The old Jay County Home sits removed, a quarter-mile off County Road 200-North back past a tree-lined drive. When I stopped by, I expected to find a place still quietly operating under county care. Instead, I arrived just after it had closed. Now, the building stands in an uneasy pause. It’s future is very much up in the air.
The first Jay County Home is said to have been established in 18361, but the earliest map I’ve found that it appears on was published in 18812. Designed by architect John Hasecoster of Richmond3, the present home was built on a 320-acre farm in 1895 for either $17,0004 or $21,0005. Sources vary.
Indiana’s county homes often followed one of two basic layouts. Some were built in a tripartite style with three parallel wings6. Others took on a T-shaped plan, placing the superintendent’s residence up front with separate wings for men and women extending behind it. Hasecoster chose that latter approach for the Jay County Home7.
For buildings meant to serve an institutional purpose, many of Indiana’s county homes were surprisingly stylish. The fifty-room Jay County Home is a great example: look closely and you’ll spot stone-trimmed windows, intersecting gables, warm brickwork, and a carefully balanced facade. Those elements imply a Neo-Jacobean influence to me, and others agree8. A tube-slide style fire escape serves more of a practical purpose, but they’re fun to see nonetheless.
A few stories jumped out as I dug into the county home’s history, but one in particular is hard to forget. In 1916, eighty-one-year-old Matthew Myers -a one-armed Austrian cobbler who had lived at the facility for thirty-four years- confided to the superintendent that he might have not been quite as penniless as everyone thought. Sewn into his vest was a small fortune: $29.10 in gold, silver, and cash (about $884 today), along with a $75 check now worth $2,2489!
Another episode read more like a headline and made the Indianapolis papers in 1936: during a confrontation with an unruly resident, the home’s superintendent tried to have the man locked up only for the situation to turn violent in an instant. The resident lashed out and stabbed him in the face10! I’m not certain that instances like that were all that uncommon.
Unfortunately, buildings age. In 1972, confidence in the old county home had eroded to the point that a grand jury didn’t mince words. It concluded the home’s “physical facilities are substandard and not worth the investment to repair them,” and went a step further by recommending the entire operation be shut down and its farmland sold off11. Fortunately, the infirmary remained in operation. Its name was changed to the Jay County Retirement Center the same year12.
Nonetheless, echoes of the place’s past still lingered: in the eighties, the Jay County Circuit Court occasionally sent probationers there to work. It was a reminder that the site continued to serve the public in unexpected ways.
At the same time, real investments were finally being made. in the elderly home: a $250,000 addition using bricks salvaged from the old Jay County jail brought modern amenities to the property! They included a new kitchen, dining area, two lounges, and updated restrooms13.
Eventually, times changed. Eighteen residents lived at what was then known as Jay County Country Living in 2025, and ten of them required care the home couldn’t provide. Officials announced a motion to close the facility by the end of 2026 that August14, and the building was empty by the time I stopped by.
I’m not sure what’s in store for the old Jay County Home, but at least one organization -the Journey Home veterans’ organization from Winchester- appeared interested in reusing the building pending questions about its foundation, electricals, and sprinkler system15. Hopefully reuse is possible.
For now, though, the old Jay County Home sits in a kind of quiet limbo. Whether it finds new life or slowly fades, it stands as a reminder that these places were never just institutions- they were communities of last resort, shaped as much by the people inside them as by the bricks and plans that defined them. The buildings are landmarks around rural Indiana.
Sources Cited
1 Jay County Infirmary (2021, April 27). Asylum Projects. Web. Retrieved March 15, 2026.
2 Historical hand-atlas, illustrated : containing … twelve farm maps, and History of Jay County, Indiana (1881). H.H. Hardesty [Chicago]. Map.
3 County Infirmary Accepted (1896, April 11). The Indianapolis News. p. 7.
4 Geary, K. (1982, August 18). Jay Retirement Center on National Historic List. The Muncie Star. p. 5.
5 County Infirmary Accepted (1896, April 11). The Indianapolis News. p. 7.
6 National Register of Historic Places, Parkview Home of Clinton County, Frankfort, Clinton County, Indiana, National Register # 100003179.
7 (See footnote 1).
8 (See footnote 1). “
9 Had Money Sewed In Lining Of His Vest (1916, April 23). The Muncie Star. p. 8.
10 Inmate Stabs Head Of Jay County Infirmary (1936, November 23). The Indianapolis News. p. 4.
11 Jay Jury Reveals 3 Indictments (1972, December 14). The Muncie Star. p. 28.
12 (See footnote 4).
13 Chapman, J. (1986, December 7). Caretakers. The Muncie Star. p. 43.
14 Commissioners Minutes (2025, August 13). Jay County Commissioners [Portland]. Web. Retrieved March 16, 2026.
15 Cline, B. (2025, December 23). Commissioners OK The Journey Home to hire engineers. The Portland Commercial Review. Web. Retrieved March 15, 2026.
