It was called the “poor farm,” and from 1866 to 1944 it existed a few miles southeast of Lawrence.

The history of the poor farm will be discussed at a presentation by the Lawrence Preservation Alliance at 3 p.m. Sunday at the Lawrence Public Library, 707 Vt. Attendance is free.

Rural Lawrence resident Norman Leary, who remembers seeing the farm and the people who lived and worked there, will lead the discussion.

“It’s something that especially the younger generation might not know much about, but it’s a part of our history,” said the alliance’s president, Dennis Brown.

Photographs of the building on the farm property, which was along the Wakarusa River just east of Haskell Avenue, will be shown. Photographs of what the property looks like now also will be available. The building no longer exists because it was destroyed by fire. Eight residents between the ages of 71 and 88 were killed.

The county owned and operated the farm, Leary said. A chicken coop, root cellar and a concrete building are the only things still on the grounds that were once a part of it, he said.

“According to my grandparents, the county stored dynamite in the concrete building,” Leary said. “They had to have it to blow up rock.”

In 1911, a two-story, 36-room building was constructed for the residents. After it was destroyed by fire, some of its red bricks were used to build a nearby house, Leary said.

All of the poor farm grounds now are on private property.