Parkhouse, Upper Providence, boasts rich, 200 year history
By Jenny DeHuff, Pottstown Mercury, September 9, 2013
UPPER PROVIDENCE — It began as almshouse for the less fortunate, but the Parkhouse nursing care facility in Royersford has come a long way since it opened its doors in 1808.Mongomery County Almshouse - Asylum Projects
On June 7, 1808, Thomas Jefferson was president and Pennsylvania’s second governor, Thomas McKean, was nearing the end of his third term. Parkhouse, then known as the county almshouse, opened that day to serve a vast number of Pennsylvanians in need of charitable housing.
According to Sally Hawk-Jones, director of activities for Parkhouse Providence Pointe, Montgomery County purchased the land from Abraham Gotwaltz in 1806. It was on 256 acres at the time, which later grew to 296, close to where it stands today.
The Parkhouse complex itself comprises three main buildings. The oldest, referred to as the West Building, dates back to 1872. The cornerstone of the centrally located building is marked “1900,” and the North Building, and youngest, was erected in 1972.
Today, they are known as Montgomery Meadows, Parkhouse Pointe and Riverview Meadows, and together they offer independent living suites, short- and long-term rehabilitative care and adult day health services, respectively.
“It was an almshouse, a house for paupers, essentially,” Hawk-Jones said. “So the county started building almshouses because it was the county’s charge to take care of the indigent. That’s how it all got started. Prior to that time, money was made available to take care of people who had nothing. State government, by way of the townships, used the money to take care of the people in the community. It kind of makes me think about the old Charles Dickens (philanthropy).”
The almshouse was entirely self-sufficient, Hawk-Jones said, having gardens to grow its own vegetables, stables to keep horses and other farm buildings, such as a unique barn known as the Sweitzer barn, which was unusually large for its type in that day.
The almshouse building was leveled to the ground by fire in 1821 and again destroyed in a fire in 1872, Hawk-Jones said. Six residents died in the latter blaze.
The barn, too, and many of the farm-related outbuildings were destroyed by fire in 1867. The large, red barn that exists today was built in the late 1860s. It and other farm buildings across the street (Route 113) from Parkhouse are now part of the county park system.
Many of Parkhouse’s early residents were of German descent, and a list of its directors and overseers from the early 1800s to today lies within the administrative offices.
Parkhouse was also recently recognized as a bird habitat with the Audubon at Home Program
More history on Parkhouse can be found at the following links
Bean's History of Montgomery County PA
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