During the colonial era, this land was part of a 230 acre Glebe Farm owned by Beckford Parish, the local division of the established Anglican Church, and used to support its minister, Revolutionary War figure Peter Muhlenberg. After independence, when the established church was dissolved, Shenandoah County citizens petitioned the state in 1798 to appropriate the Glebe land for the sole use and benefit of the poor, and soon afterward the General Assembly ceded the property to the county. The land became the County Farm, where orphans, those with mental and physical ailments, and the poor came to live, some for short periods and others for their entire lives, often under difficult conditions. At first residents lived in Glebe-era buildings, but in 1829 a new brick Alms House was built, and inhabitants grew their own food and sold the surplus while Overseers of the Poor, along with a superintendent and matron, managed care and operations. Responsibility for the care of the poor and the use of the land changed over time: in 1850 superintendent and kitchen wings were added, in 1864 the Battle of Tom's Brook raged on part of the property, in 1909 the State Board of Charities and Corrections called the County Farm one of the best institutions in the state and thirty-one people lived there, in 1984 part of the farm became a county park while the rest remained leased to area farmers, and in 1991 the Shenandoah Alliance for Shelter opened a temporary shelter in the Alms House. The Alms House continued sheltering the needy until it was destroyed by fire on April 13, 2014.