says a recent book The Poor Side of Town: And Why We Need It, by Howard Husock (Encounter Books, 216 pp., $26.99) In 1890, a Danish-born New York newspaper reporter captured the nation’s attention.

A poor house with a fair view In the 19th and 20th centuries, rural communities provided housing for dependent or needy residents via poor farms where able bodied residents worked the farms.

Back in the mid-1800s, the property now known as Poor House Hollow was home to the county poorhouse. Despite its humble beginnings, this bucolic land just outside Leiper’s Fork has become highly ...