Patient Tunnel

when i was there last april, the flourescent light seen on the ceiling was flickering on and off creating a humming sound and the fading evening light made this hallway incredibly creepy.

Looks like a nightmare corridor from some horror video game.

RedDragon,
I would have thought ALL electricity to the joint was cut off long ago. Perhaps there was one connection they neglected to cut. I know fluorescents last a long time, but we're talking 20 years!

there r pics on other sites that show lights on in parts of this place

Perhaps there's more of a supernatural force at work here. Spirits of those that have long since been forgotten at Pennhurst, the souls that died there. They could very much have a part in what goes on inside those walls, especially the lights flickering.

isn't it possible that the power is still on in some buildings and that some kids or something turned the lights on when they where there exploring?

Pretty darn good flourscents otherwise!

Truthfully, I don't know if I could walk through that hallway if I saw a light flickering.... it would seem too foreboding somehow.

i live near pennhurst and a lot of kids from my highschool went exploring there, including myself. We always went at night and sometimes lights would be on. The lights that were on were usually near the administration building and they were ALWAYS in teh basements or tunnels. I have no idea how or why the lights were turned on and off.

i'd be really creepy to hear noises coming from the hall

I been to pennhurst and in those tunnels, its creepy and chilling, i heard a child call out in the halls at 3

decent photo, yeah i have seen the flourecents kinda creepy i have seen bulbs riged to breakerboxes in the basements of buildings hanging that were a glow

The infamous Exit light that remains switched on: http://photobucket.com...amp;current=exit.jpg

no no no, i'm in the PA army national guard and 2 units and a recruiting station are there. Only some buildings are constantly occupied (very interesting since it's all maintained in there just like it used to be) but many others are used for urban combat training hence a few lights here and there. I can't tell you how many things go "bump" in the night there or you think you saw something.

the "EXIT" light must remain on.......it's a safety feature in all buildings...also Federal law.........they're hardwired to the buildings main incoming power lines prior to running thru building circuit breaker boxes. That confirms the power is still active at this entire facility.

The sad thing......the people who "think" they feel spirits or "ghosts".........enter the building INTENDING on experiencing a "paranormal" event....simply by the fact that the building would lappear ominous enuff and the history of the facility would preface an "encounter".....thus......pre-programming their minds for such an occurrence. Kinda like........"well look at the place, the history.....there HAS to be ghosts here....so I know I'll see one". Simply walking thru a doorway and creating air disturbance....then rustling dust or debris.........instantly that COMPLETELY NORMAL circumstance becomes a "ghostly contact" in the pre-programmed mind !! Anything that would or could create a sound....air rushing thru a hole in a roof or wall.....degradation in action(debris falling from ceiling or walls)....instantly becomes misinterpreted as a "paranormal experience". Leyman terms........"it's all in your head" !!!

IF......major IF......there were "spirits" or "ghosts" of the children society cast away here.........do you, for a moment, believe that spirit would want to languish in the same spot that was such a dispicable and horrific episode during its physical life ?? Again......IF....if there are spirits trapped here......will anyone really know ?? Unless Dr Venkman brings in his "ectoplasmic residue collection" team.......the paranormal science is still a bit of a "crystal ball" approach to discovering truth in "spirits trapped on Earth". Until a ghost walks up to you, in a place such as this, taps you on the shoulder and says "Hey, Im a ghost...just to prove that we exist"......it is and will continue to be.... conjecture.

WOW, the intellectuals are returning.
*swoons*

cruiser, you're my new favourite can opener...cans of whoop-ass that is, good work.

I love the colours in this pic....if you're eyes followsthe wall down the hallway the colours kind of falter from the blue/green to more of a brown rust and then BAM!...pitch black....scary

i heard that the reason there are no windows down in the tunnels because of the fact that the paitens were so physcially abused that when they had to walk from building to building nobody wanted to see them thats why they made tunnels with no windows

Yes, that is so very true and I am so very glad that someone finally had the courage to say it, Shawna. Us hospital staff types were and still are always beating up the people we are paid to look after. We have absolutely nothing better to do than beat and pound defenseless people and then we have to try to hide it, naturally.

[Thump thump thump]

[thump thump]

Tunnels in these buildings were indeed for transporting patients as well as the dead. Food, supplies.. heat etc.

The whole abuse thing is just too blown out of proportion.
The biggest thing that you would transport a patient for, would be to respectfully move the deceased.

Many of the living cannot deal with death, and do not deal with well. Even in whole capacity, let alone diminished capacity, which is why even in modern hospitals the dead are transported in seperate elevators, and when possible down hallways less used, that do not adjoin patient rooms.

Tunnels with no windows were also utilized as shelter durning Tornados and other disasters. To dimish flying debris such as broken glass.

What? You mean we DON'T beat up all the fragile people we are supposed to look after? Maybe I am reading too many gothic horror novels or reading too many websites where people want this to happen and I've gotten cornfused with my own self . . . .

Gosh, thanks for straightening me out, Lyric!

Dunno Lynne m'dear you must be getting confused.

I wonder if by letting it out that the deceased are moved around in the unseen places in the hospitals and that they are taken to the Morgue in the freight elevator will wind up being construed as abuse of the dead?

Maybe I'm the morbid one here.

Well, I for one DO beat my patients, but only when they ask me too... Why else would I have a whip? :D

Did that ''Shawna'' girl even think about what she said?? LOL!!

''I heard..I head..I heard'' you dont know anything!! turn off MTV and study REAL history..not that new ''50 cent'' video!

Lynee is correct that the dead really do a number on the living(meaning when they are wheeled around) esp in a mental hospital, so they made these tunnel's in part for that ordeal!

Some of these place's have had abusive staff, but it was not in the majority..most have clean record's..which is amazing considering what they have to put up with, could you handle being around people who are not all that stable all day and night..it take's compassion for this type of thing!

But I also know that what the resident's in these place's do is not all that ''crazy'' that would be more in the criminal hospital!

I also want to add that many member's of my family or their friend's have worked in hospital's, they seem to be more concerned with what the state is doing to screw them over rather than having to worry about the residnet's!

My mother told me this one guy thought he was Hitler ..she has a few other storie's but nothing like a tragic beating or anything!

TURN OFF THE TV!!

Uh, another reason there might not have been windows in the tunnels, is that many of them were underground. I mean, it would just be damn depressing to look out a window and only see dirt.

heh. And surely a few bodies of the people Lynne had killed from her violent violent beatings...HAHA...right.

wow...

I know of many many kids in my school who, on weekends, come into these tunnels and drink and smoke up. When they first mentioned tunnels I thought that they meant sewage tunnels underground until I saw these photographs. I think its really messed up of them to be going in and messing around in here. There are so many guards watching this place at all hours of the night, that Im surprized that any of them dont get caught.

Wow -- the "dark" at the end of the tunnel! Great shot.

Being in this hallway would freak me out.

I used to walk these tunnels on a regular basis, to pass the time whilst my Mom was at work in the Whitman Bldg. I was 9 YO and thought they were cool. They did not smell, They were very clean and I believe they were primarily used to keep residents off the streets. Pennhurst may have been old but it was very tidy in the 1970's.

If you told me there was $15 million at the end of that tunnel, I still would not go. Way too creepy for me!

THAT PLACE IS MAD CREEPY I WAS REALLY SCARED

some of the tunnels have lights on due to generators...i know there is one in the tunnels by the admin buldg but really close to the vet center...so that might be part of it also...

oh yea. a flashlight, and a broken radio. thats all i would need. awesome.

These tunnels cannot have been used for transporting the deceased because they were not connected to the Whitman (Morgue) building. I would think they were used to either keep the patients out of the rain, or out of the snow in the winter. I've been in this tunnel several times, and it's particularly creepy because an ancient wheelchair has been left in it.

The tunnels were used in bad weather---ice,snow, rain---they connect to all buildings so in bad weather you didn't have to take the residents outside. during good days they were seldom used.

i was there 3 days ago and i heard lil kids playing in all the buildings when i was there and doors slaming and that was my first time there its wwas pretty kool

theres a tunnel that runs in to the army base

The 'pitch black room' seems to be calling to me. Bbegging me to come closer and walk into it. To discover it's hidden mystery. Does that make sense?

no

I just went to pennhurst two nights ago. I live in Exton so im pretty close. I was there with two guy friends. We walked around with a flare becuase my one friend is a firefighter.... i guess we got kinda lost because we went out into the farm field first. Anyhow, we found our way to the buildings and went into the administration building i guess..... we walked through the left tunnel.... then went up a floor and another..... walked around like three floors or somthing like that..... i found some papers which i didnt know what they were but i wanted to see them. So i grabbed them and we started to walk out..... we walked outta the building and all the sudden we hear a "HEY! HOLD ON! STOP!" So we ran..... i dropped the papers and we booked ass out of there. then my friends decided to go back and get the papers kus i wanted them sooo bad.... we all went back with flares and a blue light on the car...... whatever or who ever it was keept following us the whole time we were there.... since the farm fields... one of my friends warned us, but we didnt belive him. We told him he was just hearing things.... but also when we were in the tunnel, coming out of it, we heard footsteps that definitly weren't ours...... first of all, the place is creepy. Second of all, is that the tunnel to the left or right of the building?? And third, we are planning to go back in there, completely armed and protected, in the daylight to get pictures, and then the night after that at night again with a bigger group and lots more "protection". How far did you get when you went there?

If anyone read the El Peecho interviews at the beginning of these pics, you might have been led to believe this is "the tunnel" they were talking about. Very interesting and foreboding.....

Its not entirely impossible that it could be paranormal, being that paranormal activity is caused by energy. but it probably just faulty wiring.

my grandmothers both worked here in the 60's and 70's. I would visit alot. The place was immaculate, clean, smelled nice, people were great to the patients. My grandmothers loved those people and took really good care of them. They would cry when they lost one. Those tunnels are for walking in during bad weather. They have nothing to do with dead patients. That is not true. I don't know you are getting your infomration but take it from someone who spent alot of time there, clean, well taken care of, and nice place.

I don't know about back in the day, but currently state hospitals no longer have morgues on the grounds. All people who die are taken off grounds. The tunnels were ALWAYS only used for transporting patients to and from buildings during bad weather (i.e. rain, snow, etc.). In fact, in hospitals that are still running, the tunnels are still used for that exact purpose. As for the beating of people and such, well, you may want to stop watching so many scary movies and actually do some research of your own instead of depending on Hollywood to supply you with all of your facts. ^.^

I work with two IDD (intellectual developmental difficulties) patients that were housed at Pennhurst, the one still has flashbacks and promises to be good if we wont shackel him. Our company NEVER uses resraints but he still remembers. They broke his feet there, they sodimized him and broke his spirit and he still pays with the flashbacks.

I grew up one street away from this place. I don't watch tv or movies. I do not play video games. The landmark court case that closed Pennhurst is public record. It is a class action suit known as Halderman vs. Pennhurst State School and Hospital. It was found that patients were in fact abused. Cut and paste the following web address.

http://www.preservepen...m/default.aspx?pg=36

There is also a document if anyone is interested called Lost In A Desert World by Roland Johnson, a long-term patient at Pennhurst. Please don't discount patient testimony or dismiss truths just because they happen to be ugly. Care enough to look.

http://www.disabilitym...ocs/1681.htm?page=12

I wasn't saying that none of that stuff happened at Pennhurst because I do know for a fact that all of the horrible stuff happened there. I'm simply saying that today, that stuff no longer happens. A lot has changed in the past 10 years especially. You aren't even allowed to brush a patient's hair w/o a doctor's written consent more or less.

thats crazy it looks like a bad nightmare

Well, for some, lg, it was not a nice place. Massive class-action lawsuits that are won and succeed in shutting state facilities down don't happen because everything was nice. Bad things do happen, and happened here. It's of utter importance to realize it, admit it, learn from it, and as citizens, not to let it happen again.