The Pennsylvania State Hospital System is a network of psychiatric hospitals operated by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. At its peak in the late 1940s the system operated more than twenty hospitals and served over 43,000 patients. fewer than nine sites remain in use, and many of those serve far fewer patients than they once did. Many facilities or portions of facilities no longer in use for psychiatric treatment have been repurposed to other uses, while some have been demolished.
The first facility in the Pennsylvania State Hospital system, Harrisburg State Hospital, opened in 1845 and from its inception was tasked with providing care for mentally ill persons throughout the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. Many facilities within the system were state-operated from the start, while some initially operated as county poor farms, county hospitals, or other institutions.
As the number of institutionalized mentally ill dwindled many state hospitals have been, in whole or in part, converted to other uses. Many have remained state-operated facilities, such as office building repurposed as correctional centers. A few former state hospitals have been demolished.
Western Center was also a state facility for the mentally disabled, and was located in Canonsburg, Washington County, Pennsylvania. It consisted of multiple buildings. It closed in the late 1980s or early 1990s. Southpoint (a commercial development) now sits on the site that was once Western Center.
Plans
Most state hospitals consisted of a number of individual buildings spread across an often rural "campus." Most can be characterized as falling into one of several "plans" or designs.
Kirkbride Plan
The Kirkbride Plan refers to a system of mental asylum design advocated by Philadelphia psychiatrist Thomas Story Kirkbride in the mid-19th century. Kirkbride developed his requirements based on a philosophy of Moral Treatment. The typical floor plan, with long rambling wings arranged "en echelon" (staggered, so each connected building still received sunlight and fresh air), was meant to promote privacy and comfort for patients. The building form itself was meant to have a curative effect. These asylums tended to become large, imposing, Victorian-era institutional buildings within extensive surrounding grounds which often included farmland. By 1900 the notion of "building-as-cure" was largely discredited, and in the following decades these facilities became too expensive to maintain.
Cottage plan
By the middle of the nineteenth century, some doctors complained that large monolithic asylums had not lived up to their expectations. However, psychiatrists did not immediately abandon their belief in the therapeutic environment; instead, they argued for a different therapeutic environment. Clinging to a belief that architecture influenced human conduct, they proposed smaller cottage-like structures to replace the Kirkbride-plan hospitals. These cottages were to be arranged in a village, an homage to the Belgian town of Gheel, where citizens looked after mentally ill people who for centuries gathered there to worship at the shrine of St. Dymphna, the patron saint of lunatics.
Echelon plan
Payton plan
List of Pennsylvania State Hospitals
Hospital Location Opened Peak population Peak year Current population Status PlansNotes Allentown State HospitalAllentown191220121950n/aDemolished 2020PaytonClarks Summit State HospitalScranton193810461947 activeCottageoriginated in 1862 as a poor farmDanville State HospitalDanville187229161947163 (2008)activeKirkbrideDixmont State HospitalEmsworth18629731947n/aclosed 1984, demolished 2006KirkbrideEastern Pennsylvania Psychiatric InstitutePhiladelphia n/aclosed 1981CottageEmbreeville State Hospital Embreeville189810171955n/aclosed 1980, Demolished 2022Cottageoriginated as county poor houseFarview State Hospital Waymartc 191210961947 repurposed now a correctional facilityHarrisburg State HospitalHarrisburg185124411947n/aclosed 2006, demolished 2025/2026Kirkbride, CottageHaverford State Hospital Haverfordc 1964 5621987n/aclosed 1998 demolished 2008CottageHollidaysburg State HospitalHollidaysburg19383691947n/aclosed 1979Cottageoriginally opened in 1904 as Blair County Hospital for Mental DiseasesLawrence Frick State HospitalCresson1916 closed 1984, repurposedCottagenow a correctional facilityMarcy State HospitalPittsburgh1915 closed 1982CottageMayview State HospitalPittsburgh193837851967n/aclosed 2008. demolished 2012cottagebegan in 1892 as Norristown State HospitalNorristown188049541947 activeEchelonPhiladelphia State HospitalPhiladelphia19077000+1960n/aclosed 1990. demolished 2006 CottagePolk State SchoolPolk1897n/aclosed 2023.HABS Retreat State HospitalNewport Township193811031947n/aclosed 1980, repurposedCottagebegan in 1878 as a poor house later converted to a correctional facility that closed in June 2020.Scranton State HospitalScranton n/aclosed, demolished 1991single buildingSomerset State HospitalSomerset19384631947n/aclosedcottageBegan as county poor farm. Is now converted to a Correctional facilitySouth Mountain Restoration CenterMont Alto190711001970 activecottagealso known as Samuel G. Dixon State HospitalTorrance State Hospital Derry Township191933001950s229 (2008)activeCottageWarren State HospitalWarren188025621947 activeKirkbrideWernersville State HospitalWernersville189118511947 activeCottageWestern Psychiatric Institute of PittsburghPittsburgh Was never a custodial "state hospital" but a freestanding Psychiatric Hospital and was and still is an acute care setting affiliated with Pitt for years prior to becoming part of UPMCrepurposedsingle buildingNow part of the University of Pittsburgh Medical CenterWoodville State HospitalCarnegie18543200 n/aclosed 1992, demolishedCottage
Pennsylvania State General Hospitals
During the late 1800s, the State built many hospitals for coal miners in Pennsylvania, which were also referred to as State Hospitals for Miners. These were not built as psychiatric facilities, but rather as general medical hospitals. In 1985, Pennsylvania began the transfer of these hospitals from state ownership into private or community facilities. As of 1992, all had been divested from state ownership.
State Hospitals for Miners
Ashland State General Hospital - divested from state in 1990, renamed Saint Catherine Medical Center Fountain Springs Blossburg State General Hospital - closed by state in 1972 before divestitures began Coaldale State General Hospital - divested from state in 1992, renamed St. Luke's Miners Memorial Hospital, maintained as part of the St. Luke's University Health Network Connellsville State General Hospital - divested from state in 1985, renamed Highlands Hospital and Health Center Hazleton State General Hospital - divested from state in 1986, renamed Hazleton General Hospital Nanticoke State General Hospital - divested from state in 1990, renamed Mercy Special Care Hospital of Nanticoke Philipsburg State General Hospital - divested from state in 1991, private until 2006, closed 2007 due to bankruptcy, to be demolished Punxsutawney State General Hospital Scranton State General Hospital - closed by state in 1988 due to no merger partner found for divesture Shamokin State General Hospital - divested from state in 1992, renamed Shamokin Area Community Hospital; , renamed Geisinger-Shamokin Area Community Hospital, a campus of Geisinger Medical Center; maintained as part of the Geisinger Health System
References