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Featured Article Of The Week

Allentown State Hospital


AllentownSH 2010.jpg

The first step for the establishment of a homeopathic state hospital for the insane in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania was taken by the Germantown Homeopathic Medical Society of Philadelphia, which appointed a committee of twelve of its members, of which Isaac W. Heysinger, M. D., was chairman, for the purpose of introducing and furthering a bill before the State Legislature to provide for the selection of a site and the construction of a state hospital for the care of the insane to be under homeopathic management and control. After several unsuccessful attempts a bill was finally passed by both houses of the Pennsylvania Legislature, June 25-26, 1901, entitled, " An Act to Provide for the Selection of a Site and the Erection of a State Hospital for the Treatment of the Insane Under Homeopathic Management, to be Called the Homeopathic State Hospital for the Insane, and Making an Appropriation Therefor."

On July 18, 1901, the bill was approved by Gov. Wm. A. Stone, except as to Section 5, which provided for an appropriation of $300,000 to enable the commissioners to purchase land and commence the erection of buildings, from which the Governor withheld his approval in the sum of $250,000 because of insufficient state revenue. The commission received several propositions from places within the territory of the twelve counties comprising the hospital district. During December, 1902, they visited a number of the sites offered to them in Lehigh, Northampton, Monroe, Bradford and Wayne counties. Three places in Lehigh County were under consideration aid finally the section in Hanover Township, near Allentown, was chosen upon which to locate the new hospital, the tract secured by the state comprising 209 acres. The corner-stone was laid June 27, 1904. The failure of the Legislature to appropriate, and of the Governor to approve what the Legislature did appropriate, the moneys that were necessary to expeditiously proceed with the erection and construction of the buildings caused a great deal of needless delay in the completion of the institution for its estimated capacity of 1000 patients. This delay occasioned considerable public and legislative agitation, so that the organic law of 1901 was amended by the Legislature and approved by the Governor the 10th of May, 1911. The amendment vested the appointment of the entire commission in the Governor and required the approval of the Superintendent of Public Grounds and Buildings to plans and specifications and expenditures incurred by the commission. It also authorized the commission to turn over to a Board of Trustees the buildings when completed. The amended act brought about the removal of the original commission and the appointment of a new one. This, with the appropriation of an ample sum of money, resulted in the completion of the institution during 1912. Click here for more...