Mecklenburg County Poor House and County Home
This exhibit traces the history of Mecklenburg County's efforts to care for its most vulnerable and defenseless citizens.
You are here
Mecklenburg County Poor House and County Home
Chapter 8 - County Home Register
When John Miller, Jr., came to the Robinson-Spangler Carolina Room in 1996 to give an interview, he also donated the Register in which the name, age, sex, and race of each person entering the County Home from 1902 to 1941 had been written down by hand. In some years, the ledger pages also contain information about the physical conditions of the persons admitted as well as notes about burial for those who have died.
Works Cited
- Brown, Roy M. The University of North Carolina Social Study Series: Public Poor Relief in North Carolina. Chapel Hill, NC: The University of North Carolina Press, 1928.
Chapter 7 - The Cemetery
The County Home maintained a cemetery a few hundred yards south of the main building on North Tryon Street. W. T. Harris Boulevard did not extend all the way to Tryon Street until 1969, so in the years the cemetery was in use, it was not separated from the rest of the County Home site. The cemetery is within a grove of trees on McCullough Drive, just off the 300 block of E. W.T. Harris Boulevard.
Chapter 5 - County Home
As the county’s population grew, the facility on Poor House Road became more and more inadequate. The local newspapers reported that its facilities were “inadequate and incomplete . . .
Chapter 4 - Reform
Dorothea Dix was a reformer from Massachusetts who made it her special cause to improve care for persons suffering from mental health challenges. She toured states to make note of the often deplorable conditions in which the “insane” were held. In North Carolina, her travels took her to county poor houses, where she found people incapacitated by mental suffering lodged together with the poor in 11 of 36 sites visited.
Chapter 3 - The Poor House
In 1829 and again in 1830, the Mecklenburg County Court authorized citizens to buy land “for building a poor house” and then for constructing the structure itself. (Minutes, Book 7, p.327; Book 7, p.380) It opened in 1833, as this job announcment for a steward shows.
Chapter 2 - Court-Ordered Relief
The Wardens offered assistance to the deserving poor. In 1826, for instance, the August session of the quarterly court found
Chapter 1 - Early Care
Like any community, Mecklenburg County has and has always had a shared responsibility to care for its most vulnerable and defenseless citizens. This exhibit traces the history of the county's efforts to meet its obligations from the colonial days to the mid-twentieth century.