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Cumberland County Poor House
Prior to 1808, the care of the poor of Cumberland County was the responsibility of the Overseers of the Poor of
the individual county townships and boroughs. The Pennsylvania Legislature passed in March of 1808
Pennsylvania Law 92 authorizing Cumberland County to establish a Poorhouse and House of Employment. On
April of 1810, the 1 12 acre Adam Bernheisel farm in Tyrone Township (now part of present-day Perry County) was
purchased and contracts for construction of a poorhouse entered into in October 1810. George Leiby was contracted
for construction (Wing's History). After Perry County was established in 1820, the Pennsylvania Legislature in
February of 1829 passed Law 32 for Cumberland County to again establish a Poorhouse and House of Employment
to be located within Cumberland County's new boundaries. Directors of the Poor purchased in 1829 the Edward
Stiles farm just east of Carlisle known as Claremont Farms for the erection of a poorhouse, known by various names
(Almshouse, House of Employment, etc.) In 1878, The Hospital for the Insane was erected on the property and
served the mentally ill until, in 1922, mentally ill patients were transferred to the State Hospital in Harrisburg.
Originally a corporation unto itself, the Poorhouse and House of Employment was reorganized in 1937 under a
Pennsylvania Law effecting the poorhouses of all counties. The County Commissioners eventually became the
Board of Directors and the Poorhouse and House of Employment became known as the Institution District from
1937 to 1968. From 1968 to 1997 it was officially called the Cumberland County Nursing Home. Designated the
Claremont Nursing Home and Rehabilitation Center since 1997, the county home has remained on the property
purchased in 1829 with additional land purchases.
A general history of Poorhouses and Institution Districts in Pennsylvania can be found in County Government
Archives in Pennsylvania (1947) with a bibliography.
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