A stone wall along Philadelphia Avenue just outside Shillington may seem unremarkable, but it holds a unique place in local history.
“The wall is virtually all that remains of the former Berks County Almshouse,” said Charles J. Adams III, “and thus is a minor, but meaningful, local historic artifact.”
Sections of what remains of the enclosure were damaged more than a year ago in two vehicular accidents just months apart.
Adams, an author and retired radio personality, surveyed the damage earlier this year with a group of local history enthusiasts.
The group is calling for the repair and preservation of the wall.
“The number of supporters who turned out for the site visit reflect a genuine concern for saving the wall,” said Susan Atkins Weiser, a founder of the Gov. Mifflin Area History Facebook page.
Weiser, who was recently elected president of the Berks History Center’s board of trustees, grew up in Shillington and until her recent retirement operated the family business there.
She is author of the article “Murder, Madness, Mayhem, Suicide, Tramps and Disease at the Berks County Almshouse,” published in the spring 2021 issue of the Historical Review of Berks County and has been fascinated with the facility since childhood.
The history
For more than a century, the almshouse was a place of refuge for county residents suffering from poverty, homelessness, alcoholism and mental health issues, she said.
The complex sat from 1825 to 1951 on 514 acres of mostly farmland in Cumru Township, roughly the site of today’s Gov. Mifflin High School.
The land was formerly part of a vast plantation, called Angelica, owned by Thomas Mifflin.
Mifflin was the first governor of Pennsylvania, serving from 1790 to 1799.
Commonly called “the poorhouse,” the facility included dormitories, a creamery and other agricultural buildings, she said. It offered food, shelter and occupation to those in need.
At its closing, the remaining residents were transferred to the then-newly constructed Berks Heim in Bern Township.
Most of the buildings were razed in 1957.
Many images of the almshouse survive in the form of folk-art painting by resident artists Charles C. Hofmann, Louis Mader and John Rasmussen, who lived there at various times in the 19th century.
One of the best-known was painted by Rasmussen in 1880 and depicts the wall, Weiser said.
A prolific almshouse painter, Rasmussen, a German immigrant, lived his final 16 years at the shelter until his death at age 67 in 1895.
His depictions of the complex are found in the collections of the Berks History Center; Reading Public Museum; Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City; Fenimore Art Museum, Cooperstown, N.Y.; Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Folk Art Collection, Williamsburg, Va.; and other museums and private collections.
Shared connection
Weiser, who grew up in Shillington and lived most of her life in the area, said she has a personal connection to the area’s history and legacy of the almshouse.
“My great-great grandfather, taken ill during his final months, resided here until his death,” she said.
Others among those advocating for the repair of the wall also grew up in Shillington or adjacent Cumru Township. They shared stories of sneaking onto the property as children and exploring the aged buildings after the facility was vacated.
Weiser’s brother, Jamie Atkins of Shillington, recalled hiding in a crude pine coffin left in one of the outbuildings.
Dave Ruoff of Cumru laughed remembering how he and some buddies surreptitiously smoked the stogies left burning on the wall by inmates.
“It is clearly evident how many in the community have a personal attachment and story connected to this wall,” Weiser said.
The facility also left a deep impression on the young John Updike, who grew up nearby, according to Maria Lester, director of education at the John Updike Childhood Home, 117 Philadelphia Ave., Shillington.
Lester spoke last year at the dedication of a plaque marking the almshouse site.
“John Updike grew up in Shillington in the 1930s and ’40s and was so taken with the almshouse that it and its inhabitants became the subject of his very first novel, ‘The Poorhouse Fair,’ which was published in 1959,” she said.
The almshouse is used by Updike as a metaphor in the novel, Adams said, tucking a copy of the book into a crevice in the wall and leaving it to be found.
A volunteer docent at the Updike home, Adams envisions using the wall as the backdrop for a literary event focused on the author’s work and its local connection.
Repairs pending
But that can’t happen unless the wall is repaired, he said.
The damaged section lies on property controlled by the Mifflin Park Condominium Association.
Michelle Ott of Top Flite Realty, which manages the property, declined to comment.
In an email to Weiser, dated Aug. 15, 2022, and shared with the Reading Eagle, Ott explained: “The repairs are delayed because the driver who hit the wall has inadequate insurance to cover the cost of repairs.”
A landscaper for the association placed protective boulders between the road and wall soon after the group met at the site in April. He also made some repairs to stabilize the damaged section of the wall and stacked the fallen stone to be used for the eventual repair, Weiser said. But the repairs remain incomplete, and she and the group continue to advocate for a complete repair.
Source: Berkshire mont
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