In 1872 Samuel P. Davidson, one of the infirmary directors, was employed by the commissioners to lay off the grounds surrounding the new buildings, and make such improvements as were necessary to the comfort and convenience of the inmates and to the attractiveness of the institution. He drafted a plan of the grounds, which the commissioners approved. In the front of the building the landscape was laid off twenty yards square, with a heart-shape driveway from the gate to the main entrance of the building. Cutting this figure in two, is a gravel walk from the gate to the front door of the infirmary. Within the driveway, flowers, shrubbery and ornamental trees decorate the grounds, while surrounding it are planted fruit trees and various kinds of evergreens, giving to the whole a handsome appearance, and reflecting much credit upon its worthy projector, as well as upon the county whose general munificence has created this asylum for poor, suifering humanity.
The building is of brick with stone foundation forty-five by one hundred and eight feet in size, four stories high, with a rear wing thirty-two by forty-five feet and of the same height as the main structure. The basement, or first story, contains nineteen rooms and there are located the kitchen, bakery, laundry, children's dining-room, milk house and storage rooms, also the engine and boilers which heat the building throughout. Each of the other stories contain twenty rooms. On ascending a flight of stone steps from the driveway, the first floor above the basement is reached. This floor contains the superintendent's office and reception room, two dining-rooms, and sixteen bedrooms for the inmates. The central and western portion of the next floor is occupied by the family of the superintendent, the rest of it being used for inmates' bedrooms, bathrooms, and a wardrobe wherein the wearing apparel of the inmates is kept, neatly folded away for their use. The top floor is divided into bedrooms for the inmates and the help engaged at the infirmary. There is also located on this floor a school room, where the children stopping at the institution receive regular instruction, by a competent teacher employed for the purpose. The building contains three cells, in which insane inmates are confined when such a course is necessary. Close to the rear of the main structure stands a brick washhouse, a brick smokehouse, a frame icehouse, and all other outbuildings common to such institution.
The county farm lies about three and one-half miles southwest of London, in Union township, and is situated between the Jefferson, South Charleston, and Xenia turnpike and the Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, & St. Louis railroad. It is the highest elevation between London and Cincinnati, and possesses an excellent soil. The water is unequalled in the county, and contains splendid tonic qualities; while the premises at and around the inflrmary have wells and pipes from which constantly flows a never-failing supply of water for all purposes. The farm is well improved, contains an ice pond, has an orchard of several acres of the finest varieties of fruit trees, is kept in the best condition possible, and for a healthful, pleasant location cannot be surpassed anywhere in Madison county. The present superintendent of the infirmary is R. W. Thomas