty-five years of age are allowed a certain quantity of tobacco each week.

“Few of the paupers are able to work and those who are have to make themselves useful, the men by helping in the garden or on the farm, and the women by sewing or doing household service. The sleeping apartments are plain, but comfortable. Each inmate is pro- vided with a cheap bedstead, straw tick, two sheets, either a feather or straw pillow, and in winter with two comforters.

“They generally sleep a dozen or two in one large room. Great care is taken to keep the bedding clean, in order to prevent the spread of disease. The poor house farm is one of the best in the county, and has generally been kept under fine cultivation. A few rods north of the buildings is a large spring, which will furnish an ample supply of water for all the needs of the institution to the end of time.”

Top Colorized image credit to “Lost Erie” by John Claridge

Map from GC68/Toby showing where almshouse was in the City of Erie