The Pennsylvania State Hospital System is a network of psychiatric hospitals operated by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. At its peak in the late 1940s the system operated more than twenty hospitals and served over 43,000 patients. As of 2011 [update] fewer than nine sites remain in use, and many of those serve far fewer patients than they once did. Many facilities or portions of facilities no longer in use for psychiatric treatment have been repurposed to other uses, while some have been demolished.
The first facility in the Pennsylvania State Hospital system, Harrisburg State Hospital, opened in 1845 and from its inception was tasked with providing care for mentally ill persons throughout the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. Many facilities within the system were state-operated from the start, while some initially operated as county poor farms, county hospitals, or other institutions.
As the number of institutionalized mentally ill dwindled many state hospitals have been, in whole or in part, converted to other uses. Many have remained state-operated facilities, such as office building repurposed as correctional centers. A few former state hospitals have been demolished.
Western Center was also a state facility for the mentally disabled and was located in Canonsburg, Washington County, Pennsylvania. It consisted of multiple buildings. It closed in the late 1980s or early 1990s. Southpoint (a commercial development) now sets on the site that was once Western Center.
Most state hospitals consisted of a number of individual buildings spread across an often rural "campus." Most can be characterized as falling into one of several "plans" or designs.
Kirkbride Plan refers to a system of mental asylum design advocated by Philadelphia psychiatrist Thomas Story Kirkbride in the mid-19th century. Kirkbride developed his requirements based on a philosophy of Moral Treatment. The typical floor plan, with long rambling wings arranged "en echelon" (staggered, so each connected building still received sunlight and fresh air), was meant to promote privacy and comfort for patients. The building form itself was meant to have a curative effect. These asylums tended to become large, imposing, Victorian-era institutional buildings within extensive surrounding grounds which often included farmland. By 1900 the notion of "building-as-cure" was largely discredited, and in the following decades these facilities became too expensive to maintain.
By the middle of the nineteenth century, some doctors complained that large monolithic asylums had not lived up to their expectations. But psychiatrists did not immediately abandon their belief in the therapeutic environment; instead, they argued for a different therapeutic environment. Clinging to a belief that architecture influenced human conduct, they proposed smaller cottage-like structures to replace the Kirkbride-plan hospitals. These cottages were to be arranged in a village, an homage to the Belgian town of Gheel, where citizens looked after mentally ill people who for centuries gathered there to worship at the shrine of St. Dymphna, the patron saint of lunatics.
Hospital | Location | Opened | Peak Population | Peak Year | Current Population | Status | Plans | Notes |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Allentown State Hospital | Allentown | 1912 | 2012 | 1950 | n/a | Demolished 2020 | Payton | |
Clarks Summit State Hospital | Scranton | 1938 | 1046 | 1947 | active | Cottage | originated in 1862 as a poor farm | |
Danville State Hospital | Danville | 1872 | 2916 | 1947 | 163 (2008) | active | Kirkbride | |
Dixmont State Hospital | Emsworth | 1862 | 973 | 1947 | n/a | closed 1984, demolished 2006 | Kirkbride | |
Eastern Pennsylvania Psychiatric Institute | Philadelphia | n/a | closed 1981 | Cottage | ||||
Embreeville State Hospital | Embreeville | 1898 | 1017 | 1955 | n/a | closed 1980, Demolished 2022 | Cottage | originated as county poor house |
Farview State Hospital | Waymart | c 1912 | 1096 | 1947 | repurposed | now a correctional facility | ||
Harrisburg State Hospital | Harrisburg | 1851 | 2441 | 1947 | n/a | closed 2006 | Kirkbride, Cottage | |
Haverford State Hospital | Haverford | c 1964 | 562 | 1987 | n/a | closed 1998 demolished 2008 | Cottage | |
Hollidaysburg State Hospital | Hollidaysburg | 1938 | 369 | 1947 | n/a | closed 1979 | Cottage | originally opened in 1904 as Blair County Hospital for Mental Diseases |
Lawrence Frick State Hospital | Cresson | 1916 | closed 1984, repurposed | Cottage | now a correctional facility | |||
Marcy State Hospital | Pittsburgh | 1915 | closed 1982 | Cottage | ||||
Mayview State Hospital | Pittsburgh | 1938 | 3785 | 1967 | n/a | closed 2008. demolished 2012 [1] | cottage | began in 1892 as |
Norristown State Hospital | Norristown | 1880 | 4954 | 1947 | active | Echelon | ||
Philadelphia State Hospital | Philadelphia | 1907 | 7000+ | 1960 | n/a | closed 1990. demolished 2006 | Cottage | |
Polk State School | Polk | 1897 | active | |||||
Retreat State Hospital | Newport Township | 1938 | 1103 | 1947 | n/a | closed 1980, repurposed | Cottage | began in 1878 as a poor house, now a correctional facility |
Scranton State Hospital | Scranton | n/a | closed, demolished 1991 | single building | ||||
Somerset State Hospital | Somerset | 1938 | 463 | 1947 | n/a | closed | cottage | Began as county poor farm. Is now converted to a Correctional facility |
South Mountain Restoration Center | Mont Alto | 1907 | 1100 | 1970 | active | cottage | also known as Samuel G. Dixon State Hospital | |
Torrance State Hospital | Derry Township | 1919 | 3300 | 1950s | 229 (2008) | active | Cottage | |
Warren State Hospital | Warren | 1880 | 2562 | 1947 | active | Kirkbride | ||
Wernersville State Hospital | Wernersville | 1891 | 1851 | 1947 | active | Cottage | ||
Western Psychiatric Institute of Pittsburgh | Pittsburgh | Was never a custodial "state hospital" but a freestanding Psychiatric Hospital and was and still is an acute care setting affiliated with Pitt for years prior to becoming part of UPMC| | repurposed | single building | Now part of the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center | |||
Woodville State Hospital | Carnegie | 1854 | 3200 | n/a | closed 1992, demolished | Cottage |
During the late 1800s, the State built many hospitals for coal miners in Pennsylvania, these hospitals were also referred to as State Hospitals for Miners. These hospitals were not built as psychiatric facilities, but rather as general medical hospitals. In 1985, Pennsylvania began the transfer of these hospitals from State ownership into private or community facilities. As of 1992, all have been divested from State ownership.
The Kings Park Psychiatric Center, known by Kings Park locals as "Kings Park Asylum", is a former state-run psychiatric hospital located in Kings Park, New York. It operated from 1885 until 1996, when the State of New York closed the facility, releasing its few remaining patients or transferring them to the still-operational Pilgrim Psychiatric Center.
The Kirkbride Plan was a system of mental asylum design advocated by American psychiatrist Thomas Story Kirkbride (1809–1883) in the mid-19th century. The asylums built in the Kirkbride design, often referred to as Kirkbride Buildings, were constructed during the mid-to-late-19th century in the United States.
The Danvers State Hospital, also known as the State Lunatic Hospital at Danvers, The Danvers Lunatic Asylum, and The Danvers State Insane Asylum, was a psychiatric hospital located in Danvers, Massachusetts. It was built in 1874, and opened in 1878, under the supervision of prominent Boston architect Nathaniel Jeremiah Bradlee, on an isolated site in rural Massachusetts. It was a multi-acre, self-contained psychiatric hospital designed and built according to the Kirkbride Plan.
Northeastern Pennsylvania (NEPA) is a region of the U.S. state of Pennsylvania that includes the Pocono Mountains, the Endless Mountains, and the industrial cities of Scranton, Wilkes-Barre, Pittston, Hazleton, Nanticoke, and Carbondale. A portion of this region is located in the New York City metropolitan area.
Taunton State Hospital is a psychiatric hospital located on Hodges Avenue in Taunton, Massachusetts. Established in 1854, it was originally known as the State Lunatic Hospital at Taunton. It was the second state asylum in Massachusetts. Most of the original part of the facility was built in a unique and rare neo-classical style designed by architects Boyden & Ball. It is also a Kirkbride Plan hospital and is located on a large 154-acre (62 ha) farm along the Mill River.
The Athens Lunatic Asylum, now a mixed-use development known as The Ridges, was a Kirkbride Plan mental hospital operated in Athens, Ohio, from 1874 until 1993. During its operation, the hospital provided services to a variety of patients including Civil War veterans, children, and those declared mentally unwell. After a period of disuse the property was redeveloped by the state of Ohio. Today, The Ridges are a part of Ohio University and house the Kennedy Museum of Art as well as an auditorium and many offices, classrooms, and storage facilities.
Greystone Park Psychiatric Hospital referred to both the former psychiatric hospital and the historic building that it occupied in Morris Plains, New Jersey. Built in 1876, the facility was built to alleviate overcrowding at the state's only other "lunatic asylum" located in Trenton, New Jersey.
The Minnesota Security Hospital is a secure psychiatric hospital located in St. Peter, Minnesota. It serves people who have been committed by the court as mentally ill and dangerous. It was established as St. Peter State Hospital in 1866 under the Kirkbride Plan. The original building is mostly demolished though the hospital is still active.
Agnews Developmental Center was a psychiatric and medical care facility, located in Santa Clara, California.
Oregon State Hospital is a public psychiatric hospital in the U.S. state of Oregon, located in the state's capital city of Salem with a smaller satellite campus in Junction City opened in 2014. Founded in 1862 and constructed in the Kirkbride Plan design in 1883, it is the oldest operating psychiatric hospital in the state of Oregon, and one of the oldest continuously operated hospitals on the West Coast.
The Traverse City State Hospital, also known at various points as the Northern Michigan Asylum and the Traverse City Regional Psychiatric Hospital, is a decommissioned psychiatric hospital in Traverse City, Michigan. Established in 1881 by James Decker Munson and Perry Hannah, the hospital was in operation from 1885 to 1989. The site has since been redeveloped, reopening in 2002 as The Village at Grand Traverse Commons, a social center including shops, restaurants, office space, and residences. It is the last Kirkbride Building of Michigan's original four left in the state. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1978 and designated a Michigan State Historic Site in 1985.
The Institute of Pennsylvania Hospital, also known as Kirkbride's Hospital or the Pennsylvania Hospital for Mental and Nervous Diseases, was a psychiatric hospital located at 48th and Haverford Streets in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA. It operated from its founding in 1841 until 1997. The remaining building, now called the Kirkbride Center is now part of the Blackwell Human Services Campus.
Dixmont State Hospital was a hospital located northwest of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Built in 1862, Dixmont was once a state-of-the-art institution known for its highly self-sufficient and park-like campus, but a decline in funding for state hospitals and changing philosophies in psychiatric care caused the hospital to be closed in 1984. After more than two decades of abandonment, it was demolished in 2006. The campus spanned a total of 407 acres (165 ha). Reed Hall is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
Peoria State Hospital Historic District, also known as Bartonville State Hospital or Illinois Asylum for the Incurable Insane, was a psychiatric hospital operated by the State of Illinois from 1902 to 1973. The hospital is located in Bartonville, Illinois, near the city of Peoria in Peoria County. The hospital grounds and its 63 buildings are listed as a historic district on the National Register of Historic Places.
The Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum, subsequently the Weston State Hospital, was a Kirkbride psychiatric hospital that was operated from 1864 until 1994 by the government of the U.S. state of West Virginia, in the city of Weston. Weston State Hospital got its name in 1913 which was used while patients occupied it, but was changed back to its originally commissioned, unused name, the Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum, after being reopened as a tourist attraction.
The New York State Inebriate Asylum, later known as Binghamton State Hospital, was the first institution designed and constructed to treat alcoholism as a mental disorder in the United States. Located in Binghamton, NY, its imposing Gothic Revival exterior was designed by New York architect Isaac G. Perry and construction was completed in 1864. The building was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1997. In 2015, Binghamton University announced it had taken stewardship of the building and will proceed with plans for rehabilitation of the building.
The Hudson River State Hospital is a former New York state psychiatric hospital which operated from 1873 until its closure in the early 2000s. The campus is notable for its main building, known as a "Kirkbride," which has been designated a National Historic Landmark due to its exemplary High Victorian Gothic architecture, the first use of that style for an American institutional building. It is located on US 9 on the Poughkeepsie-Hyde Park town line.
The Jacksonville Developmental Center was an institution for developmentally delayed clients, located in Jacksonville, Illinois. It was open from 1851 to November 2012. As of December 2012, the 134-acre (54 ha) grounds was still owned by the State of Illinois.
Winnebago Mental Health Institute (WMHI), formerly the Winnebago State Hospital, is a psychiatric hospital near Oshkosh, Wisconsin, United States located in the unincorporated community of Winnebago, Wisconsin.
The Mount Pleasant Mental Health Institute was a psychiatric institution located in Mount Pleasant, Iowa, USA. Originally known as the Iowa Lunatic Asylum, it opened in 1861. It is located on the same campus as The Mount Pleasant Correctional Facility. There was also a labyrinth of tunnels which connected every building. It was the first asylum in Iowa and was built under the Kirkbride Plan.