4,537 Comments for Pennhurst State School

Joseph...I think the word "X-ray" answers your question...

Love the colors and composition in this one.

The sharp angular shadows do make the room look sinister. Great juxtaposition of a colorful plaything being slowly taken over by forboding elements - it's like they're gradually creeping down the stairs. The shadows of the steps almost look like teeth.

What's scarier, though, is when people assume that this dark, moldy, boarded up basement is where children were sent to "play". Analyzing and interpreting photos is one thing, but I wish people would realize that we're not looking at the objects or the room as they were actually used.

I wonder how people would interpret the mural if they knew nothing about its location or context. As Lynne pointed out (nearly three years ago - sorry, I only recently found the site) people project their own issues into the piece because they have a pre-formed idea of Pennhurst. It would be interesting to read reactions and interpretations from people who have nothing but the photo to look at.

Even without the ravages of time, that's still one ugly chair! LOL

I don't get comments like the first one on this page, where someone assumes that the chair was used as some kind of punishment device to make an abused kid sit and stare out the window for days at a time. We all see what we want to see in photos, I guess. To me the photo inspires hope - as if someone liked what they saw through the window, so they got up and went outside to enjoy it. Or else the chair itself is just happy sitting in the light. You don't have to know anything about the history of Pennhurst to interpret the photo...the composition itself is intriguing enough.

Breathtaking shot. Would love this as wallpaper.

Shower curtain.

clothes or is that a towel?

Regarding the ceiling radiators, they probably were intended to warm the floors above them. So ea. floor had heat rising from beneath. ???

I also want to comment that mental institutions were a "catch all" for the shame that families felt and/or for their inability to care for their "damaged" family member. Some people "dumped" the family member (as many do today - take a lvisit to some OPEN Veteran's Hospitals and nursing homes). Abuses ran rampant then and in too many cases, still do.
What truly IS frightening is not these vacant, dilapidated buildings, but the human hearts that were so hard and cruel to allow such human suffering when the buildings were "alive". Even more frightening are the people "outside" the institutions who are far more dangerous, and they are NOT retarded.

I saw this building once, in the early 50s when my mother took me to visit two men she knew (family secret - they were her brothers). At the time it was beautiful! I was only between 3-5 yrs old but I recall how lovely it was - my "uncles" sat with us on rolling, grassy hills. They both played guitars and sang while a crowd gathered around.

this reminds me of creepy dreams i have. so, circuslike. i hate that ish.

AMAZING!

yum. ahhhh i want to go there so bad.

FINALLY a bed that looks semi-ok to use