Jefferson County Alms House

The Jefferson County Alms House, also known as Snow Hill Farm, located near Leetown, West Virginia, is an historic Federal style house. Snow Hill was built circa 1813 for John Hurst, son of James Hurst, a prosperous local landowner. In 1857, Snow Hill was purchased from the Hurst family for use as a farm for the local poor. By 1931 the Alms House (also known as the County Infirmary) had declined to the point that it had become a local disgrace. Corrective measures were taken, and the Infirmary survived until 1959, when its last nine inmates were moved to other quarters.

The property now houses a number of County agencies.

Famous quotes containing the words jefferson, county, alms and/or house:

    To history therefore I must refer for answer, in which it would be an unhappy passage indeed, which should shew by what fatal indulgence of subordinate views and passions, a contest for an atom had defeated well founded prospects of giving liberty to half the globe.
    —Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826)

    In the County Tyrone, in the town of Dungannon,
    —Unknown. The Old Orange Flute (l. 1)

    If alms were only given out of pity, all the beggars would have starved to death.
    Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900)

    Just the same as a month before,—
    The house and the trees,
    The barn’s brown gable, the vine by the door,—
    Nothing changed but the hives of bees.
    John Greenleaf Whittier (1807–1892)