Dead Issue Alive

By Don Rittner

The ongoing controversy over the removal of burials at the site of the former Albany AlmsHouse needs a deeper look! The Dutch Reformed Church established the first AlmsHouse in 1652, 350 years ago. By 1788, the State legislature established the Albany County Almshouse to service the city and surrounding towns. Each town had an Overseer of the Poor.

By 1815, a 50-acre Almshouse Square was created. It was bounded by Gaansvort (Woodlawn) (southern boundary of city at time), east by Snipe (Lexington or New Scotland Ave), north by Ferry (Myrtle Ave), and west by Perry (South Lake). It was called Albany County & City Almshouse when two more southern parcels were added in the adjacent town of Bethlehem, bringing the total to about 116 acres. The Mohawk & Hudson Railroad cut through in 1831 and New Scotland Avenue (then plank road) came through by 1857.

Today, the former Almshouse site contains Albany Medical Center, Wadsworth Labs, the State Armory, Capital District Psychiatric Center, College of Pharmacy and Albany Law School. It makes up University Heights.

In 1826, four buildings were erected. There were 123 inmates: 52 women, 38 children, and 33 men. In 1846, the Albany County Penitentiary was built nearby (now where the VA hospital sits). Many inmates were buried on Almshouse property and both county lands were connected.

Eventually, the Almshouse consisted of men's and women's dormitories, dining hall/kitchen, chapel, and pest house (contagious diseases). By 1852, buildings and sheds, now numbering 16, were clustered on the southern part of the site. Social reformers in 1857 called for special services for this population (the AlmsHouse population was 419 people). An industrial school, lunatic asylum, and small pox hospital were added. By the last half of the 19^th century, depression, loss of railroad construction and canal jobs, a national silver panic, farmers moving to the city, and new immigrations probably put a strain on services. A farm was created at the Almshouse and goods grown were sold to pay for inmate care. Cattle and geese were on the property also.

By 1881, the average number of inmates was 350 per year. They had about 50 insane and incurables were sent elsewhere. A new pest house was built that year as well that could hold 50 people. The city paid 60% and the county 40% in operational costs. State paupers (those not residents of any county for 60 days) stayed there at a cost of $2.50 per week. We know that unclaimed dead from the streets and river and the penitentiary were buried there and visitors were allowed every day but Sunday.

In 1926, 111 adult bodies were exhumed from the Almshouse and moved to Colonie we assume at the new Ann Lee Home (A quick look found no obvious cemetery)? The Almshouse now cared mainly for the elderly. Social reforms of the late 19^th century established orphanages and other specialized care facilities elsewhere.

Parts of the Albany land must have been sold by the turn of the century. The Almshouse hospital (later called County Hospital) and pest house were located just west of Albany Hospital (now medical center) in 1909. Dudley Observatory and Bender Labs were located where the Psych Center sits presently. A State Health department building and Armory were located along New Scotland Ave. The main Almshouse complex was to the south of all this.

We know that 111 bodies were exhumed and moved to Colonie. Archeologists have recovered 800 burials from the site now under scrutiny by the Charitable Leadership Foundation. We also know that in 1989, archaeologists working on the adjacent Wadsworth site found a number of burials there. We know there are 1656 graves in the interment book from 1880 to 1926. That averages 36 burials per year and includes penitentiary victims, anatomy specimens from the hospital, people killed or unidentified. We have the names for about 1600 of those folks. No numbers are known yet for those buried between 1815 to 1880, but let's use the conservative estimate of 36 burials per year. There may be another 2350 burials on that site somewhere, maybe more since in some areas people were buried on top of each other, several deep! Were there gravestones or markers on the site, now removed?

The larger question is why did the county abandon almost 4000 people when it started internment at Ann Lee in September 1926. The Attorney General's Cemetery Law Manual states in Section 222 that only the county has the right to acquire burial land for indigents outside the city and shall be under the general care of the county commissioner of public welfare. Did the county negate their responsibility to care for them when they abandoned the site? Or, is the city responsible since Section 222 only refers to land outside a city? Are all the burials on this site within the city, or does the fact that originally part of the land and perhaps burials were in the county but then taken over by the city change responsibility?

Why was the site piecemealed given its history of use and not looked as a whole. Instead, each development proposal acts like a single piece of land in its own universe.

Who dropped the ball on perpetual care of this population and are we ignoring the issue because they were poor? We search for closures on MIAs, remains from air accidents, even those from the World Trade disaster. Are the victims of poverty any less deserving?