The almshouse, which has been documented since the 15th century, was located on today's Kochbrunnenplatz near the hospital, with which it was jointly administered. A new building was constructed in 1542 with the help of donations.

Since the establishment of a "special house for the sick" in 1573, there was also a bathhouse exclusively for the sick and lepers. These baths were fed by the hospital spring. The lepers' bath or "bath of the good people (lepers)" was destroyed during the Thirty Years' War and was never rebuilt.

The baths for the poor were also destroyed and were only provisionally rebuilt after the war. While up to this point in time, in principle anyone could be admitted to the poor bath, from 1726 so-called poor certificates became a requirement. It is thanks to Pastor Egidius Hellmund that efforts to demolish the buildings and erect a penitentiary on the site were unsuccessful.

With the support of Princess Charlotte Amalie zu Nassau-Usingen, Hellmund was able to lay the foundation stone for a new hospital and almshouse in 1732, which was significantly extended on this occasion. From then on, the poor baths were allocated a tenth share of the Kochbrunnen spring, although this led to lawsuits and "many annoyances" with the bathhouse owners, who disputed these water rights with the poor baths.

The poor received "accommodation, bedding and service as well as free bathing" in the poor baths. Medicine and food had to be paid for by the local poor relief fund of the sick person's home parish. While only 78 people visited the bathhouse in 1687, by 1737 there were already 418 people. From 1814, the hospital and part of the poor baths had to be left to the so-called military patients.

In the meantime, the buildings had become dilapidated again and were demolished in 1822. After the new military hospital had been built on Dotzheimer Straße, master builder Carl Florian Goetz built a new and larger bathhouse for the poor in 1823/24 in the corner of the northern extended Saalgasse and the Nerobach, which was connected to the hospital by a two-storey intermediate building. After the construction of the new municipal hospitals on Schwalbacher Straße, the old Civil Hospital initially served as temporary accommodation for the poor sick from January 1, 1879.

The municipal baths for the poor continued to be used provisionally until 1881/82, but were gradually replaced by so-called open-air baths in the municipal baths.