The PCPF is situated where Riverside Drive and 78th Street intersect which is souuth and east of Sumner about 1/2 mile. The only standing structure, now, is what was once the "inmates" residence and a caretaker's building. There was to the northwest and on the intersection corner a large old house whic I assume was for the manager of the farm. It was on a bit of land that is seperated from the resident building by a small stream. The resident building is being used by a company that does some kind of work on sterilization chambers. It sits next door to the Puget Sound Bulb Exchange. The building was used for a short time as a rehab center for alcoholism and may have also been used to house juvenile offenders. Several years ago a group from a church in Tacoma looked into starting some sort of facility there, as well, but nothing ever came of it. The Sumner Historical Society may have some info on it. Here is what I have located on the subject in my collections: Reference - History of Pierce County" By Bonney The land on which the farm was located was originally purchased by W. P. Wood. In 1886 he purchased 76 acres of land on the river two miles southeast of Sumner where he raised hops for two years and then sold the land to Pierce County to be used as the county poor farm. Reference - Ilustrated History of the State of Washington - Hines In February 1893 the farm was under the leadership of Alfred J. Clode who was appointed to oversee its operations. It consisted of 78 acres of which 50 were under cultivation and all of the products were provided by the land for the maintenance of the inmates residing there. Though I don't have the date for the article I assume that it must have been about 1893-95. There were 30 inmates at the time, men, women and children. The farm was said to be in prosperous condition. Reference series of articles written by Dr. J.H. Corliss in 1949 - Clode served as Superintendant of the farm until 1894 and retired. He was replaced by Grant Bartholemew. At the writing of the article the farm was named the Riverside Infirmary. Reference - Sumner Standard 3/23/44 The County Commissioners decided to sell the county farm not including the infirmary nor would it disturb the U.S. Bulb Laboratory. 4/27/44 The farm land was bought by Ed Orton "at $430 the acre". 5/4/44 56.92 acres of land were sold as well as farm machinery. Total proceeds of the "successful" auction were $32,743. The site of the Pierce County Infirmary and the U.S.Laboratory were not included in the sale. The Infirmary was to continue to be operated by the State Department of Social Security. Sorry, just bits and snatches. George Lowe carolynp@m5.sprynet.com wrote: > Sorry for the delay, but your request did not go unnoticed. > > Several Years ago, Heritage Quest Research Library attempted to acquire the > Sumner Poor Farm as a permanent home for the library's collection. Since so > much research was done at that time, I contacted the previous director to answer > Dick's question. Wish I had better news. > >From Ginger: > "He's not going to like the answer! I couldn't find any at the state, county or > Sumner level! Everyone told me to contact someone else...that they didn't > have the records, if there were any. I talked to a lady (since passed away) that > was a supervisor when it was a nursing home and she didn't know about any > records from before. I couldn't even find enough records of proof to > help get it put on the historic registers. Sorry!" > Ginger > > Very Sad, it's a neat old building. > Carolyn > Director > Heritage Quest Research Library