We call them Hubbard tanks. Hell to fill,hell to clean, and hell to get the patients in and out of them. Especially if they are morbidly obese. I'm glad we don't use them much anymore. I haven't seen one in over a decade.

In physical therapy we call it a tilt table. The patient is supine and strapped in. We turn a crank (or its electric) and the table begins to "tilt" upward towards a standing position. It is a good way for those with low blood pressure and other problems to gradually get used to being upright rather than stand them up all at once. I used one the other day with an amputee with low blood pressure. He only got to about 65 degrees. The straps are merely for the patients comfort so that he/she doesn't slide sown or wieght bear too much all at once when we are cranking them to a stand.

As a physical therapist, I used this type of tank in the early part of my career for large people with multiple wounds. The whole process of filling the (Hubbard) tank, putting the patient in it, whirlpooling for 20 min, taking them out, dressing the wounds, and transporting the patient back to their room and transferring them back to bed (whew!) took around two hours with only about half of that time as billable time. Some of these patients were twice a day! Egads! I've not used this type of tank in at least ten years. Not efficient enough for the ins companies.
Love this website, by the way!

Blair Witch scene.

I was just there last Sat. night about 1:30 in the morning we we're talking about it and decided to take a road trip... i can't explain it it was about 30 someting outside and felt like it was about 90 in the main hallways with no breeze what so ever, but we go outside for not even 5 minutes and we have windburn for 2 days from the outside... it's weird in there you feel like somethings watching you from some of the rooms but not just from the rooms but in the corners of the room, a lot of stuff happened that night and we heard a lot that will probly Never be explained... but very cool experience.... BY THE WAY if you plan on going WATCH OUT tons of cops go by there at night, ha i cant even tell you how many time we hid behind the big pine trees.

I just found this sight. And Mr. Motts I wish I had the bravery you have. I could never force myself to enter one of those building, no matter how much I would like to. Major Chicken here. But I love the pictures you do a wonderful job. And I must admit that I laugh so hard my sides hurt, at some of the comments. Thank you for sharing these wonderful things with all of us.

It looks like maybe a mirror was reflecting someone? Possibly Motts himself, cause it looks kind of like his hands are to his eyes, taking a picture? ::shrug:: i dont think i would wear red if i was a ghost...

This picture is amazing, i also wanted to cry when i saw it. its so lonely..

Yes, this photo is wonderful...sent shivers up my spine. I think it was the curtain as well!

I read that once a patient overdosed on pills because they left the medication not locked up. He didnt do it on purpose, simply because they looked like candy more than likely

I used to live on Bridge St. on the 300 block. About 2-5 minutes away from Pennhurst.

Pottstown? Thats were i live, haha. And i wouldnt doubt it, either. I sometimes wonder about the people around here...just mosying the streets looking like they have nothing better to do...

Perhaps used for isolation? They usually had all the beds and patients together in a big room when they slept.

Wow...this place is beautiful in the winter. Im afraid to go in the winter in fear that maybe the weight of the snow on the roof could cause one to collapse..

The hole looks like it might just be a vent of some sort...

Maybe there were no doors so that staff could watch patients, kind of like what Lynne said.

And this building looks worse than the others, so maybe it wasnt really taken as good care of.

The 2nd floor of the Administration building caught fire. The Administration buildings the main one, right in the front, lol.

Perhaps this was used by the lower-functioning patients. I read in Lost In A Desert World that the lower-functioning dorms were often in very bad shape...holes in the walls, feces all over...

Yeah, it makes more sence so that patiens cant hit their heads on the faucet, or adjust the water temp.

Prolly for people waiting to get x-rayed! XD

ugh...people like that looting the place...

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Yeah, the mirrors could have been distorted by perhaps vandals trying to smash them with something...cause if you notice if youve ever been there, theres basically not one mirror thats not been shattered.

Not sure if the girl being hung is true, i was just told it. But the grafitti is definitly there.

Yeah, these tunnels are actually just below ground, which is why there were no windows. when you come out of the end of the tunnels, theres a ramp, which goes upward just enough that these tunnels couldnt have any windows.

Theres also a sentence graffittied on one of the walls near Devon hall i believe it is, which is where a young girl was hung in the stairwell that leads down to the tunnels. The sentence is signed by Sally (i think was the name...i know it started with an S) and Shadow because people say they see the girl and her shadow sometimes in Devon Hall...

They occasionally let them out. They even gave some of them passes so they can take a bus and go into the surrounding cities. They also let them roam the grounds. They had a park with a baseball-field before it all got overgrown. This information can be found by reading the book Lost In A Desert World by Roland Johnson, a former patient.

It might just be brush...branches or leaves or something outside the doors.

This hallway looks like it might have been very beautiful.