This Creepy Asylum In Pennsylvania Is Still Standing… And Still Disturbing

It was once known colloquially as the “Shame of Pennsylvania”— the institution where thousands of mentally ill patients suffered abuse and neglect. The Pennhurst State School and Hospital has sat vacant since it was shut down in 1987, following a famous court case that set new precedents for U.S. laws regarding cruel and unusual punishment and treatment of mentally ill patients in hospitals.

Fred Dunn/ Flickr

Pennhurst, located in Spring City, admitted its first patient in 1908. In the following years, immigrants, orphans, and criminals found themselves housed here as well as the mentally disabled, whom the institution was meant for. Within four years of opening, Pennhurst became crowded way past capacity.

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Unable to adequately care for each patient, many of the nurses and staff members at Pennhurst began mistreating patients. This continued for the better part of a century before the media caught wind of what was happening.

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Fred Dunn/ Flickr

In 1968, NBC10 released a documentary titled "Suffer The Little Children: A Peek into the History of Eugenics and Child Abuse by the State – Pennsylvania Pennhurst." It included footage from inside the hospital and testaments from people who had been patients there. Not terribly long after— in 1987— Pennhurst was closed for good.

Today, Pennhurst has a reputation as one of the most haunted places in the country. Whether or not this is true depends on whether you believe in ghosts; what is undeniable is that countless lives were needlessly lost and disrespected here.

Pennhurst is vacant much of the year, but during the Halloween season becomes a popular haunted attraction. This seems somewhat exploitive of the institution’s controversial past— a past that should be remembered with respect. The video below includes footage from the NBC documentary about Pennhurst.

Have you been here— or do you have stories of ancestors who once were at Pennhurst when it was still open?