Bellevue Asylum Memorial in Rose Hill Cemetery.

In 1799-1800 the original Washington County Alms House was built on Locust Street and served the Hagerstown area until July 1880. As early as 1873 area residents recognized the need for a better alms home and the next several years Dr. Thomas Maddox presented his research to the local Farmers Club. Made up of several enlightened farmers, the club and Dr Maddox formed a committee to press their views on the County Commissioners. Their plan was favorable which set in motion what would become the Bellevue Asylum. Shortly after the Commissioners approved the plan Mr. John Nicodemus, a weathly man from Boonsboro, stepped forward and purchased 112 acres of land on the northern edge of Hagerstown. At a cost of $12,500 to himself, Mr. Nicodemus donated the land for Bellevue to be built upon. The name "Bellevue" was chosen by the clerk of the County Commissioners, John Bikle, but years later discovered the same name was used for the land years before. Built at a cost of $26,000 the asylum was located on Northern Avenue and there it stood until the mid 1900s. Sometime after 1920 (the exact date is still being researched) Bellevue was leveled and a hospital built upon the land.

During the years Bellevue served the community the bodies of inmates who died there often went unclaimed by family or friends. A cemetery was on the property for those who had no where else to go. When the hospital was built, the cemetery was dug up and bodies moved to Rose Hill Cemetery in Hagerstown where they were placed in one mass grave.

By 1940, Bellevue Asylum adopted the name Washington County Home for the Poor, as county almshouses were replaced by state-operated chronic disease hospitals. In 1956, plans were underway to remove Bellevue Asylum.

The Western Maryland Hospital Center was built over the farm by 1957, with the Coffman Nursing Home replacing the actual site of the asylum by 1961. The remains of 400 individuals who had died and were buried at Bellevue Asylum were removed to a group plot at Rose Hill Cemetery.