(Cody’s Note: I got to thinking about this visit on Jan. 30, 2026 to this place not long after I posted the images onto my Eastern Iowa “roamin'” photo album.)

While driving on a January afternoon in rural Jackson County, Iowa, I drove by this limestone building on the side of the road. It had a single small sign in front of it, which made me want to turn around and see what it said.

Maybe it would identify what this building was. Nope.

“Iowa Great Place,” read the sign.

Okay, what is this place, and what makes it great? I scoped around to find out. There was another, smaller sign near the building. Maybe that would tell me what it was. Nope.

“This property has been placed on the National Register of Historic Places by the United States Department of the Interior,” read the plaque on a stand.

Great, a mystery.

I wandered around the building, and couldn’t find anything else about it. Stumped, I returned to my car and did the digging on my own with my phone. A directory of National Register places in Jackson County resulted in 76 different possibilities. Not even sure what mailing address this location was in, I tapped and tapped and only then found out that it was the Jackson County Poor Farm Insane Asylum.

I was glad to have taken the time to read all about it on my phone, but people short on time would probably have given up and left with a curiosity that could have vanished. An informational sign would have helped. Perhaps there was one at one time? (And if there was, hopefully a reader will please correct or confirm with me.)

This limestone building is the only surviving building left from the county poor farm. Its cemetery is nearby to the north, largely out of sight from the road; and across the street is the Andrew Jackson Care center for the handicapped. I would assume that the care center’s roots trace back to the poor farm, if one knows what a poor farm is.

Poor farms were a combination of a home for the poor, nursing home and orphanage, with hospital services available at some of the larger ones. Those who lived there included the elderly, disabled, mentally ill, sick or destitute individuals and families. These were working farms: If you were able-bodied, you were expected to work on the farm to keep the place operating. The concept began in the mid-1800s and lasted until the 1940s, when New Deal opportunities made it easier for these people to adapt to a normal society.

If you want to know more about poor farms, and have Facebook, I recommend giving Project: Poor Farm a visit. It has plenty of information and pictures about this place, including a video (for those who don’t have Facebook). Project: Poor Farm has documented several in Iowa, with more to come. Kudos to the page for preserving a piece of American history that people today might not be aware of. The page also mentions that the inside isn’t open to the public, and this is its current fate after once being part of a demonstration farm.

I’ve heard of poor farms since high school. The first one I learned about was the one in Whiteside County, Illinois (my home county). This one was on U.S. Route 30 between Morrison and Rock Falls (between Morrison and Sterling on the Lincoln Highway), near the small community of Round Grove. This one lasted from 1853-1945, and became a nursing home for another 25 or so years after that. The cemetery remains (no pun intended), and its last building from that time was torn down a couple of years ago after being used as a county health office.

Lee County’s (the county east of Whiteside) still stands, but is derelict. It is located just outside the town of Eldena. At first glance, about 20 years ago, I thought the building was an old rural high school. Nope. Most poor farm main buildings from the turn of the 20th century were so large that, when their use came to an end, they were expensive to maintain and most were ultimately razed.

Back to Jackson County’s, with the likelihood of the inside of the building no longer seeing visitors, a sign outside explaining it all would help. Of course, these things cost money, and I’m hopeful that the caretakers will raise enough to ultimately tell its story.

While they’re at it, there are a couple of other things worth mentioning alongside the poor farm.

One is the history of limestone architecture in Jackson County. There are more than 200 different limestone buildings county-wide, including the Gehlen Barn in the historic Luxembourg village of St. Donatus, considered to be the state’s oldest barn (1839?). Much of the limestone came from the Hurstville Lime Kilns north of Maquoketa, and the old kilns are still standing (not used in many years).

The road that the Jackson County Poor Farm was located on is the Olde Davenport Road (County Route Y61). This was the main road from Dubuque to Davenport up until around the 1920s before the creation of U.S. Route 61 a few miles to the west. The old road goes south of Dubuque from the Key West neighborhood, goes into Jackson County, takes a jog around LaMotte’s town square, goes by the poor farm, and Y61 currently ends at a T with Iowa Route 62. The Olde Davenport Road followed Route 62 south to Maquoketa, and then followed the old two-lane alignment of U.S. 61 (since upgraded to a freeway) south to Davenport and Brady Street.

The “61” in Y61 is not an old alignment of the U.S. Route, however, both go from Maquoketa to Dubuque in paralleling paths.

Be sure to visit Project: Poor Farm linked above to learn more about this site and about poor farms in general.

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