4,537 Comments for Pennhurst State School

I have been to PennHurst...

If anyone that comes on here ever goes...

Look out for Azbestest..

My mother lived at Pennhurst around 1930, she was the granddaughter of a grounds keeper. At that time, she said, both staff and residents farmed and raised pigs, chickens and crops, made their clothes and bedsheets, etc. It was like a large communal farm and my mother was not afraid of the residents and she, even though a child at the time, did not feel it was a bad place. She also helped out running errands, etc.

I visited Pennhurst in 1963 as a high school student. We saw "babies" in these cribs, some were 10-12 years old, with enlarged heads and unable even to sit up or respond. Some had smaller heads, some blind. Cribs were lined up end to end. It smelled in there. We were scared.

I've wondered after looking at many of the photo's from many different State Hospitals if these deterioration of paints on the walls and stuff have something to do with the place in general. Many of the houses old houses I've seen the paint decomposition isn't that bad.

Another place I'd like to visit ahh the failures in the development of the medical field. But without failure there can be no progress for the better so to say.

Here...here take it!

[running like none other so that we can preserve Lynne's ever-so useful and ever-so thumped around brain cells]

This could easily be a simple painting that reminds the children that stayed there that no matter how different you feel, be it the colour of your skin, your age or a physical disability, everyone is created equal and they should never be made to feel inferior. Motts, i'd really like to know what the girl in the red skirt is pointing at...was their more to to the painting out of frame?

Ya know, you could look at this like it's great that she was the first one they painted and then they painted the other children afterward, so she was first on the artist's mind.

But then, it wouldn't sound like everyone who worked here sucked and the place sucked, would it? It would sound like the artist was open-minded and cared about people who use wheelchairs for transportation. So I guess we can rub out THAT particular explanation and look for one that describes the place as a true hellhole with no socially redeeming values at all and everyone who ever worked here as a sadistic maniac who hated people who use wheelchairs. That would certainly fit with people's fondest wishes and hopes, it seems. Geez, the first little girl is pretty faded too, but I don't see anyone getting all sentimental and pitiful about discrimination against Caucasian girls with black hair who wear red skirts and how she is placed "all alone" in front of the other children.

Look at YOUR biases, people, because a lot of y'all are surely projecting them here.

And that, my dear friends, was professional analysis totally free of charge. And worth every penny of it, to boot! :-)

Yep, there is some bitter irony at work here, that's for sure.

Where's my helmet again?

This was my office outside of Dietary Department....really neat pictures...brings back some real good memories.

This was my office when I worked there for 10 years...I was a Dietitian at Pennhurst and this picture was outside of Dietary Department.

I love this photo...it is bitterly ironic...'safety' chairs...and all around are signs of destruction and pain... saftey for what?...definately not the spirit or emotions of these poor children.

The girl in the wheelchair...she looks so faded and alone...how she is placed behind the other children...

o.o
This is so freaky...imagine...i have ADD and ADHD (Hyperactive AND attetion problems)....T.T so glad that i get to live a damaged life AT LEAST in my own house...

PB, you should never begin a job if you can't complete the... paperwork.
(Administrators make a living out of this!)