Buffalo
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.
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.
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.