Members of the Greene County community recently unveiled a monument at the Greene County Courthouse paying homage to one of the county’s now gone institutions.
The Greene Prairie Press reports that on March 20th, a small unveiling ceremony was held on the west side of the Greene County Courthouse steps for a memorial to the Greene County Almshouse and its inhabitants. Several county elected officials and some partners for the project attended the ceremony.
The almshouse operated as the county’s poor farm and as a home for the developmentally and mentally disabled from 1870 to 1932. The building went through a variety of community uses before being shuttered in the early 1980s. The building was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1991.
The 150-year old structure burned to the ground after an arson fire in August of last year. During demolition of the remaining walls, slabs of the building in the basement were cut and removed for preservation.
The monument on the courthouse lawn contains pieces of stone slabs with inscriptions of names of residents and workers at the facility along with pieces of the building’s foundation and walls. The inscriptions date back to 1913, when concrete was poured into the basement of the building. Other pieces of the building that were preserved are being stored at the Lee-Baker-Hodges House on the Carrollton Square. The house is the location of the Greene County Historical & Genealogical Society.
The Greene Prairie Press also reports that a separate memorial at the site of the Almshouse in rural Carrollton is also being planned to commemorate the Almshouse Cemetery.