Improvements at Barnum Island

New York, 1895

Supervisors Denton and Underhill, of the committee on poor-house and farm, met with the Superintendents of the Poor at Barnum Island, Wednesday for the purpose of considering the matter of establising new quarters for the women inmates, and more particularly the aged and infirm. Under the present system, the aged females are kept in the second story of a small building used as a laundry, while the others have their quarters in the rear of the building occupied by the keeper.

Two plans had been suggested to the Supervisors. One was that a small house be erected for the women, and the other that a new executive building with an office and commodious apartments for the keeper be erected.

An inspection of the buildings convinced the committee and the superintendents that it was only a matter of time when new quarters for the keeper would have to be built, so it was decided to report in favor of erecting such a building at once. Not more than $5,000 will be expended in the work.

—The Long Island Farmer, Jamaica, NY, Feb. 15, 1895, p. 1.