Almshouse

• The City Almshouse (or Poor Farm)(or Chronic Disease Hospital) which stood on Collins Cove, on present day Memorial Drive for over 140 years, was built in 1816 from plans by Charles Bulfinch. There had been other almshouses in Salem in earlier times, one at the corner of Summer and Broad Streets, and one at the northeast corner of Salem Common.

• This almshouse was adjacent to the town farms, allowing able-bodied residents to work on the farm to offset their maintenance. The building was a five-story brick residence overlooking Collins Cove and could house 100 residents.The number of residents grew from 70 in the 1870's to 146 by 1883. In 1884, a second building was built next to the almshouse to serve as a hospital for contagious diseases and for the mentally ill.The hospital was known under many names, such as "contagious hospital", "insane hospital" and "pesthouse." It was used for smallpox outbreaks as well. The adjacent almshouse was razed in 1954.

• In the early 1980's, developers of a condominium complex inadvertently reactivated an unsolved mystery when they discovered 5 headstones on the property, probably from early residents of the almshouse or hospital. Who these unfortunates were is still not known.

• An article from Lynn Sunday Post quotes Frank Remon, a former harbor master saying that there were a number of persons buried on the old city hospital land and that it was known as "Hospital Burying Ground."

• In 2019, Jen Ratliff, a local researcher put forward the idea to memorialize the Almshouse burying ground with a plaque. No one knows how many people died and were buried there. The cemetery committee gave their approval and in early 2021, the plaque was placed in the area thought to be the burial ground. It is where the Collins Cove Condos now sit, built in the mid 1980's.

• The stone memorial plaque reads:

IN MEMORY OF THOSE WHO LIVED AND LABORED AT THE ALMSHOUSES AND HOSPITALS ON THIS LAND AND IN HONOR OF THOSE KNOWN AND UNKNOWN WHO ARE QUIETLY RESTING HERE IN UNMARKED GRAVES

See Also

• Vertical File in Salem Collection - Almshouse
• Visitor's guide to Salem 1897 ed., p.66
• Historical sketch of Salem by C.S. Osgood, p. 12
• Architecture in Salem by Bryant F. Tolles, p. 273, black and white photograph
• "A look at how the city has helped the needy" Salem Evening News, Dec. 5, 2001. p.A3

• Old Naumkeag; an historical sketch of the city of Salem C.H. Webber. p.220
• Salem and the Willows Collection of photographs.
• "Five graves are mystery on Salem Willows Land" Lynn Sunday Post, 1980? (date uncertain)
• "Mark my word" Lynn Sunday Post, Nov. 2, 1980
• "Forgotten graveyards; Advocate wants Almshouse burying ground memorialized" Salem News, Nov. 27, 2019.
• History by the sea Almshouse and Hospital for contagious diseases, History by the sea