Pennhurst State School & Hospital
Est. 1908, Closed 1987
Pennhurst State School and Hospital dates back to 1903 when the Pennsylvania state legislature allocated funding for the creation of an institution to care for “feeble-minded and epileptic” Pennsylvanians. The facility is unique among asylums of the time, following the Kirkbride cottage plan. Individual buildings dot the campus separated by vast lawns, and each building helped contribute to the making the campus self sufficient. You could find everything from a fully functioning hospital to an auditorium capable of seating hundreds. Food was prepared on site, a railroad spur delivered coal and materials to the campus, and a school was constructed to help provide an education to the residents. A dairy farm and even an in ground pool could even be found at the site. Patients able to work were employed in various roles across the campus, with part of their treatment pinned to occupational therapy. Pennhurst Asylum was to be as independent as possible, though it would eventually fold under outside allegations of abuse and inhumane conditions during a high profile court case.
From the start, Pennhurst faced a problem which plagues most US institutions: overcrowding. Built to house around one thousand patients, the campus held over three thousand by the time its doors closed. Doctors weren’t staffed on weekends which left nurses to care for patient without the ability to prescribe medication until they returned the next weekday. Many patients were bound in straight jackets as a last ditch effort to prevent them from harming either themselves or others they lived with. Floors were separated by low cubicle-like structures in some buildings, actual walls in others. Patients lived on top of one another which certainly didn’t help with keeping a calm mood in the dormitories. All buildings had central heating but no air conditioning, relying on the abundant windows for airflow.
One of the more unique features of Pennhurst is the network of concrete tunnels that run under the campus, connecting buildings both above and below ground. In fairer weather, these tunnels provided a concrete sidewalk between buildings for residents and staff. Activity moved below ground during the harsher Pennsylvania winters as patients, food, and even bodies were shuffled between buildings on the campus via the tunnels. Even as I visited years after the last patient left Pennhurst, I couldn’t shake the feeling that something was left behind in those tunnels…
