I worked at Dever in 1978- 1985. It was called a school, but it was anything but that! Thank god for awareness and Heraldo Rivera for his gutsy documentary.

My sister was a patient of Dr. Jervis. She was retarded due to PKU. Thanks to Dr. Jervis she stayed on the special diet and is still living at home-never institutionalized. She is now 57 years old. We used to travel from New Jersey every 6 weeks for a visit to him at the lab in Letchworth.My parents were responsible for having the law passed in N.J. for mandatory newbown testing for PKU.

The problem with the town is that they didn't enforce zoning laws that require property owners to maintain their properties. They just sat and watched it decay and always thought it was somebody else's problem.
Now it is the town's problem. The piper always gets paid.

I'll say...Pat, you are the greatest - what a loyal guardian of Halcyon....

The piper always gets paid. Now the town will have to foot the demolition bill. It ignored the responsibility of protecting its own landmark. Instead of forcing the previous owners to maintain their property, it turned a blind eye. Letting it be someone else's problem now has become its problem. Three cheers for the piper.

Yes, Ratchet would know...is it still standing????

I visited Halcyon Hall a few days ago and it seemed curiously stronger. This is a heroic structure, indeed. It is determined to survive.

Sorry Foord thinks Halcyon Hall is such a dump. Foord is obviously one of the "oblivious uneducated individuals". Maybe Foord should ask where the town was for all the years this "dump" was deteriorating. Why was it not at least enforcing zoning ordinance provisions about maintaining property? Sorry HH is such an eyesore. Maybe the town deserves to be saddled with it.

The ghost that is haunting Halcyon Hall is that of James Ware, who is getting even for the gross destruction of his magnificent creation. No one even had the sense to close the windows after the college closed.

In this economy, do they actually have the money to go ahead with this entire proposal?

It's a great picture, but the bars on all the windows make it look so much like a prison. Can you imagine what it was like to live in one of those small rooms, gazing out the window, imagining your dreams that are not coming true.

Sad and lonely...

It seems to be kind of a violation of this man's privacy to post his picture up like this. This is a recently closed facility and he could still be around in the city.

Thanks I found the secret garden LOVE IT

Illbet playing there lead to a very health imagination and great sense of humor

Woww I love it

is tthat yet still another door ?

In recent yrs I was introduced to a 58 yr old woman who lived at Pennhurst from age 8 to 23. She since lives on her own, with state subsidizing, and a case worker, who virtually does nothing to assist her. Appreciating her walk thru life and present situation, I have stayed friends with her. I enjoy her company, have her to my house occaisionally for dinner, the day, take her places - she can't drive. She definitely was one of the residents that could almost have been on her own, and when Pennhurst closed - was and has been. Probably because of her level of ability, she fortunately wasn't exposed to the supposed horrors. She just stated last nite that she liked it there as she wasn't as lonely, had 3 meals a day prepared for her and activities to be attend. She has a picture of herself in her apt in a "quilt-making" class.She said it was sad and scary when it closed, but she's also proud to have proven she has been able to exist on her own.

To: DJ - I graduated 1967. Seeing the college in this state is heartbreaking. The head of the English Dept. was Charles Alva Hoyt (you can google him). Mildred Johnson went out west to a university I believe in Idaho. I tried to contact her and she was in a local nursing home. I spoke to her briefly but I think she had Alzheimers. This was three years ago. I didn't have any contact with the French Dept. To see such an architecturally significant building abandoned in this way is a travesty in every way.

It's a release valve on the pipe and a controller probably for steam

Beautiful, lovely architecture. And I can't believe Adam A made that last comment.

All these pictures will be reminders of what a gallent structure Danver's was. Thanks to you, Motts, all her images will be preserved.

This fireplace seems almost flush with the wall.

All I know is that if I was kept in a room like this for too long, I KNOW I would go crazy!

When I was a kid, th ereally older homes had ceilings at least 8' high. That's why alot of people started using drop-ceilings.