1899 County Poorhouse with Twin Witch's Hat Towers
1882 US Highway 27 South, Winchester, IN 47394
Age
Adults preferred for investigations; events vary
Cost
$$$
Public investigations are typically priced in the $50 to $90 range per person depending on event format and length.
Access
Limited Access
Multi-floor 1899 institutional building with original stairs, attic access, and basement
Equipment
Photos OK
Est. 1899 · County Poorhouse and Asylum · 1851 First Wooden Asylum (burned 1857) · Twin Witch's Hat Tower Architecture · Unmarked On-Site Cemetery
The first Randolph County asylum was a wooden structure built in 1851, sited on a 350-acre county farm and housing nineteen residents — many described in period records as physically or mentally disabled. That building burned to the ground in 1857 in a fire residents accidentally caused; no deaths were recorded.
The present brick building was constructed in 1899 to serve as the county infirmary. Across its institutional life it housed orphans, the destitute, the sick, the mentally ill, and the elderly. Unlike most Indiana county asylums it did not close in the 1930s; it remained operational into the late twentieth century, when only five residents remained inside its deteriorating walls. A cemetery on the grounds contains at least fifty unmarked graves, and county records document deaths from tuberculosis, suicide, accident, and old age. Total estimated mortality across the building's institutional life exceeds two hundred.
The building's twin witch's hat towers and Italianate brick mass make it visible from US Highway 27 just south of Winchester, across from the county fairgrounds. Today the structure is preserved by S.T.O.P., Saving the Old Properties, a volunteer organization that operates similar former institutional sites including a county jail, mansion, and church across Indiana. The infirmary is open for paranormal investigations on a calendar of public and private events, and both American Hauntings and Haunted Rooms America program overnight ghost-hunt events on the property.
Sources
Investigation accounts archived by Haunted Rooms America, American Hauntings, and Lost in the States describe the Randolph County Infirmary as a consistently active site. Reports concentrate on three areas: the second-floor wards, the attic, and the basement, with the on-site cemetery generating its own set of cemetery-walk accounts during dusk and dawn investigations.
The most-named entity in the property's published lore is a judge said in folklore to have held hearings inside the building's attic. Investigators describe a gruff, angry male voice captured on audio recordings made in that space; the same voice has been documented across multiple visiting groups. Whether the figure corresponds to any specific individual in the documented institutional record is uncertain; the name is preserved in the property's tour narration as folklore rather than as confirmed history.
Documented deaths on site include tuberculosis cases — the dominant institutional cause of death across decades — as well as suicides, falls, and at least one accounting of a man who died after being pushed from a second-story window. Investigators report shadow figures along the second-floor corridors and intelligent responses on EVP recordings made near the documented patient rooms. The basement is the heaviest-feeling area in most published accounts; the attic is where audio yields the most consistent results.
The site's preservation is unusual for Indiana county asylums. Most were demolished or repurposed during the twentieth century; the Randolph building remains substantially intact, including original interior surfaces, doors, and woodwork. That preservation is itself a documentary asset — the building offers an example of a complete county-poorhouse environment in a state that has lost most of its peers.
Notable Entities
Overnight paranormal investigation run by American Hauntings, with access to the main institutional floors, the attic where a judge is said in folklore to have held hearings, and the basement. Investigators bring their own equipment.
Shorter ticketed investigation events scheduled by the property's S.T.O.P. (Saving the Old Properties) group. Typical access includes the main wards, the second floor where reports concentrate, and the cemetery on the grounds.
Every HauntBound history is researched from documented sources. We clearly separate verified historical fact from paranormal folklore.
Weston, WV
Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum in Weston, West Virginia is the largest hand-cut stone masonry building in North America. Construction began in 1858 on the Kirkbride plan — a 19th-century therapeutic design philosophy emphasizing fresh air, natural light, and spatial dignity for psychiatric patients. The facility opened in 1864 with intended capacity for 250 patients. At its mid-20th-century peak, it held approximately 2,600.
Westland, MI
Eloise opened in 1839 as the Wayne County Poorhouse on 280 acres of farmland in Nankin Township, west of Detroit. Over the next century it grew into a self-sufficient complex of seventy-five buildings spread across 902 acres, peaking at roughly 10,000 residents during the Great Depression and combining a poorhouse, psychiatric hospital, tuberculosis sanatorium, and general hospital.
Winchester, IN
The Randolph County Infirmary traces its origins to Indiana's 1820s poor-relief system, which evolved into a formal county asylum by 1851. After the original wooden building burned in 1857, a brick replacement was built. The current 58,000-square-foot, four-story facility opened in December 1899 on the original foundation. Approximately 1,487 people resided there between 1899 and 2006, with roughly 500 dying on-site and receiving unmarked cemetery burials. The facility closed in 2006 and now operates as a paranormal investigation venue.