The Allegheny County Workhouse was a

prison A prison, also known as a jail, gaol (dated, standard English, Australian, and historically in Canada), penitentiary (American English and Canadian English), detention center (or detention centre outside the US), correction center, correc ...

that was located adjacent to the town of

Blawnox, Pennsylvania Blawnox is a borough in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, United States. The population was 1,454 at the 2020 census. Name The name, Blawnox, is derived from the Blaw-Knox Company, which had a manufacturing plant there providing much of the town ...

. Its full name was "Allegheny County Workhouse and Inebriate Asylum". The first inmates were received in 1869, and the facility closed in 1971. The prison housed mostly inmates convicted of minor offenses. Many of those prisoners maintained a

farm A farm (also called an agricultural holding) is an area of land that is devoted primarily to agricultural processes with the primary objective of producing food and other crops; it is the basic facility in food production. The name is used fo ...

of about 1100 acres (445 ha), which contained apple orchards as well as many other crops and many different types of farm animals.

References

Defunct prisons in Pennsylvania Buildings and structures in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania 1869 establishments in Pennsylvania 1971 disestablishments in Pennsylvania {{US-prison-stub