Warwick Asylum

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Warwick Asylum
Established 1870
Closed 1943
Current Status Demolished
Building Style Single Building
Location Warwick, Rhode Island
Alternate Names
  • Warwick Asylum for the Poor
  • Warwick Poor Farm
  • Warwick City House



History[edit]

The Warwick Asylum was opened in 1870 and operated as a poor farm and almshouse for residents who were unable to support themselves and admitted men, women, and children. Patients lived in a large, wooden farmhouse that contained thirty dormitory rooms, communal dining room, a library, and separate sitting rooms and hospital rooms for men and women. According to a 1897 report, Warwick Asylum was “one of the best in the state…well-built, convenient, thoroughly heated and well located.”

Despite the poor conditions of the land, patients were made to farm and followed a strict daily schedule of work and meal times. There was also strict regulations put in place that all patients were expected to follow. If a patient was late to a meal, they would be denied that meal. There was to be no smoking, drinking, stealing, intercourse, profane language, indecent behavior, or refusal of work. Penalties for rule breaking included additional hard labor, loss of meals, loss of a day’s allowance, and solitary confinement. Patients could only leave the asylum grounds if they were granted a ticket of permission. Children were permitted to leave only to attend a nearby school.

The asylum housed anywhere from 15 to 20 patients at a time, and while some patients’ stay only lasted months, some would live their entire lives within the wooden walls of the poor house.

Warwick Asylum closed in 1943 and the main house and farm buildings have since been demolished. All that remains of the asylum are 94 anonymous headstones marking the resting place of deceased patients, which presently sits in a pine grove in Warwick City Park. In 2017 the Friends of the Warwick Commission on Historical Cemeteries and the Warwick Historical Society worked to uncover the cemetery and identify as many of the patients buried there as they could. They were successful in identifying 78 patients. While the cemetery contains 94 markers, the true numbered of buried patients is unknown.