Historic Bucks County Almshouse grounds

History & local legend

The historic Bucks County Almshouse grounds near Doylestown included a farm as well as institutional buildings. A former resident, writing as kchewning in December 2010, recalled moving into one of the farmhouses at about six years old. Its walls were so thick that a child could sit inside the deep window recesses.

The resident remembered hearing laughter from those window seats when they were empty. Other experiences included footsteps upstairs and along the halls, a scent of lavender, and doorknobs turning without anyone visible on the other side. The writer placed the hospital across the street from the childhood home. In a separate 2006 account, a visitor described feeling watched inside a building marked by a plaque reading “Bucks County Hospital.”