Pennhurst State School
Encyclopedia
Pennhurst State School and Hospital, originally known as the Eastern Pennsylvania State Institution for the Feeble-Minded and Epileptic is positioned on the border between Chester County
and Montgomery County
in Pennsylvania
. Pennhurst was an institution
for the mentally and physically disabled individuals of Southeastern Pennsylvania.
This commission discovered 1,146 feeble-minded persons in insane hospitals and 2,627 in almshouses, county-care hospitals, reformatories, and prisons and were in immediate need of specialized institutional care.
The legislation stated that the buildings would be in two groups, one for the educational and industrial department, and one for the custodial or asylum department. The institution was required to accommodate no less than five hundred inmates or patients, with room for additions.
'P' was used as a temporary Administration building until the institution's opening in 1918 along with the opening of ‘L’ and ‘M’ in 1919. In 1921, Whitman and Wilson I and II were constructed along with Penn Hall for employee housing; in 1929, the Assembly building was complete and functioned as the gymnasium and auditorium.
The buildings on lower campus are currently labeled with letters such as 'F', 'I', 'K', 'P', 'Q', 'R', 'N', 'U', 'V', 'T', 'W' and 'X' with names later assigned in the 1960's (see below).
In 1930, the first buildings on the upper campus, otherwise known as the Female Colony, were completed and named Pershing, Buchanan, Audubon and Keystone. Capitol Hall was erected after World War II along with Devon constructed on lower campus. Horizon Hall opened later in 1971.
Philadelphia,
Quaker,
Rockwell,
Franklin,
Nobel,
Union,
Vincennes,
Tinicum,
Industry,
Penn,
Devon,
Mayflower,
Limerick,
Assembly,
Storeroom,
Laundry,
Whitman,
Wilson I,
Wilson II,
Hershey,
Dietary
The central Administration building has two side-porte-cocheres, a front portico and a copper cupola in the center of the roof. The hospital building, Whitman and Wilson I and II are not tunnel connected nor is Penn Hall and the Power House. The remaining cottage buildings are 'L' and 'I' shaped with the exception of Dietary which 'Y'shaped is and Devon Hall which is 'H' shaped.
The Superintendent reported to the Board of Trustees that:
The mission of the institution was clarified once again and only people with mental disabilities were to be admitted.
Recreation of the train tracks has started and they are working to create a working train transportation system.
, a leading eugenicist, as follows:
In 1983, nine employees were indicted on charges ranging from slapping and beating patients (including some in wheelchairs) to arranging for patients to assault each other.
The Halderman Case, which resulted in the closure of the institution, also detailed widespread patient abuse.
Pennhurst State School was forced to close by 1987 following several allegations of abuse, beginning a deinstitutionalization process that would last several years. Its 460 patients were discharged or transferred to other facilities; Pennhurst was responsible for discussing treatment plans with each patient's family to decide what would be the best for the patient.
, and that Pennhurst used cruel and unusual punishment
in violation of the eighth
and fourteenth amendment
s, as well as the Pennsylvania Mental Health and Retardation Act of 1966 (MH/MR). While the District Court agreed that certain of the patient's rights had been violated, upon appeal, the case was eventually overturned at the U.S. Supreme Court which found that the federal courts cannot order state officials to comply with state laws, due to the Eleventh Amendment. As noted below, the institution was eventually closed after an agreement in the lawsuit required that community services be offered to all of its residents.
In 2005, the state adopted the Keystone Principles, which re-affirmed the state's duties to maintain historic property and to consult with the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission before transferring the property into private hands, but local supervisors
instead voted 2-1 to approve a private development and Pennhurst was sold to a developer, Pennhurst Associates, for two million dollars. The Pennhurst Memorial and Preservation Alliance was formed to advocate for the sensitive re-use of the site.
PM&PA adopted a portion of Route 724 through PennDOT's Adopt-a-Highway program and Pennhurst was added to the National Register of Historic Places and Pennsylvania's list of the most At-Risk Pennsylvania Properties as well as the International Coalition of Sites of Conscience, a worldwide network of historic sites specifically dedicated to remembering struggles for justice.
In partnership with the Preservation Alliance of Greater Philadelphia, PM&PA obtained a service grant to complete a re-use design and feasibility study on the Pennhurst campus.
As of 2010, Penn Organic Recycling LLC currently operates on four-and-a-half-acres of Pennhurst, offering tipping, composting and food waste services. The Department of Environmental Protection permitted the composting operation at Pennhurst to maintain no more than 25 tons.
Pennhurst was featured on the shows Ghost Adventures
on Travel Channel
and Ghost Hunters
on SyFy
.It was also in the movie Wrong Turn 4. The Queensryche
song "Eyes of a Stranger" was about Pennhurst.
Chester County, Pennsylvania
-State parks:*French Creek State Park*Marsh Creek State Park*White Clay Creek Preserve-Demographics:As of the 2010 census, the county was 85.5% White, 6.1% Black or African American, 0.2% Native American or Alaskan Native, 3.9% Asian, 0.0% Native Hawaiian, 1.8% were two or more races, and 2.4% were...
and Montgomery County
Montgomery County, Pennsylvania
Montgomery County is a county located in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania, in the United States. As of 2010, the population was 799,874, making it the third most populous county in Pennsylvania . The county seat is Norristown.The county was created on September 10, 1784, out of land originally part...
in Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania
The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania is a U.S. state that is located in the Northeastern and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. The state borders Delaware and Maryland to the south, West Virginia to the southwest, Ohio to the west, New York and Ontario, Canada, to the north, and New Jersey to...
. Pennhurst was an institution
Institution
An institution is any structure or mechanism of social order and cooperation governing the behavior of a set of individuals within a given human community...
for the mentally and physically disabled individuals of Southeastern Pennsylvania.
Overview
In 1903, the Pennsylvania Legislature authorized the creation of the Eastern State Institution for the Feeble-Minded and Epileptic and a commission was organized to take into consideration the number and status of the feeble-minded and epileptic persons in the state and determine a placement for construction to care for these residents.This commission discovered 1,146 feeble-minded persons in insane hospitals and 2,627 in almshouses, county-care hospitals, reformatories, and prisons and were in immediate need of specialized institutional care.
The legislation stated that the buildings would be in two groups, one for the educational and industrial department, and one for the custodial or asylum department. The institution was required to accommodate no less than five hundred inmates or patients, with room for additions.
Building Designation
From 1903 to 1908 the first buildings were constructed on 633.913 acres (2.6 km²) of Crab Hill in Spring City, Pennsylvania, Chester County on what was referred to as the lower campus. Out of the first few buildings constructed, 'F' was the Girl's Dining Room, 'G' was the Kitchen and Store Room, 'H', 'I' and 'K' were a Cottage for Girls, 'N' was the Boys' Dining Room, 'P' was the Teachers Home, 'Q', T', 'U' and 'V' were a Cottage for Boys, 'R' was a School, 'W' was Laundry and Sewing, and 'X' was the Power House.'P' was used as a temporary Administration building until the institution's opening in 1918 along with the opening of ‘L’ and ‘M’ in 1919. In 1921, Whitman and Wilson I and II were constructed along with Penn Hall for employee housing; in 1929, the Assembly building was complete and functioned as the gymnasium and auditorium.
The buildings on lower campus are currently labeled with letters such as 'F', 'I', 'K', 'P', 'Q', 'R', 'N', 'U', 'V', 'T', 'W' and 'X' with names later assigned in the 1960's (see below).
In 1930, the first buildings on the upper campus, otherwise known as the Female Colony, were completed and named Pershing, Buchanan, Audubon and Keystone. Capitol Hall was erected after World War II along with Devon constructed on lower campus. Horizon Hall opened later in 1971.
Lower Campus Buildings
Administration,Philadelphia,
Quaker,
Rockwell,
Franklin,
Nobel,
Union,
Vincennes,
Tinicum,
Industry,
Penn,
Devon,
Mayflower,
Limerick,
Assembly,
Storeroom,
Laundry,
Whitman,
Wilson I,
Wilson II,
Hershey,
Dietary
Appearance
The older buildings, designed by Phillip H. Johnson, were two-storied, and made of red brick, terra cotta and granite trimmings. They were connected by fire-proof tunnels with walkways on top of the tunnels for the use of transporting residents with a parallel steam piping system, and were distributed on the 1400 acres (5.7 km²) campus in the cottage plan formation. The buildings were designed to provide a large number of small rooms occupied by from two to three beds, a few small dormitories with from eight to ten beds, and a large exercising day room. George Lovatt was the architect for several of the buildings constructed post-1937.The central Administration building has two side-porte-cocheres, a front portico and a copper cupola in the center of the roof. The hospital building, Whitman and Wilson I and II are not tunnel connected nor is Penn Hall and the Power House. The remaining cottage buildings are 'L' and 'I' shaped with the exception of Dietary which 'Y'shaped is and Devon Hall which is 'H' shaped.
Railroad
The Pennsylvania Railroad created a Pennhurst Station on its Schuylkill Division concurrent to accommodate Pennhurst. Coal and other supplies were delivered by rail for decades to operate the power house. Tracks are still visible under the pavement behind Dietary and Devon Hall, which allowed boxcars to be brought directly onto the main campus. The railroad tracks have been removed and are now part of the Schuylkill River TrailThe Superintendent reported to the Board of Trustees that:
It is without question absolutely wrong to place the feeble-minded and epileptic in the same institution. They are not the same; they are as different, one from the other, as day is from night. They are mentally, physically and morally incompatible, and require entirely different treatment.
The mission of the institution was clarified once again and only people with mental disabilities were to be admitted.
Recreation of the train tracks has started and they are working to create a working train transportation system.
Opening
On November 23, 1908, "Patient number 1" was admitted to the hospital. Within four years of operation, Pennhurst was already overcrowded and under pressure to admit immigrants, orphans and criminals.Classification
Residents were classified into mental categories of imbecile or insane, into physical categories of epileptic or healthy, and into dental categories of good, poor or treated teeth when admitted.Physical Condition of Children
Some of the sensorial and functional anomalies, vices of constitution and habit, and disorders of volition common to the feeble-minded admitted to Pennhurst were Strabismus, defective sight and/or hearing, mute, semi-mute, imperfect speech, paralytic, epileptic, blind, imperfect gait, imperfect prehension, deformity of face, head, limbs and/or feet, microcephalic or hydrocephalic head, and offensive habits.Industries
The branches of industry which residents were assigned to were mattress making, shoe making and repair, grading, farming, laundry, domestic duties, sewing, baking, butchering, painting, and working in the store.Segregation and Eugenics
In 1913, the legislature appointed a Commission for the Care of the Feeble-Minded which stated that the disabled were unfit for citizenship and posed a menace to the peace, and thus recommended a program of custodial care. Furthermore, the Commission desired to prevent the intermixing of the genes of those imprisoned with the general population. In the Biennial Report to the Legislature submitted by the Board of Trustees, Pennhurst's Chief Physician quoted Henry H. GoddardHenry H. Goddard
Henry Herbert Goddard was a prominent American psychologist and eugenicist in the early 20th century...
, a leading eugenicist, as follows:
Every feeble-minded person is a potential criminal. The general public, although more convinced today than ever before that it is a good thing to segregate the idiot or the distinct imbecile, they have not as yet been convinced as to the proper treatment of the defective delinquent, which is the brighter and more dangerous individual.
Females
In 1916, the Board of Trustees initiated a plan to increase the capacity of the Institution by constructing cottages specifically for females to segregate them from the males, in part to prevent pregnancies.Criticism
In 1968, conditions at Pennhurst were exposed in a five-part television news report anchored by local NBC10 correspondent Bill Baldini. "Suffer the Little Children".In 1983, nine employees were indicted on charges ranging from slapping and beating patients (including some in wheelchairs) to arranging for patients to assault each other.
The Halderman Case, which resulted in the closure of the institution, also detailed widespread patient abuse.
Closure
The class-action case against Pennhurst State School was ruled by U.S. District Judge Raymond J. Broderick in 1977, where the institution was found guilty of violating patient's constitutional rights.Pennhurst State School was forced to close by 1987 following several allegations of abuse, beginning a deinstitutionalization process that would last several years. Its 460 patients were discharged or transferred to other facilities; Pennhurst was responsible for discussing treatment plans with each patient's family to decide what would be the best for the patient.
Halderman v. Pennhurst State School and Hospital
The allegations of abuse led to the first lawsuit of its kind in the United States called, Halderman v. Pennhurst State School & Hospital, 446 F.Supp. 1295 (E.D. Pa., 1977), which asserted that the mentally retarded have a constitutional right to living quarters and education. Terry Lee Halderman had been a resident of Pennhurst, and upon release she filed suit in the district court on behalf of herself and other residents of Pennhurst. The complaint alleged that conditions at Pennhurst were unsanitary, inhumane and dangerous, violating the fourteenth amendmentFourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution
The Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution was adopted on July 9, 1868, as one of the Reconstruction Amendments.Its Citizenship Clause provides a broad definition of citizenship that overruled the Dred Scott v...
, and that Pennhurst used cruel and unusual punishment
Cruel and unusual punishment
Cruel and unusual punishment is a phrase describing criminal punishment which is considered unacceptable due to the suffering or humiliation it inflicts on the condemned person...
in violation of the eighth
Eighth Amendment to the United States Constitution
The Eighth Amendment to the United States Constitution is the part of the United States Bill of Rights which prohibits the federal government from imposing excessive bail, excessive fines or cruel and unusual punishments. The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that this amendment's Cruel and Unusual...
and fourteenth amendment
Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution
The Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution was adopted on July 9, 1868, as one of the Reconstruction Amendments.Its Citizenship Clause provides a broad definition of citizenship that overruled the Dred Scott v...
s, as well as the Pennsylvania Mental Health and Retardation Act of 1966 (MH/MR). While the District Court agreed that certain of the patient's rights had been violated, upon appeal, the case was eventually overturned at the U.S. Supreme Court which found that the federal courts cannot order state officials to comply with state laws, due to the Eleventh Amendment. As noted below, the institution was eventually closed after an agreement in the lawsuit required that community services be offered to all of its residents.
Modern Day
After many years of determining what to do with Pennhurst, congressman Jim Gerlach sought to establish a federal veterans cemetery at Pennhurst in 2003 but the VA rejected the proposal.In 2005, the state adopted the Keystone Principles, which re-affirmed the state's duties to maintain historic property and to consult with the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission before transferring the property into private hands, but local supervisors
City council
A city council or town council is the legislative body that governs a city, town, municipality or local government area.-Australia & NZ:Because of the differences in legislation between the States, the exact definition of a City Council varies...
instead voted 2-1 to approve a private development and Pennhurst was sold to a developer, Pennhurst Associates, for two million dollars. The Pennhurst Memorial and Preservation Alliance was formed to advocate for the sensitive re-use of the site.
PM&PA adopted a portion of Route 724 through PennDOT's Adopt-a-Highway program and Pennhurst was added to the National Register of Historic Places and Pennsylvania's list of the most At-Risk Pennsylvania Properties as well as the International Coalition of Sites of Conscience, a worldwide network of historic sites specifically dedicated to remembering struggles for justice.
In partnership with the Preservation Alliance of Greater Philadelphia, PM&PA obtained a service grant to complete a re-use design and feasibility study on the Pennhurst campus.
As of 2010, Penn Organic Recycling LLC currently operates on four-and-a-half-acres of Pennhurst, offering tipping, composting and food waste services. The Department of Environmental Protection permitted the composting operation at Pennhurst to maintain no more than 25 tons.
Pennhurst was featured on the shows Ghost Adventures
Ghost Adventures
Ghost Adventures is a weekly American paranormal television series that premiered on October 17, 2008 on the Travel Channel. Currently produced by MY-Tupelo Entertainment , the program follows and stars ghost hunters Zak Bagans, Nick Groff, and Aaron Goodwin, as they investigate locations that are...
on Travel Channel
Travel Channel
The Travel Channel is a satellite and cable television channel that is headquartered in Chevy Chase, Maryland, US. It features documentaries and how-to shows related to travel and leisure around the United States and throughout the world. Programming has included shows in African animal safaris,...
and Ghost Hunters
Ghost Hunters
Ghost Hunters is an American paranormal reality television series that premiered on October 6, 2004, on Syfy . The program features paranormal investigators Jason Hawes and Grant Wilson who investigate places that are reported to be haunted. The two originally worked as plumbers for Roto-Rooter as...
on SyFy
Syfy
Syfy , formerly known as the Sci-Fi Channel and SCI FI, is an American cable television channel featuring science fiction, supernatural, fantasy, reality, paranormal, wrestling, and horror programming. Launched on September 24, 1992, it is part of the entertainment conglomerate NBCUniversal, a...
.It was also in the movie Wrong Turn 4. The Queensryche
Queensrÿche
thumb|250px|right|Queensrÿche's classic line-up performing at the [[Sauna Open Air Metal Festival]] 2011 in [[Tampere]], [[Finland]]. Left to right: bass Eddie Jackson, lead vocals Geoff Tate, drums Scott Rockenfield and guitars Michael Wilton....
song "Eyes of a Stranger" was about Pennhurst.
External links
- Abandoned But Not Forgotten Pennhurst Pictures
- Jared Strugala Pennhurst Pictures by Jared Strugala
- Wayne Benner Ultimate Pennhurst Photo Collection by Wayne Benner
- Photadyta The Infirmary & other Pennhurst photographs
- Abandonedamerica.us Pennhurst gallery
- Soul-Imagery.com Pennhurst Gallery