Administration

I'd love to hear more about what you know of Pennhurst. That was a very Interesting short story with this picture. Got any more info? Pls share it!
silkster

I made a Counter-Strike map on this! But the map is pretty poorly done. Oh well. And silkster, go to elpeecho.com and look for the Pennhurst info or whatever link.

Hi Eric,
Thank you, I did visit that site a coupple of times, each time I did, I got virus (or addon) on my machine.

This admin building strongly reminds me of my old highschool. It was built in the 20s, was abandoned about 10 years ago and is going to be torn down this summer to make a parking lot...

Motts, how do you know this?

Hey - i was here yesterday! but i was so freaked out that i couldnt even get out of my car!

My sister died here in 1957. I am being tortured with memories and feel a need to go here. Other than Spring City, how would I get there from Philadelphia?? Live in Florida but all family in Philly.

I plan to add the weathervane at the top of the dome to my Pennhurst collection.

[Directions edited out per site policy] Sorry to here about your mom Mary Ann, but if you dont mind what happened was it just old age or something else. If you don't want to say you don't have to You can email me if you want at shelbyjordan21@yahoo.com

those tunnels are insanely scary sometimes... why werent the parents aloud to see where their kids lived? didn't they pay for them to go there afterall???

You are kidding, right????

that little circle is so over grown now...eairler tonight my friend drove there their and scracthed up her car pretty bad

That story sounds like something that happened at a lot of state schools while they were in operation. I know, at least at the Fernald State School in Waltham, MA, the same thing happened. No one was ever allowed on the back wards because the conditions were so horrendous.

This building will look great once it is all cleaned up and the gardners are brought in.

Signed: An American Soldier stationed in Germany.

It is scary that doctors and nurses, heck people, did this to other human beings. I encourage everyone to look into the Willowbrook State School, in New York. Here is a letter from someone who worked there http://www.thecrimson....icle.aspx?ref=120007

It's scarier that all the "normal" people refused to vote for money for these places and didn't care what happened to these people until it hit the paper over and over and over again and the courts and families and advocacy agencies finally did something about it. Don't throw stones at the people who worked here who kept these folks alive - throw stones at the voters who didn't fund these places or the community people who ran scared from these places as if plague-carrying rats lived here and people who still invent scary ghost stories about places like this because it's the only way they can face the fact that 99.9% of the country didn't give 2 cents about the people who lived here.

You're part of the problem or you're part of the solution.

Now, where is that exit from my soap box? :-)

I WANT TO GO. I BET THE EVENING PICTURES ARE UNREAL. THE DAYTIME TOO

WE WENT AND IT WAS THE BEST. YOU CAN WALK AROUND INSIDE, BUT BE CAREFUL U DON T GET CUT AND THERE IS ASBESTOS EVERYWHERE SO PLEASE WEAR A MASK

MAYBE THE STORY WAS TRUE IN THE 40'S 0R 50'S BUT WHEN I WORKED THERE THE PARENTS OR VISITORS COULD COME TO THE WARDS TO GET THEM.
MOST RESIDENTS WERE COURT COMMITTED WHEN I WAS THERE AND NO COST WAS PUT ON THE PARENTS. IT WAS A SAD TIME AND MOST FAMILIES COULD'T TAKE CARE OF THE SPECIAL NEEDS THE RESIDENTS HAD. WHEN YOU WALK DOWN THE STREET NOW HOW DO YOU REACT TO A MENTALLY DISABLED PERSON---DO YOU GO TALK TO THEM OR IGNORE THEM---MAKE FUN OF THEM OR SMILE AT THEM? ARE TIMES SO DIFFERENT? WOULD YOU HAVE GONE AND WORKED THERE KNOWING YOU WOULD BE TAKING CARE OF ALL THEIR BASIC NEEDS? COULD YOU HANDLE THAT? I DID AND LOVED MY JOB EVEN THOUGH I WAS BITTEN ,KICKED,SCRATCHED AND GIVEN A FEW BLACK EYES FROM BEING HIT IN THE FACE BY MY RESIDENTS, I HAVE SCARS TO PROVE IT BUT WOULD STILL GO BACK THERE IF IT WAS OPEN. DON'T JUDGE EVERYTHING BY THE RUNORS YOU HEAR--TRY TO FIND FACTS---AS WITH ALL THINGS THERE IS GOOD AND BAD--BE KIND TO THOSE OF US WHO WERE DEDICATED TO OUR CARING FOR THE RESIDENTS!

A similar protocol was followed at the Fernald School in Waltham, MA. I'm sure it was the same at other state schools and developmental centers throughout the states.

I've been twice. It's a strange place. I think the reports of why they closed the school are falsified, as it seemed apparent from artifacts found that people other than "retarded" children/adults were kept in the compound. Also, why did the military put a building in the middle? Think about it. Clearly, human experiments were carried out here. To cover their tracks, they closed it and installed a miliary base.

Oh, do tell!!

Sounds like an episode from X-Files.....

Well I doubt the reports are false considering I am reading the court transcripts from the 1981 lawsuit. Which refers to a suit filed in 1974 (although those I could not find online) email me if you want a link as I am not sure of the rules on link posting here!

No offense to any of you but like at least half of you sound utterly clueless. Have any of you even LOOKED at Elpeecho's website?

its a shame. all those people that died there and stuff. a lot of my friends have slept there over night. they wont go back now after things they said they heard and saw.

http://www.elpeecho.com/

they have everything. old documents and stuff. check it out you can learn alot.

There are actually several people I know that worked here before it was closed in '85. The hospital was in fact closed down because of all the abuse that went on there. I have heard some pretty gruesome stories from the former workers so I know for a fact that they are true. Pennhurst was mainly a residential facility for people with Mental Retardation, but there were also people there with psychiatric illnesses. As for the families not being able to see where their children lived, 1.) the parents didn't pay for their kids to be there, it was all court ordered and paid for by the government and insurance companies, and 2.) it was mostly for the safety of the visitors that they weren't allowed to go to where theiir children lived. Even today, if you go to a state hospital that is funcitoning you aren't allowed to go see where the people live, you have to stay on a completely separate part of the ward. This is, however, maily for the privacy of the other patients. I know all this because I used to work at a state hospital in PA.

I have been getting trainings from a guy that use to work at belchertown and the stuff he says that they would do bothered me much. he said that the people that lived there were misdiagnosed and half that some doctors weren't even licenced. i work with one girl that used to live there and she doesn;t like showers because at the belchertown school they showered her with cold water.

two words HAUNTED HOUSE! it has all of the elements of one! nice building, but this is what people picture when they think of a haunted house, its perfect!

@Bo-I saw that site. Really cool stuff! I love reading the case study documents!!!! they're interesting. One of them even mentioned cookies (the food).

Everyone is to blame for this place and what happened to it. The parents who put their children in it, the public with children and without who took no notice, those who rook notice and did nothing including even casting a measly vote to correct it, the staff who were grossly inefficient, and especially all those who saw it, sniffed, and stated that it wasn't their fault. I'm sorry, that "doctor" (Fear, was it??) on the news story at the top of this page was nowhere near competent.