In the days when Pennsylvania was a colony, and on after independence into the 9th century, individual townships were responsible for the upkeep and care of the poor who resided within their boundaries. Accordingly, on April 11th, 1807, the Pennsylvania General Assembly passed an act "to provide for the erection of a poor house, for the better relief and employment of the poor in the townships of Oxford and Lower Dublin, in the county of Philadelphia." The law authorized the two townships, then in a largely rural, but nevertheless populous, part of the county, united as the Directors of the Poor, and the House of Employment for the Townships of Oxford and Lower Dublin, to purchase land for a poorhouse, hire stewards, matrons, physicians, and other staff, and levy taxes to support their almshouse.

And so that same year, the Directors of the Poor purchased a 145-acre tract of land in Lower Dublin Township and established the poor house, which included a self-sufficient farm. Even following the 1854 Act of Consolidation, which rolled governance of the townships and boroughs in Philadelphia County into a unified city government, some of the former townships, which became districts, were permitted to maintain their own alms houses — including Oxford and Lower Dublin, Roxborough, and Germantown (which also included Bristol township).

This maintenance included a burial ground on the institution's grounds for the deposition of those who died there and whose remains were otherwise unclaimed.

In 1907, the poorhouse celebrated its centenary, by which time the village of Holmesburg had grown rapidly around the old institution. But its days were numbered. Efforts to abolish the institution ramped up in the 1920s, and in 1937, the state passed a law stating that "in every city of the first class, the offices of poor director and of poor auditor of each poor district created by local law or remaining in existence as a former borough or township poor district are hereby abolished, except to the extent necessary to liquidate the affairs of the district."

The poor house was no more. It was immediately put to use for city purposes, including as a children's home and to house police horses in the old institution's stables. A caretaker was appointed to maintain the property, and in 1946 the majority of the grounds were sold to the Board of Education for the erection of a junior-senior high school, with a portion going to build housing.

The former burial ground does not appear to have even been moved, even after the construction of three schools on the site. It is unknown what, if any traces, remain today.