Haverford State Hospital

Haverford State Hospital
Established	June 13, 1961
Construction Began	1964
Closed	1998
Current Status	Demolished
Building Style	Cottage Plan
Peak Patient Population	562 in August 1987
Alternate Names	Haverford Hilton Haverford State

Philadelphia was a pioneer in mental health care in the late 19th century, offering "moral treatment" at the Institute of Pennsylvania Hospital. Patients were treated for grief and anxiety, as well as for inflictions such as "religious excitement...prolonged lactation, metaphysical speculation ... and exposure to the sun's direct rays," according to the Pennsylvania Hospital Web site. From the late 19th century to the 1950s, mental hospitals proliferated around the country. In 1962 there were 526,000 people in state and county mental hospitals, according to the Center for Mental Health Services of the U.S. Public Health Service. When the Haverford State mental hospital was built in the early 1960s, it was designed to be a model of luxury care. Haverford State was known as the "Haverford Hilton" when it was built, boasting bowling alleys and private rooms. But over the next decade the hospital became over-crowded, and conditions declined. Patients slept in hallways or dayrooms, and were subjected to restraints, heavy sedation and disciplinary shock treatments.

In 1986, a rash of escapees brought the hospital into the media spotlight. About 80 patients had managed to escape by June of 1986, including some who were potentially dangerous, according to NEWS of Delaware County coverage. The county was shaken when 25-year-old mental patient Raymond Tillger walked off the hospital grounds and disappeared on June 6. Tillger was found not guilty of slaying his girlfriend in 1979, due to mental illness, but was considered potentially dangerous by the police. He was arrested eight days after his escape at the La Casa Pasta restaurant in New Castle. "It is not an understatement to say that Haverford State Hospital presents a time bomb waiting to explode," wrote State Rep. Stephen Freind, after the incident. "It is only a matter of either divine providence or complete luck that thus far one of the walkaways has not seriously harmed or killed one of my constituents residing in the area or, for that matter, in any other area." Freind was appalled that as a minimum security institution, Haverford State was housing potentially dangerous patients, and began pushing the state for stronger security measures. It was a case of "gross incompetence" on the part of the hospital management, he said. "When I have frequently complained to the Director of the Hospital, Dr. Fong, he has used his standard procedure, namely waving his hands in the air and pleading helplessness," wrote Freind, calling on the attorney general to launch a grand jury investigation.

A year later, the dangerously overcrowded conditions at Haverford State again came under serious fire. In 1987 the hospital was operating at 141 percent of capacity, according to an Associated Press story, with 123 patients packed into wards designed to hold only 87. State officials and hospital administrators fought over whether to transfer patients to other hospitals or to increase funding in order to open two unused wards at Haverford State. Local officials were outraged when the state proposed to transfer long-term patients to other facilities and stop bringing new acutely ill patients to the facilities. "It's very sick people leaving Delaware County, going away from their families, away from their friends," Sandra Cornelius, Director of the Delaware County Department of Human Resources, told the Associated Press in June 1987. In July of 1987 state officials negotiated to open 34 additional beds in the hospital to relieve some of the worst overcrowding, according to a press release from Friend's office. But the hospital management did not escape hot water for long. In July, 1988 a heat wave caused temperatures in some of the non-air conditioned hospital buildings to soar to as high as 115 degrees, according to Freind and state Rep. Mary Ann Arty. The lawmakers told the head of the state welfare department that air conditioners installed in the hospital lobbies were a temporary fix, but demanded central air for the buildings.

Despite efforts to control the overcrowding and to improve conditions, they continued to worsen. The hospital failed a Medicare inspection in July of 1987 because of nursing shortages. It passed a second inspection in November 1987 by moving the Medicare patients to well-staffed wards, while neglecting the others, testified former Haverford State Hospital Superintendent Dr. John Fong at his trial in 1989. The hospital housed a whooping 562 patients in August of 1987. To make matters worse, Fong was arrested shortly after retiring from his position as Superintendent in November of 1988. On Feb. 3, 1989, he was found guilty of tampering with public records in order to falsify an injury report. "Witnesses at Dr. John Fong's trial presented a picture of deteriorating conditions at Haverford State Hospital, in which employees feared Fong and blindly followed his orders, while coping with patient overcrowding and staff shortages," wrote NEWS of Delaware County Staff Writer David Bjorkgren.

Conditions began to improve, and by the 1990's the hospital had transformed itself, according to Silberner's report. Patients were involved in education and recreation with a focus on self-help, she said. But American public sentiment was turning against the idea of mental institutions. In June of 1990, the Philadelphia State Hospital closed, making way for a new method of decentralized mental health services, according to the Mental Health Association of Southeastern Pennsylvania. Just 70,000 patients remained in state and county mental hospitals by 1996. Lawyers successfully argued that under the new Americans With Disabilities Act, mentally ill people should be kept in the least restricted setting as possible, said Silberner. The decision put the final nail in Haverford State's coffin. When the closing was announced by the state in 1997, there were 262 patients in residence. By June 3, 1998, 54 of those had been placed in care in the community, and 172 had been transferred to the Norristown State Hospital. The buildings were locked and the land was sold to Haverford Township. Since then, the township has struggled for almost a decade to decide what to do with the property.

On November 14, 2006, the Haverford Township Board of Commissioners approved the Agreement of Sale and Preliminary Land Development Plans. The so-called Haverford Reserve development will include 100 carriage homes and 198 condominiums plus the Township will ultimately have several athletic fields and over 120 areas for passive recreation. The hospital has also been plagued in the past year by people scrapping for copper and other valuable metals. On April 5th 2007, the Pennsylvania Attorney General filed an indictment against 5th ward commissioner Fred C. Moran in conjunction with the sale of the state Hospital property. This scandal involved Fred Moran disclosing the bids of other potential developers (that were supposed be confidential) to one contractor in particular. He is awaiting trial.

After sitting vacant for many years the buildings of Haverford State Hospital had become a playground for teenagers, vandals, and scrappers. The buildings were reduced to a shell of what once was. Broken glass and graffiti filled the hospital hallways. Nine years after the doors closed demolition of the former state hospital began in early June 2007. The first buildings to come down were the administration and recreation buildings, followed by the extended treatment and geriatric wards. The final two buildings to be demolished were the boiler plant, and the five story Hilltop building which finally fell on January 17th, 2008. Currently the upper portion of the property, is being developed into housing, while the lower portion is being developed into athletic and recreations areas for the township. The vast woods surrounding the property to the south and west have been allowed to remain.

Images of Haverford State Hospital

Main Image Gallery: Haverford State Hospital

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Additional Information & Links

• About the lawsuit
• About the closing
• HSH Wikipedia Entry
• HSH at Opacity