17 Comments Posted by wendy

Wow, flashback, my father was a nursing supervisor there for many years, he also was the projectionist. I sat in that area to the left. Picture brought me right back to my childhood.

Such a beautiful place and so much history wish there was a way the could save this...

Sorry edit,difficult on tablet

There is probally alot of asbestos dust in and out. They had alot of problems with unattendended individuals eating the paint chips and what was under them. They had to expand the hospital ward at one point because of lead poisoning. Then..history says they corrected the problem. The columns covered in this manner may have been one of the solutions. Cleaning was done by the unpaid inmate. The material covering the columns is a material that is easily cleaned. It is also easy to see where it was not cleaned. IMHO,this was a place of tourcher for so many
people. Many of whom are still living. It is way too soon to turn it macab.A little bad luck, the loss of a parent,poor eye site, too active at the dinner table,It didn't take much to be sentenced to Pennhurst.

No, the living conditions were not hyped up by media. It was a living hell there especially for the low functioning. As a care provider who helped prepare these people to live in group homes I can tell you what these people went through was pure hell year after year after year. I find it very distasteful that anyone would do anything with Pennhurst but burn it down.

I spent my honeymoon here April 26th 1980 that weekend was for retired people they asked my husband and i if we really wanted to stay there with the retired people I was 19 and my husband was 21 but we stayed one of the older couples gave us some advice to never stop communicating well unfortunately we didnt listen and after 31 years of marriage we are getting a divorce. It is sad to the see the motel in such disarray I wish they could turn it into a casino or something I wanted to go back for our 30 anniversary but found out it it wasnt open anymore

As I sit here reading all your entries, I think of my 12year old Autistic daughter, different place, different time she could have been sent there. I can't help but wonder how many kids were sent there like her that had so much to offer but were never given a chance. So sad!

my mam elsie watson worked there for about 25 years or more and she used to swim in the pool after a night shift and it was a lovley pool.... i used to go to the summer fairs with her on her ward and it was a fantastic bulding shame its been left to decay like this....

What a story these photographs and website tell. All the years in the 70's and 80's when I drove by these abandoned buildings and wondered what history the walls held, maybe I didn't really want to know. I'm glad to now, less then 24 hr's from 2010 read and see some of the history. May we live and learn and never go back to this again, and may a guiding light lead the ex patients and employee's to a healthy, peaceful future.

I grew up in northeast Phila, drove by these vacant buildings in the 70's and 80's, aways wondered about them, there sorted history. Now not till 12/31/09 did I find this website, learn more, see this pictures, how very frightning and all that time I did not know. I hope a bright light shines above every patients and employee that ever spent time in this facility and wish them peace of mind. I'm sorry for the labor, brick and mortor that was needed to build such a facility, that we ever needed it to begin with, and that such effort could not go into something that would be standing 300 yr's later and admired. I am greatly moved by the history and the photos I've seen.

OMG what ashame, I wish I could see this building before it gets demolished. But alas I live in England and for all I know its gone already.

I worked there for 3 years in the 80's. If you found that in there it's probably left over from a haunted house they used to do in one of the buildings. Haunted houses pretty much scare the crap out of me anyway but I have to say these buildings were a perfect place to stage these. The staff posed as the "monsters" and other cottages (that's what they called the buildings) were invited to bring their residents through.

I worked there for 3 years. I going to guess and say that was the old revere buidling and the room show is a bathroom. Many patients limbs were so bent that they were put on shower tables for bathing.... the tables were rolled into the bathroom, the curtain was for privacy.

its a chicken...

It reminds me of the Princess Bride. If you find the special knot in the tree the door opens.