Preservation Alliance of West Virginia (PAWV) has named Tyler County Poor Farm to West Virginia’s 2009 Endangered Properties List. PAWV supports this Community Partnership request and will provide consultation and technical assistance to the project.
The history of a poor farm in Tyler County reaches back to 1860, when the County Court of Tyler County purchased a farm and operated a poor farm about a mile west of Middlebourne. This piece of property exchanged hands several times between private citizens and the County until 1915, when the County purchased a 194 acre tract of land about 4 miles south of Middlebourne on Middle Island Creek. A contract for construction of a new County Home was soon awarded to T.O. Johnson and C.D. Jemison on the new property. The building was designed by S.W. Ford.
The County Home / Poor Farm operated from that time until 1951. In 1969 the Tyler County Fair Board moved its operations to the County Home site where it bought adjacent acreage. In 1981, the Fair Association leased the site for 3 years from the County.
Since 1981, the building has been used off and on by the County Fair board and County Office of Emergency Management. At present, the building is primarily used only for storage of old surplus equipment of the Fair Board and Office of Emergency Management.
The building remains the property of Tyler County. Lack of funds has prevented proper maintenance of the building and it has fallen into disrepair. Stone window sills and brick walls are beginning to crumble in places, porches and porch roofs are falling away from the building, and some leaks have developed threatening the original horsehair plaster walls inside.
Abstract from “History of Tyler County to 1984” published by the Tyler County Heritage & Historical Society, original history compiled by Gary Rymer, Updated by A. Tuttle – 1984 – 2007.
