I know of alot of homeless people who like to hang around there. I also know of alot of patients who wonder around town here. There is "Bike Mike", the woman who wears tons of clothing and huge sunglasses with a hat with a large brim (because she can not be exposed to the sun), and there used to be a man who walked around in a suit blazer with a tie and a nice shirt but wore only boxers for his pants. There are more but these people we all know and love around this town. Bike Mike rides his bike to the schools everyday to say hi to the kids.. when i was working at a local K-Mart.. i had the pleasure of talking to the woman.. and then the older man was one that my sister knew. She worked at a local ice cream place and she knew he couldnt have ice cream but only yogurt..and helped him with that.
This is a very beautiful picture Motts.. I was wondering tho...How exactly did you get up that high in the air to take this picture. I have been there once before but I dont remember there being a building there...
So I know personally a few of my friends came in here when they were younger. They had no idea what Pennhurst was.. since they were only 10. But i do remember them telling me about how they were knocking over pews in an abandoned church. And then I came across this page and showed them.. and they said that this theater was the very same "church."
I would have to agree that not all mental asylums are bad, but since no one really knows what happened..and the gov't wont release any information...people like to make up stories.. most being about abuse and neglect. And I dont know what happened hear..But i do live about 10 mins from here..I hear many stories about this place. And i dont believe its haunted or anything like that. But I do believe that maybe this was once one of those hospitals where they didnt treat their patients very well. I know now they have very nice hospitals..but i know that back then, they werent as knowledgable about the disabled and maybe they didnt give them the care they deserved.
I think that if I were to be walking around in an abandoned building...and I came across a room like this one...I would freak out and leave immediatly. None of the other pictures scare me...nor does Pennhurst. But this picture with the wheelchair in the cornor with the walls painted scares me. Especially since its flooded and has no light.
I know of many many kids in my school who, on weekends, come into these tunnels and drink and smoke up. When they first mentioned tunnels I thought that they meant sewage tunnels underground until I saw these photographs. I think its really messed up of them to be going in and messing around in here. There are so many guards watching this place at all hours of the night, that Im surprized that any of them dont get caught.
I'm 18, and I do vote in even the little "crappy" elections. I've never been to Pennhurst but everyone knows that when you live in a small town like this and you have an abandoned building..there are going to be ghost stories and horror stories about the place. I wasnt pointing any fingers at the staff, nor saying that this place was terrible. I was saying that those are the stories I have always heard. If you scroll up to my comment the last thing i wrote was that I wanted to know what really happened. I dont think this place was bad at all, I want to hear outside of these kids' stories and talk to patients and people who used to work there. I think that this place is beautiful and mysterious and I've tried many times to get in but with the guards everywhere, and the new gates put up..I haven't found a way around it. On the other hand..I think I would much rather not disturb this place and just enjoy Motts awesome pictures :)
If I'm reading correctly, and the stories arent just mere myths..I believe that this place didnt actually "help" any of the patients. In reality they put up a facade for the families and loved ones, but while inside they experimented on them to learn about their dissabilities, and what made them that way. I'm truely fascinated with this place, its looks and also the amazing stories that come from it. Im really curious to find out what truely happened here, and why it was shut down.
This picture is absolutely beautiful. There is a huge sense of lonliness and loss. Most people just look at this place as haunted, I see it as a sad history.