Crib

Motts, you're insane if you didn't wear a mask in this place--there must have been a swirling cloud of particulates everywhere you walked...

lol

omg did they keep baby's and children there?was it like scary there?did u experience anything weird?lol srry im really interested in this!

HAAHAA this girl Rissa is a RIOT. fucking hilarious

There are, I guess, varying degrees of dereliction, based on many qualities, but principally - how untouched the environment is, and how much time has passed. With that in mind, this shot looks f***ing great!

i like the pics they are great

Sad photo from a history point of view. The horrid past and derogation time has done. Great photo's but kinda sad..

I always wear a mask if i go in there...i live 2 minutes away and know the place well

Can u give me anby advice on going into new buildings and sites, that are unfarmilliar

The news story about Pennhurst showed children strapped (more like shackled) to cribs like these with flies all over them. In one image, a fly strip hung above the crib. It looked like a scene from a third world country.

I can imagine children strapped into these things.Soiling themselves,flies swarming around in the stench,large roaches scampering,sometimes crawling unto their faces to eat leftover crumbs of food not cleaned from around their mouths.This was a place of horror.

the stories about what they did to children at pennhurst are alot worse than roaches and flies crawling on them

why would babies be at pennhurst anyways? And what ever happened to the workers there wee they found guilty or did they get off scott free? that just makes me want to kick their a**es!

sande is right. when the children didnt get the attention they needed, they realized they could smear - im going to be polite here- human feces on themselves so the staff HAD to give them a bath.

I remember seeing pictures on another Pennhurst site (the one with the court case photos on it, linked from another comment here somewhere) of these full-size cribs in use. One with a half-naked girl in, another with what looks like a teenager or adult restrained by ankle straps. I'm a sceptic and wonder if most of the horrific stories about what went on at these places are nothing but urban myths and sensationalistic journalism, but there's still something incredibly sad about the whole situation. I wonder how often these kids got a cuddle or affection of any variety from the overworked, underpaid staff...

rich,

im very sure there where staff that cared very deeply for their patients. I know that i do. It sure isnt the pay that keeps me going back to the hospital every day.

My Grandmother and Great Aunt both worked here for years and I can tell you that both were loving and caring women. They worked mostly with the men or boys as they used to call them....there were alot of caring individuals that cared for the people at Pennhurst, but from their stories they caring were outweighed by the terrifying people that abused the people who lived there. This was not an easy place to work because my Grandmother would leave work and come home and she would comment that the boys in her ward were almost shell-shocked when she returned. God knows what happened to them when she was at home. She worked many hours without pay because she hated leaving them. Thank God this and other placed like this are no longer in use.

It makes me sad to see shots like this. I have a four month old daughter and I would NEVER want her to stay in a place like this.

I was just there last night, around midnight. How did you get in during the day? The army reserve base is right there.

WAS JUST THERE THE OTHER EVENING, DROVE AROUND FOR A LITTLE WHILE.. TRYING TO REMEMBER WHAT IT USED TO LOOK LIKE WHEN I USED TO DRIVE THRU TO GET TO ANOTHER ROAD. I FRIEND OF MINE WAS AN ALTERBOY WITH ST. JOSEPH'S CHURCH AND HE WENT IN THERE SEVERAL TIMES TO HELP THE PRIEST GIVE CONFIRMATION TO THE KIDS. HE SAID IT WAS VERY HOT IN THE BUILDINGS AND IT SMELLED OF VERY BAD BODY ODOR. ONE OF THE ALTERBOYS PASSED OUT RIGHT OFF OF THE STAGE. HE WAS OK. NO ONE BOTHERED US AT THIS TIME, BUT WE DID NOT GET OUT OF OUR CAR. I WOULD LIKE TO GET INTO SOME THE BUILDINGS SOMETIME AND TAKE SOME PICTURES BEFORE THE BUILDINGS GET TORNED DOWN.

I just went there on Friday, but could not find the road to get to the hospital. If anyone has any info please let me know. I want to take some pics of this place.

All of these pictures just captivate sadness, l don't know why, well, I suppose I do know why, but I mean, it's almost as if you can feel the suffer and neglect radiating off of the pictures. You take amazing pictures!!! I've always been really into Institutions, and places like this. Bravo, that's all I have to say. These are just really amazing.

its true Gabriella

i visited pennhurst when i was in highschool with a group to hold a picnic for the residents. a lot of what today we call mentally challenged kids and some adults. i had no idea what was really going on inside. none of the people holding the activity did. scary so uninformed.

oh, btw, fantastic pictures!!

I had clients that were saved from pennhurst. They were ruined for life. No matter what we did to try to give them back their dignity, it failed. Dam the staff and administration that did this to them. They should rot in hell forever.

Sonya, God bless you for trying. I believe he knows what you tried to do.And i believe some where down the road all you did help, and all you tried to know too. I'm a believer "what goes around comes around" You are a wonderful lady.

We're looking at the place in an advanced state of decay but I'm sure back then it wasn't as "awful" looking.

How sad that some kids were stuck in the cribs for most of the time. It must have been so degrading.
How sad.

i really dont think they kept babies in there...maybe some older people that acted like babies

i take care of middle aged people who spent 23 out of 24 hours in these cribs having been sent there at 5,6, 7.... the records we have recently found state they were in these cribs for 23 hours a day, and were muffed and shackled for days/ weeks for screaming and being disruptive. Imagine being 6, in this , and not being able to make any noise, or you were restrained for god knows how long. just think about that..... yea, they were kind and loving people that worked there.

Looking at pictures of old buildings, and seeing the decay of them. You have to remember, there was once a day, when they were state of the art. And, I am sure, they kept the best care that was available at the time. All hospitals were not torture chambers.

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.

yea bitches. silent hill. reminds me of hosptital. and no. the movie sucked. silent hill is a phycologicall horror game, not a splatter
film

THIS PLACE HAS IT'S OWN MOVIE SET.

i have been to pennhurst twice in the past three months and i could only find around 7 of the buildings and they were all the ones that were near the veterans hospital. does anyone know how to get to the rest of them?? any info could help a lot!!! thanks.

My mom and sister both worked at Pennhurst. They are both very caring and loved the individuals they cared for. However I do know that there were people there who did horrible things to individuals who couldnt' speak or stand up for themselves.

I sat on the bars of that and they Fucking crumbled

i currently have clients that used to live at pennhurst. I work in the field with mentally and physically handicapped. This place forever changed them, as if they didn't have it hard already. the abuse they got while they were there was ridiculous but, at the time it was the only place around to send your child if they had "problems" you couldnt...or in some cases, didn't want to deal with. Im so glad, looking back, at how far we as a society have come. At least, in this day and age, in MOST places people with disaillities get the care and attention they deserve.

I used to climb out of my crib

If your baby was born with a problem...or your child has a problem as parents you have to deal with it , your should love your baby and child, remember they were not asked to be here..I think this is so sad and you know what else is sad that the parents can take there babies and childen there and walk away they have no heart.I would not beable to live with myself if I did that...they sure don't have a HEART !!!!!

But Terri ...please remember that this was a different time. If you had a "different looking" or "slow" kid..either evident from birth or thereafter...alot of the medical professionals would highly insist that these kids go to places like Pennhurst. Rarely did a family keep their loved one home & out in public for all to see. If families did provide care within the home.....noboby knew they did!

soo sad ):

I saw an old clip of a guy banging his head against the window while sitting here... I think. It was on TV.

for years it bothered me the nightmare that was pennhurst. over the past 12 years ive befriended many ex patients and employees of the facility. contrary to popular belief (some of the people who commented on here) the institution was a terrrible place to be. care was minimalistic if none existant....there were never enough nurses or aides to cover any of the wards..the food was terrible and nothing was ever done to help people at all...towards the end no one cared meds were left in the open for anyone to take orderlies were raping female patients the lists go on and on and now they are running a haunted attraction on the site gonna be awful hard to keep the real ghosts and the fake ghost seperate.... thats one place that should of been left to deteriorate into the land and left to its own demise.....nothing good ever came out of pennhurst

i think i might be doing a project on this but i need to interview people, who might you suggest to interview. i mean i dont really know if anyone would know but i am stuck and need help. Also were there just mentally retarded or were there actually people with mental illnises or both. i have been here before, i went to the haunted house but i wish that i could go bymyself because i didnt like the haunted house i thought it was to over done with decorations and was kind of cheesey. i think it would be amAazing to go with no decorations because i love haunted thingsss. thanks (:

i wouldnt go bymyself thoughh

i think this place was just on Ghost Hunters on sci-fi, lol, so expect some odd questions.