Pennhurst State Hospital

Pennhurst State Hospital
Opened	1908
Closed	1987
Current Status	Closed
Building Style	Cottage Plan
Architect(s)	Phillip H. Johnson
Alternate Names	The Eastern Pennsylvania State Institution for the Feeble minded and Epileptic Pennhurst State Hospital and School

History

In 1908, the Pennhurst State School and Hospital started up in a small Pennsylvania town to help people with mental and physical disabilities. Both adults and children were housed in this sprawling campus, most were sent here by their parents, and some never came back to see their children. The patients would be separated by their intelligence level in different buildings; some could almost function on their own, and others could not feed or bathe themselves. The most severely stricken patients would lie in cribs all day, barely able to move or roll over.

The constant attention needed for the patients was a very difficult task to begin with, but when overcrowding became apparent, the care and living conditions became appalling. Some patients learned how to get attention from the staff by smearing feces all over themselves, forcing the attendants to spend some quality time cleaning them off, as reported by Lou Chapman. Lou was a woman who worked for the Human Rights Committee who volunteered to stay in Pennhurst for 48 hours, living among the patients to witness their treatment. This event, which occurred 6 years after the lawsuit against Pennhurst, was of course made to look better than it really was... patients were dressed in their own clothes, with brand new shoes, and the ward where she stayed seemed overstaffed. Click here to read her report.

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. They were beaten, sexually assaulted, and isolated for long periods of time, causing them to regress farther and farther into a mentally disturbing state of mind, instead of being bettered by the school.

Eventually, the entire facility closed in 1987 after a de-institutionalization process lasting a few years had moved the "clients" to other facilities.

An organization is planning to create a "haunted attraction" on the site by October 2010. It will be called the "Pennhurst Institute of Fear."

Images of Pennhurst State Hospital

Main Image Gallery: Pennhurst State Hospital

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Video

• "Suffer the Children" - the Pennhurst Newsreels -(Windows Media Player is needed to view this video) - This is an updated, full color version of the original broadcast by Bill Baldini. This version also includes the follow-up broadcast from 2002 as well as an interview done with Dr. James Conroy from 1988. Thanks for this video from Dr. Conroy and also El Peecho Productions

• A Call of Conscience This video, produced and directed for the PM&PA by Heath Hofmeister of Electric Machine Productions, culminates the historic significance of the Pennhurst campus with the need for appropriate preservation and rememberance.

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Additional Information & Links

• Pennhurst Memorial and Preservation Alliance
• Pennhurst Wikipedia Entry
• Pennhurst at Opacity.com
• El Peecho's Pennhurst Website