ALMSHOUSE AND INSANE ASYLUM

HUDSON,

  COLUMBIA COUNTY, NEW YORK

By Captain Franklin Ellis¹³³

¹⁸⁷⁸

     In the year 1801, Captain John Hathaway was authorized and directed to purchase Daniel Allen's house on State Street, to be used for the occupancy of the poor of the city, and it was so occupied until 1818, when a house was completed, also on State street, for the purpose.  This was the stone house opposite the head of Fourth street, now occupied as a residence.  It was erected under the superintendence of Dr. John Talman, Judah Paddock, and Barnabas Waterman, as a building committee, and was occupied for the purpose for which it was built until May, 1830, when it was vacated by the city and taken by Dr. Samuel White, for the establishment of an insane asylum under his own private auspices and supervision, assisted, however, by Dr. G. H. White.  In the first ten years three hundred patients were admitted, most of whom were cured, and all were benefited (this statement is taken from the advertisement of the institution published in 1841).  It was continued as an asylum until the opening of the State asylum at Utica, when it was abandoned and the patients removed to Utica.  The building was then used as a seminary by the Rev. J. B. Hauge, until the removal of that school to the lower part of Warren street.  It is now the residence of George H. Power, Esq.