Troutdale Sites

"The Multnomah County Poor Farm in Troutdale was built in 1911 to replace Multnomah County's first home for the destitute, the Hillside Farm in Portland's West Hills. The latter institution, which housed the poor, ill, and disabled, was inspected in the fall of 1910 by a coalition of members from Portland charitable organizations who declared the crumbling building and its deplorable conditions to be disgraceful. That spurred Multnomah County Commissioners to hasten work on a progressive new institution at Troutdale intended to help the poor become self-sufficient through farming. This "back to the land" concept in social welfare was based on...