4,537 Comments for Pennhurst State School

isolation room/ or for violent patients id have cheved the walls for signs of rubber this looks like a ruber room to me

seen one in action ... a safe room to sleep vent untel your calm and can be reintergrated

table could have been a changing table or
asistance table to undress patients who had problems standing and goingo n there own

hmmm i know we past this one building ....or the side of it or something....... it was wayyyy creepy in the woods with being able to see our own breaths in the summertime and on the full moon..... yeah we picked a wondeful time to go hehe..... nighttime not knowing where we were going on a full moon..... very bright idea huh?

I just went to pennhurst two nights ago. I live in Exton so im pretty close. I was there with two guy friends. We walked around with a flare becuase my one friend is a firefighter.... i guess we got kinda lost because we went out into the farm field first. Anyhow, we found our way to the buildings and went into the administration building i guess..... we walked through the left tunnel.... then went up a floor and another..... walked around like three floors or somthing like that..... i found some papers which i didnt know what they were but i wanted to see them. So i grabbed them and we started to walk out..... we walked outta the building and all the sudden we hear a "HEY! HOLD ON! STOP!" So we ran..... i dropped the papers and we booked ass out of there. then my friends decided to go back and get the papers kus i wanted them sooo bad.... we all went back with flares and a blue light on the car...... whatever or who ever it was keept following us the whole time we were there.... since the farm fields... one of my friends warned us, but we didnt belive him. We told him he was just hearing things.... but also when we were in the tunnel, coming out of it, we heard footsteps that definitly weren't ours...... first of all, the place is creepy. Second of all, is that the tunnel to the left or right of the building?? And third, we are planning to go back in there, completely armed and protected, in the daylight to get pictures, and then the night after that at night again with a bigger group and lots more "protection". How far did you get when you went there?

I saw a later picture where some jerk painted over these with black spray paint.

I realize I'm jumping into this a little late but I'm finding the conversation here fascinating- not as fascinating as I do Mr. Motts artwork but still....
Can we all agree that being mentally ill sucks? Sucked 50 years ago, sucks now. Sucks for the patient, sucks for the family, sucks for the caregiver, just sucks. There have been horrid methods used to treat and control mental illness. There have been horrid methods used to treat TB, cancer, you name it. We look at some of these things now and think "How could they?" Maybe 50 years from now (or less hopefully) we'll look at chemo or dialysis or prozac the same way. Think about the situation you have a bunch of people cruising around that are in this facility for mental illness, a mental illness that could leave them not understanding the harm they could do to themselves, another patient, a staff member. What is the limited amount of staff supposed to do? Allow it to happen b/c, God forbid, we don't want to infringe on anyone's human rights by restaining them safely? Or should that person be restained until they're not a danger to themselves or others? There wasn't (and still isn't) enough funding to get the care that the mentally ill need. Not enough doctors, nurses, caregivers to sit there with a patient while physically restraining them from doing harm. Out of all the groups that could potentially do the most harm to themselves and society, we still in 2008, give less funding to the needs of the mentally ill than we do say, breast cancer. (Not that breast cancer isn't a worthy cause, just not as likely to cause someone to stab their neighbor to death less than a half hour after being released from a psych ward as we saw happen last week in my town) Thus we don't have the staff to help them as completely as they need, we don't have the housing to keep them safe during treatment so they're released before they've truly been helped, insurance certainly doesn't cover mental health as they do physical illness so....what is the answer? Did abuse occur? Yes. Did horrible mistreatment happen? yes. Does it continue today? Yes but less so due to checks and balances. Does abuse and mistreatment happen in your school, your office, your church, your nursing home, your daycare, your neighbor's house, your house? Yes. Its a rotten thing but true and the people committing these unspeakable acts need serious help too. Instead of bitching in CAPS about how we can never let this happen again, realize that the way to prevent it is to raise awareness and funds.
Now, I will be turning the soapbox back over to Lynne and resume enjoying Mr. Motts lovely photos.... Thank you for your time.

My son has the exact same one as the toy on the right, its hanging on his crib and even though hes supposed to be having a nap, I can hear him playing with it right now. A little creepy, I come across this picture and get the exact sound effects of the toy.

As a photographer I'm all about lines.... This is amazing.

I work at a grocery store not far from Pennhurst and there are a few customers who are former patience that come in quite frequently. Does anyone remember the lady that used to sit at Burger King and Yell at herself?

Isn't that one of Wall-E's friends?

Wow, did someone say they uses Carbon Arcing t produce light? Amazing. I have operated old searchlights from WWII which used carbon arc. Never expected it to be in a movie projector. I do see an inspection window but cannot see if it is tinted, I am sure it is.
Very cool.

I really wish some people would use A: Spell check then copy and paste into the comments OR B: Get that Phonics Monkey of your back. I make mistakes here and there and let them go, but I know it is 'See you later!" and not "CUL8R". Okay, I'm done. I don't know if want to trade my fingers for pingers.

What would a place like this be doing with equipment of this caliber?

they had a shock machine at that place i looked on a diff website and theris a shock machine their

I love your pictures! I'm glad that some people have the nerve to trespass and take a chance on getting caught so the rest of us can get to look at the pictures. I'd never go there!