Page Introduction
This page is a continuation of the New York State Map Exhibit with specific information about Buffalo, New York.
Skip Navigation
Map of Buffalo
Men and women were kept segregated and each person was supported for $1.00 a week. Inebriation was said to be the cause of 3/4 of the cases. Stoves were used to provide heat, but there was little other ventilation and no bathing facilities. A pest house, for the contagious, was connected to the establishment and a physician visited twice a week.
In 1893 Asylum patients would be moved to a new facility on Forest Avenue in Buffalo, that is now the Buffalo Psychiatric Center. In 1894 the property was converted into a 400-bed Erie County Hospital. The University at Buffalo would acquire the property in 1909 and in 1926 began classes. At this time, the University and County Home worked side by side until a year later when patients were moved to the newly built Erie County Home and Infirmary.
View from Main Street
This is how the Almshouse and Insane Asylum would have looked from Main Street at about the time it opened in the mid 1800s. Situated on the outskirts of Buffalo, the Erie County Almshouse was the largest Almshouse in Western New York.
View from Main Street
One of the main buildings of the Almshouse and Asylum, this building became Hayes Hall of the University at Buffalo's South Campus
View from Main Street
This building was added to the Almshouse grounds in 1888. It later became Wende Hall of the University at Buffalo's South Campus.