almshouse.
1. Establishment founded and endowed by private charity for the reception, housing, and support of the aged poor. Almshouses often consisted of groups of dwellings, sometimes with a chapel and dining-hall. Many English almshouses were erected following the dissolution of the monasteries: some are very simple terraces of houses, but others, e.g. the Beauchamp Almshouses at Newland, Worcs. (complete with church), of 1862–4, have architectural pretensions.

2. House where alms of a monastery were dispensed.

Bibliography

Bailey (1988);
Godfrey (1955)

alms·house / ˈä(l)mzˌhous/ • n. a house built originally by a charitable person or organization for poor people to live in.