There is a definite forboding to the area around Pennhurst , even though there is the armored guard and the Vet. Hospital within walking proximity. I don't know if any of the buildings are even in good enough shape to restore. The main and back drives up to the facility are so overgrown and hard to reach that once you come up upon Pennhurst itself it is almost like this huge ruin in the middle of nowhere. I wonder why after all of these years it is still standing. I remember as a child we would have to drive up to pick my Grandmother up from work and the more functional of the residents were outside taking in the air, going for walks, etc. I was only ever in the administrative building, but back in the early 70s it was ver hospital like in comparison to the pictures on this site which just make it look teriffying, which I am sure in some situations it was. What must have been difficult for alot of these people was the way they were put into group homes after being in Pennhurst their entire lives. There were 3 gentlemen that lived on my block when I was growing up who spent their entire life in Pennhurst and they were fully functioning adults who loved to talk to anyone who would say hello to them. I think that they were and even considered themselves outcasts. I think that if they do anything with Pennhurst that it would be a wonderful to open a part of the facility as a memorial to the people who lived, worked and died here.
My Grandmother and Great Aunt both worked here for years and I can tell you that both were loving and caring women. They worked mostly with the men or boys as they used to call them....there were alot of caring individuals that cared for the people at Pennhurst, but from their stories they caring were outweighed by the terrifying people that abused the people who lived there. This was not an easy place to work because my Grandmother would leave work and come home and she would comment that the boys in her ward were almost shell-shocked when she returned. God knows what happened to them when she was at home. She worked many hours without pay because she hated leaving them. Thank God this and other placed like this are no longer in use.
The armored guard is there as is the veteran's hospital, but they don't shoot on sight. I grew up in the same town that Pennhurst is in and many ex-residents lived in my town all fully functioning adults that spent thier entire childhood locked up in this horrible place. It is a truly terrifying place to drive up to then and now even more so with all of the overgrown circles and different driveways into and out of the original buildings. Very scary...I would never venture up there without uttering some sort of cleansing prayer.