I’m still pretty early in my quest to visit every surviving county home in Indiana, but one of the first I tracked down was in Wells County. About three miles southeast of Bluffton along South County Home Road, the shuttered Wells County Infirmary and Orphan’s Asylum still marks the spot where people once cared for their most vulnerable residents.
Wells County was officially organized in 1837. Before long, local officials faced a reality familiar across Indiana: some residents simply had nowhere else to go. In 1864, the county purchased a 156-acre farm to serve as a refuge for the poor, elderly, and infirm1.
A substantial brick building rose on the property in 1875 for $16,0002. Originally, the county home was said to have a capacity of about sixty residents. The campus continued to evolve over time; an enormous barn burned in 1900, but by 1918 the property had grown into a small institutional community, complete with steam and electric heating plants, indoor bathrooms, and a $6,000 replacement barn to support the farm that sustained its “inmates3”.
Unfortunately, Wells County is one of Indiana’s more rural corners. That can make its history difficult to pin down. Smaller communities often left behind fewer records, and the stories of places like the county home were rarely preserved through newspapers available today. Piecing together their past often means relying on scattered references in county histories, brief mentions in the paper, and the buildings themselves, which remain witnesses to the lives once lived there.
That said, many original infirmaries, like Wayne County’s, lasted a long time. Other older establishments, like Adams County’s, eventually burned. I’m not certain why the first Wells County Home was declared unsuitable, but construction on its replacement began in 1938, after Fred C. Carey of South Whitley won the contract for $68,7364. Overall, the building cost about $103,000- funds that were partially covered by a bond issue and a WPA grant5.
Completed in 1939, the second Wells County Home was large enough to house eighty residents6. A two-story structure with a semi-exposed basement, it measures 140 by 40 feet with a 38 x 39 foot rear wing. A Georgian facade and an impressive pediment face County Home Road7. Shortly after its completion, the building’s predecessor was demolished8.
Eventually, Wells County’s county home campus grew to feature the main home, a machine shed, a workshop, and a wash house. Unfortunately, it appears to have closed in 2009. Two years later, the grounds became the property of Maplewood Estates, LLC9, which operates it as apartments10.
Places like the old Wells County Home don’t always make it into the grand narratives of Indiana history. They were practical institutions, born of necessity rather than celebration, and their residents seldom left behind diaries, photographs, or memoirs. Still, the county homes quietly carried out one of the most important functions of local government for nearly a century.
Today, the story of the old Wells County Home still lingers in the brick and mortar. The farm fields that once supported the residents remain part of the landscape, and the stately façade that faced County Home Road still hints at the dignity officials hoped to provide those who lived there. A cemetery with more than forty burial sits onsite somewhere, but there are no known signs of its presence11.
That’s part of what makes visiting these sites so compelling to me. Even when the records are thin, old infirmary buildings often remain. Standing along South County Home Road, the old Wells County Home still tells a story about how communities once confronted poverty, illness, and old age. It’s one stop on a much larger journey across Indiana- easy to overlook from the road, but harder to forget once you know what happened there.
Sources Cited
1 Tyndall, J., & Lesh, O.E. (1918). Standard history of Adams and Wells counties, Indiana. Lewis Publishing Company [Chicago]. Book.
2 (See footnote 1).
3 (See footnote 1).
4 Contracts Let For Infirmary (1938, November 15). The Muncie Morning Star. p. 4.
5 (See footnote 4).
6 New Infirmary Inspected (1939, October 13). The Muncie Star. p. 12.
7 Parcel 90-08-23-300-001.001-003 (2026). Office of the Assessor. Wells County [Bluffton]. Web. Retrieved March 10, 2026.
8 (See footnote 6).
9 Parcel 90-08-23-300-001.001-003 (2026). Office of the Assessor. Wells County [Bluffton]. Web. Retrieved March 10, 2026.
10 Hassett, K. (2013). “The County Home in Indiana : A Forgotten Response to Poverty and Disability.” Ball State University [Muncie]. Web. Retrieved March 10, 2026.
11 Wells County Infirmary or Poor Home Cemetery (2026). InGenWeb. Web. Retrieved March 10, 2026.
