Comments

"Fordd Allan" means "Way out" In Welsh. I know this because I am welsh and live around this area :)

Those pipes look kinda chunkyfuzzy. Had this place been abated already, and they missed the tunnels?

Yeah, the way the wall at the end looks skewed but then you realize it's not the back wall, just where the hallway turns right.

I love that I can't tell whether this is in color or b&w.
The stairs and railing on the right look like an old photo, but the part on the left around where the paint is peeling is just cream enough to tell it's not. Contrast in more than one way.

Ive cried more than once, you're work is awsome its so sad to see such a place ruined. Thanks to you we got to see such a beautiful place and imagine what it must have looked like at one time. Than kyou so much for all you're beautiful pictures......most of us that look at them would never see these places without you........Please be careful!! I pray you will always be safe when you go to these places. God bless you Mr. Motts.

This mosaic has also been destroyed by vandals. :-(

Thanks for the historical information Bryan!

I was just at Pennhurst today...sadly...this mosaic has been destroyed. Someone has chipped away at it. All that remains is bits of it, and this beautiful photographic reminder of the evidence that once remained. There is one still intact on an adjacent building that is absolutely gorgeous!

wow , I think this might be the first actual soap dispenser Ive seen.

yea ive been ther a rack of times and they have ECT chairs with the straps and all on the 3rd floor of the adult ward, you gotta think there was allot of experimenting going on with drugs ect..they were still learning about it at the time while it was still alive and going.

Does anyone know where I can find patient records or old newspaper articles about the place? I'm kind of obsessed with it, and I'm writing a paper for school on it but its so hard to find the info i need on google, its really all about the architecture (which is amazing, but not what I'm looking for).

actually one comment here hit the nail on the head, the facility was closed as a psychiatric hospital in the mid 70's (my grandmother actually worked there as a nurse until they closed) , at that point in the mid 70's the grounds were partially renovated by the DMH, and it was converted into a facility to house the mentally retarded, my mother worked there until it was closed in the early 90s (due to severe DMH cutbacks), she used to always bring me to work, so some of my earliest memories are in the facility, in the early 90s when the facility was closed, most of the mentally retarded occupants were either A) moved to housing, atleast the ones that could handle it, or B) transferred to the wrentham developmental center, in Wrentham, MA... my mother was actually transferred to Wrentham with a few other lucky employees that were transferred over with the clients at closing... so it makes sense that a book on mental retardation from the 80s would be found in the hospital, as that was the decade it was primarily operating as a DMH facility for the retarded. The facility was used for an annual haunted house, one of the best i've ever been to, until it was determined unsafe due to asbestos and deteriation... the state sold the property a few years back in an open auction. It was purchased by the Lorusso corp. and developed into a retail/residential location.. i'm actually typing this from my home across the street.. oh and the morgue was one of the staples of the original psych facility, located in a room off one of the tunnels that adorned the entire facility.. it was used until about 1970 when they finally began to use an off facility morgue service for the last 6 years of psych operation...

And in this corner... Luke Duke!

I found a video on youtube, from the demolishing of this place. The only thing left after the explotion was the pipe you se in this photo. and after i saw the video i had to check out this gallery again.
Beatutifull shots Mr. Motts!