New York City’s first tax supported poorhouse had its humble beginnings in 1735 as a small building where today, City Hall stands. Behind that, a larger structure was built but later replaced with Boss Tweed’s Courthouse. Subsequently, the almshouse moved out of City Hall Park and up to old Kip’s Bay Farm on 26^th Street and the East River in 1811; what today is Bellevue Hospital. Soon after being formed, Bellevue transitioned to a purely medical institution and transferred the almshouse to Blackwell’s (today Roosevelt) Island. Around this time Staten Island’s Richmond County Poor Farm was formed to ease the increasing demand for poor houses.

In 1902, the Richmond County Poor Farm was reorganized to become the New York City Farm Colony and its purpose was altered from a place where able-bodied indigent would sit around to one where they would be unconditionally productive. As stated in the historic designation report of the Farm Colony, “While the inmates at other institutions under the Department of Public Charities look around and have nothing whatever to do, here they pay for their board twofold by their labor, working on the farm raising vegetables, not only for themselves, but for other unfortunates. No healthier spot within miles of Greater New York can be found…”

Dormitory 1 & 2 – photo courtesy of LPC

Unlike Blackwell’s Island institutions that had to keep consistent with surrounding buildings, the Farm Colony had “virgin ground,” in that the architecture could evolve without prior constraint. In 1904, the first structure of the newly formed Farm Colony, designed by Renwick, Aspinwall & Owen, was built from fieldstone found on the property. A few years later in 1907, a larger but similar dormitory was constructed. Both had matching Dutch Colonial Revival style gambrel roofs with green slate. By 1912, the Farm Colony’s mission was holding true with great produce yields; enough to feed patients at both the Farm Colony and those on Blackwell’s Island. To accommodate the farm’s growth, a dining hall and industrial building were constructed in 1914, again with the barn-like gambrel roofs.

By 1925, a complete reforming of the institution occurred because of changes in those being admitted from being able-bodied but poor to causes of dependency such as, “paralysis, crippled, epileptic, blind, dumb, deaf, deaf and dumb, and cancer.” The dramatic changes in the population led to the closure of the Farm Colony’s actual farm that same year. Ten years later four large H-shaped Georgian Revival style dormitories made there way to the northern end of the acreage to accommodate another population shift; this time in the direction of seniors. During this time the Farm Colony was described as a “haven for old people”—a place for individuals to spend their final days at the peacefully picturesque institution.

Dormitory A (1934)

Unlike Blackwell’s Island institutions that had to keep consistent with surrounding buildings, the Farm Colony had “virgin ground,” in that the architecture could evolve without prior constraint. In 1904, the first structure of the newly formed Farm Colony, designed by Renwick, Aspinwall & Owen, was built from fieldstone found on the property. A few years later in 1907, a larger but similar dormitory was constructed. Both had matching Dutch Colonial Revival style gambrel roofs with green slate. By 1912, the Farm Colony’s mission was holding true with great produce yields; enough to feed patients at both the Farm Colony and those on Blackwell’s Island. To accommodate the farm’s growth, a dining hall and industrial building were constructed in 1914, again with the barn-like gambrel roofs.

By 1925, a complete reforming of the institution occurred because of changes in those being admitted from being able-bodied but poor to causes of dependency such as, “paralysis, crippled, epileptic, blind, dumb, deaf, deaf and dumb, and cancer.” The dramatic changes in the population led to the closure of the Farm Colony’s actual farm that same year. Ten years later four large H-shaped Georgian Revival style dormitories made there way to the northern end of the acreage to accommodate another population shift; this time in the direction of seniors. During this time the Farm Colony was described as a “haven for old people”—a place for individuals to spend their final days at the peacefully picturesque institution.