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 | n/a | closed 2023. [2] | ||||
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.
Psychiatric hospitals, also known as mental health hospitals, or behavioral health hospitals are hospitals or wards specializing in the treatment of severe mental disorders, including schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, eating disorders, major depressive disorder, and others.
The Clinton Valley Center (CVC), originally called the Eastern Michigan Asylum for the Insane, was a psychiatric hospital located at 140 Elizabeth Lake Road in Pontiac, Michigan. The facility was designated a Michigan State Historic Site in 1974 and listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1981, with a decrease in its boundaries in 1986. The facility was closed in 1997 and demolished in 2000.
The Kings Park Psychiatric Center, known by Kings Park locals as "The Psych Center", 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.
Geisinger Health System (GHS) is a regional health care provider to central, south-central and northeastern Pennsylvania. Headquartered in Danville, Pennsylvania, Geisinger services over 3 million patients in 45 counties.
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.
The Richardson Olmsted Campus in Buffalo, New York, United States, was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1986. The site was designed by the American architect Henry Hobson Richardson in concert with the famed landscape team of Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux in the late 1800s, incorporating a system of treatment for people with mental illness developed by Dr. Thomas Story Kirkbride known as the Kirkbride Plan. Over the years, as mental health treatment changed and resources were diverted, the buildings and grounds began a slow deterioration. By 1974, the last patients were removed from the historic wards. On June 24, 1986, the former Buffalo State Asylum for the Insane was added to the National Historic Landmark registry. In 2006, the Richardson Center Corporation was formed to restore the buildings.
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.
Agnews Developmental Center were two psychiatric and medical care facilities, located in Santa Clara, California and San Jose, California respectively.
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.
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.
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.
Michigan State Asylum may refer to any number of early mental institutions in the state. Michigan became a state in 1837 and five years later it was accepted that caring for the mentally afflicted was a state problem. In 1848 a joint resolution required an annual return from the adviser of the number of insane, deaf, dumb, and blind people in the state. In that same year the legislature set aside 5,000 acres (2,000 ha) of land for buildings, next year nearly double that amount, and in 1850, 16,000 acres (6,500 ha). Not until 1853 was money, $20,000, appropriated out of the general fund of the state treasury. Many hospitals/prisons have been referred to as "Michigan State Asylum". There were once 16 State-operated psychiatric facilities in Michigan. Between 1987 and 2003 Michigan closed three quarters of its 16 state psychiatric facilities. Here is a partial list.
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.
Medfield State Hospital, originally the Medfield Insane Asylum, is a historic former psychiatric hospital complex at 45 Hospital Road in Medfield, Massachusetts, United States. The asylum was established in 1892 as the state's first facility for dealing with chronic mental patients. The college-like campus was designed by William Pitt Wentworth and developed between 1896 and 1914. After an era dominated by asylums built using the Kirkbride Plan, Medfield Insane Asylum was the first asylum built using the new Cottage Plan layout, where instead of holding patients in cells, they would be integrated into a small community and work a specific job. It was formally renamed "Medfield State Hospital" in 1914.
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.
Worcester State Hospital was a Massachusetts state mental hospital located in Worcester, Massachusetts. It is credited to the architectural firm of Weston & Rand. The hospital and surrounding associated historic structures are listed as Worcester Asylum and related buildings on the National Register of Historic Places.