Strange Bathroom

What floor was this on?

Hey, if anyone knows where i can get a description of what each of the buildings at Pennhurst was used for, email me the link @ dmorgan2@gmail.com

This picture really bothers me. A medicine cabinet "inside" a shower stall, Pink paint in the men's room.....okay..... The steps at the window appear to be a permenant fixture rather than a random placement. Theres no theraputic reason for them... perhaps it was an entrance - for visitors that didnt want to be noticed?
Motts, was there a roof or something right outside the window maybe?

The randomness of that room baffles me.

If it baffles us, imagine how it bewildered the patients. They must have emerged from the lavatory with such perplexed looks on their faces. It also leaves one to wonder how many have walked to the top and urinated out the window.

the stairs were there to enter the door that was once there, but it was knocked down and a wall was put there instead, to track patients moe thoroughly. as for the medicine cabinet, i have no clue why that is there. and, the reason for the pink walls was another attempt to make the place less scary. and besides, these "pateints" have never seen the outside world. i dont think they knew pink was a girly color, much less cared.

Sam, if they knocked down the door that leads out a 2nd story, why didn't they take out the stairs? Especially if it was to track patients more thorougly.... I'm sure they'd be easy to find splattered on the ground ..... lol

silkster, i really dont know. i do know that my friends grandfather was on the staff at pennhurst, and that was HIS explanation for it. but who knows? maybe the old fart was wrong!

That shower doesn't look too watertight, and would patients take a leak out of the window?

Actually, the staircase in front of a window is quite Escherian.

Derelict Sensation,
You used a $10.00 word that I had to look up in the dictionary and even THEY didn't have it listed!
So now I need to know....... what is Escherian?
huh?

Escherian refers to the optical-illusion drawings done by the famed artist M.C. Escher (1898-1972).
Here's a great link to his biography and some great examples of his artwork.
http://www.mcescher.com/

If I remember reading about hospitals and my one friend I know went to a psych ward, they said she was locked in a pink room. Pink is supposed to help calm people?

So I go check out one of the older buildings on ground this week, and what do I find? A room with two wooden steps built up to the window so's you can leave the building and get out onto the fire escape. =8-o

Are there fire escapes at Pennhurst?

I spent some time in an "insane" asylum, which is still in operation. Broughton in NC. Most walls are white accept in the old parts or unused parts of the hospital. Restrooms are pink in the "class'"area.(both men and women) Other parts have murals painted by patients. Has seperate buildings fior different degrees of mental illness. Those are divided by male and Femaie . Each ward has seclusion rooms and one person rooms with observation windows. Other wise they are rooms that sleep 5 to 6 people. The main entrance has the history of the hospital as well as artifacts(old tools to "heal" patients. Used to be completely self sufficient. It is rumored that parts are haunted. You hear lots of noises. The walls echo rather than silence the other parts. There has been talk of it closing. It would definatley be worth exploring. After all we call it the mountain retreat.

this is an emplouees convenience shower , I seen ones similar to therse in most od them. usually in administration bldg and usually used by guys who got 86'd by their wife or sig other.

there's a photo out there of a bathroom with the floor painted to look like the sky. if anyone has it or knows where i might find it please let me know ... thank you ... mrportege@hotmail.com

My guess is, that they turned this room into an impormtue shower/bathroom. They left the stairs there for one of two reasons I can think of.
1) It offered some kind stablity for a fairly mobile pacient to cling to while waiting to get into the shower. It also might have provided some kind of PT. Warm water loosens up muscles and having the stairs there they might have walked them a few times to help keep limber.
2) Since this is a make shift bathroom they where too cheap to remove the stairs. It costs money to rip things out . Why spend money to rip something out the pacients don't care if it stays or goes?

I went to a private school when I was in..::Thinks hard:: Kindergarden I think, and the girls bathroom was blue, and the guys was pink.
There's probally something more behind it.

Could this have been a therapy room rather than a bathroom? The stairs look a lot like stairs used for rehab, and the shower would have helped loosen up muscles before using the stairs. That would explain the medicine cabinet (probably things like bandaids, low dosage pain meds, etc for bumps and bruises). Motts, was there anything else that made it look like a bathroom (toilets, sinks, etc)?

I was talking to my grandfather a few years ago, he used to live around here...(here being the town Pennhurst is in)..he said that back around the 1920's, pink was considered a male color and blue was considered a female color. That could explain why the "Men's" bathroom was painted pink.

ok just a thought but sence these people wher abusive would it be possable that this was used as an intimidation tactic meaning like if they didnt do what they wher told to they would be made to walk up the stairs and wher told if you dont do this or that ill push you out !??? sadistic it's true but i have to figure these people wher messed up sence they beat kids any thoughts on my idea? email me at justicedreams24@aol.com

I have a vision of pushing someone out that window right now, too . . . . .

Lynne!! Thank you! I have the same feeling!

Wait, let me open it for you.....

Wait! Is it really worth it.? Maybe the poor girl just needs an education!

I've changed my mind. After reading all that hooey now I'm going to JUMP out that window myownself. I just never knew we were all so evil and now I'm just depressed enough to hurl myself bodily from the very room. Of course, given that Motts says this room is only on the first floor, about the best I'll prolly do is twist my ankle or give myself a slightly bloody nose, mebbe skin up my knees a little. You know how incompetent we in the mental health field are. We can torture and starve others and by God, we can even force them to use a weight machine (blackhearted asshats that we are for that foul deed alone), but we aren't too good at doing bad things to ourselves.

Motts, I'll personally pay you $80.00 for this month's bandwidth just for the pleasure I have had replying to this silliness. E-mail me your address and I'll drop a check in the mail in the morning. My tax return will be in my bank account in under two weeks and my check will even be good. :-)

Do you have your parachute on?

Not to worry, Twug...I would throw myself down, and break Lynnes fall!

Gonna have to bring in a picture of the ballroom where my dance class is.
We have stairs that lead out the window.
It's what I do with fellow classmates who have no rhythm!!!


Really.. it goes to the FIRE ESCAPE!!!!
Good gravy.

Antonio, my little love, your great auntie Lynne loves you little face!

Just a few explanations I found on colors influance on patients.... Kind of Interesting....

Red
Brings warmth, energy and stimulation, therefore good for energy, fatigue, colds, chilly and passive people. Red energizes heart and blood circulation, it builds up the blood and heightens a low blood pressure. Energizes all organs and the senses hearing, smell, taste, vision and touch.

Orange
Orange is warm, cheering, non-constricting. Orange has a freeing action upon the body and mind, relieving repressions. Orange shows new possibilities and other options in life. Stimulates creative thinking and enthusiasm, and helps assimilate new ideas.It is also helpful in dealing with excess sexual expression.

Yellow
Yellow helps strengthen the nerves and the mind. It helps awaken mental inspiration and stimulates higher mentality. Thus, it is an excellent color for nervous or nerve-related conditions or ailments. It also energizes the muscles. Dark yellow soothes pains in the nerves (shooting pains)

Green
Green is the color of Nature and the earth. It is balance and harmony in essence and possesses a soothing influence upon both mind and body. It is neither relaxing nor astringent in its impact

Gold
Absolute authority, (self)confidence, creativity, perfection, male energy, financial riches, investments, luxury, winning, worldly power, magickal power, overcoming bad habits/addictions.

maybe it was a high diving board into a pool below

So these strange set ups were supposed to help the mentally challenged? How!?! This room has insanity written all over it. I really feel bad for the patients who endured life in this strange place.

That's what you get when you hire the building crew from the Winchester Mansion...

The cabinet is used to house the temperature controls for the shower. They are still in place at Norristown State Hospital. The stairs? I dunno.

Kinda Wonderlandian somehow....but the stairs to the window...yeah it is like Winchester Mansion...either that or they were making it easier for suicide jumpers.

I agree that the steps probably lead to a door at one point. It may have been to lead patients in and out without incedent. The "medicine cabinet" may have been a place to put a towel or maybe soap. The water probably drained into a drain in the middle of the shower and came from a pide overhead. As for the pink walls....It may have been a different color at one time and I do believe that pink is supossed to be a cheery color. It may also have been cheap. Pastel clors are supossed to elavate the mood I think.

This is the worst shower I have ever seen !!!

What is that weird boxy cover on the wall doing in the shower ?

Signed: An American Soldier in Germany.

Heh, good one Frida.

Remember that bit from "Sophie's Choice" where the landlady explained that she'd painted all her rooms a salmon pink color because she got a great discount on the surplus Army paint? I wonder if that had any basis in reality. I know that pink was used in hospitals because it was once thought to be a soothing color, and back around the turn of the 20th century pink was considered a boy's color (because shades of red are strong and powerful) whereas blue was dainty and meant for girls. Don't know when or why that got switched around. Anyway, does anyone know if hospital paint colors may have been chosen because the state could get a big discount on certain colors that weren't generally popular?

Maybe the Steps once went out to a fire escape. Why it would be in the bathroom not to sure but thats probably the only thing i could think of to why they would be by a window. As for the pink boys room maybe someone moved the sign or back in those days they thought boys liked pink hah.

Are you sure it's a bathroom? And not some sort of changeroom? Was there a showerhead in the "shower" or a hole where a shower could have been? Just an idea. Walking up and down stairs have, for a long time, been used as exercise, so maybe that has something to do with it. I don't know, just a guess!

I'm thinking that since that window is up higher on the wall, they installed the stairs to be able to open/close the window with ease.

holy crap that is messed up.

wow i cant belive it
it dont even look my a bathroom 2 me

If this was a coocoo house, why would they put stairs near the window?? help patients walk out the window??

Worked at Pennhurst from 1/77-84 and i can assure that the patients showers didn't look like that.. as a matter of fact it looks like a shower that was reserved for workers possibly in Maint. or the many abandoned bldgs. and wards that existed even when I worked there.

the walls are pink because its a calming color..they have pink walls in jails too to calm the inmates

is this in the sme room that is sectioned off from the rest of the hospital? Perhaps it was an impromptu bathroom hastily constructed to alleviate overcrowding by creating more facilites. As for the Stairs- again- if the place is 1- bloked off from the major facility and 2- overcrowded, one fire exit won't be enough. If you're running for your life from a fire, ypu're usually advised to leave wheelchairs behind... and so nurses and orderlies would have to carry those unable to walk.

Can you still get inside of Pennhurst to check things out??

i'm watching a show on the travel channel right now. they're working on turning it into a haunted attraction

It looks like this is a rehabilitation room. But it is only a guess.

the reason why the room was probably pink is because they say that shade of pink has a calming effect on people i grew up about a mile from that place a lot of horrible things happened there but if you study the history of mental health it is absolutly crazy the ridiculous things that were done to treat patients the farther you go back the worse it was today they just birage patient with the drug of the month from these co.

i went here and there used to be stairs that wentup to the third floor and there was a door where the window was before

I dont thinjk this was originally "meant" as a shower at all.. In my old school, built in the 50's the custodians 'closets' had similar enclosures that they filled buckets in and washed things out... Maybe it was converted for other use after.... ??

Like someone up thread said, pink for girls, blue for boys is a 1950 and after thing. I'm an old building geek and Victorian designers used to favor pink for bathrooms, because it was the lightest "warm" cold.

Was this on the ground floor? I'd assume the stairs up to the window were a fire excape for people who couldn't climb well: a couple staff go out first (after all, they'd hardly be able to evactuate themselves) and others get the patients to go up and through to be lifted down.

Maybe this isnt an ordinary restroom but a practice one for physical therapy. The shower to help teach patients to wash themselves and the stairs to help patients relearn how to walk up them and build strength.

...perhaps.....

It is likely that the steps are not original as the opening is presented now
the last step up or first step down would be a doozy when you compare the remaining step heights... but it could be as others have observed - a window replacement for a full frame door.

Excellent work Motts including the site design. Thanks

The whole maintenance employee thing sounds ok the possibility of an old patient bathroom partially converted and left that way because of the fact that it was switched to an employees bathroom and they were "sane" and why bother to spend the money on removing everything and repainting. Pennhurst was never in good financial shape, thats supposedly one of the reasons for the way it was ran.

I was also thinking that it could be a therapy room. But... 1. Why would it be labeled "Men". And 2. It seems like therapy stairs would be portable.

Hi. I used to care for people who had been relocated after having the misfortune of living in this hell hole. Many of them told me stories of a "shower area" or "room" or "corner" where they would be hosed down. This photo perfectly encapsulates their description for me.

I forgot the part about the stairs...the stairs would be so the 'caregiver' could stand above the poor 'showeree' and get a hair washing or delousing, treatment, etc, then be hosed down from above.

What building was this in? If this is Penn Hall, then this is where the staff lived. This might explain the more private conditions in the bathrooms. In most of the living quarters there were just communal showers with no covers.

well if they wasnt crazy wen they went in they sure were wen they got out....that bathroom had me thinkng!

i really want to find out all these weird things. is it posiible to go even today ?

i'd like to know what each of the buildings was used for also. if anyone can tell me please e-mail me at xnightqueenx610@aol.com. i would greatly appreciate it. this is an important subject with me.

Maybe this was a part of it. "The medicine cabinet would be open -- they would have medicine cabinets open, wide open -- and somebody got themselves a bottle of Thorazines, liquid Thorazine, and drunk a whole bottle and got very sick and they put him in the hospital -- they was trying to pump the stuff out of him -- and he died the next day. Lord knows where the attendants was at. " http://www.disabilitym...681&&page;=5 the beginining of the paragraph starts like this "

Where I was living they would be hitting too -- them big strong boys. It wasn't the attendants that did it; it was the patients: Charles R., Eddie T., and Eddie S., and other people. They would hit them over the head with mop handles and brooms -- whatever they could get their hands on; they would hit them. I never got hit; I got out of that; I hid in the bedroom underneath all the beds down in the rows. They chasing everybody else around; they couldn't catch me. I was very scared. They hit everybody else but they couldn't get me.
70

They would be going to the hospital with cut heads and sores on the backs and Dr. W. would come around: "What's all these patients being hit for?" And Dr. W. would write out prescriptions for nerve relaxers and Thorazines and stuff like that. The medicine cabinet would be open -- they would have medicine cabinets open, wide open -- and somebody got themselves a bottle of Thorazines, liquid Thorazine, and drunk a whole bottle and got very sick and they put him in the hospital -- they was trying to pump the stuff out of him -- and he died the next day. Lord knows where the attendants was at. " this is from LOST IN A DESSERT WORLD this was written by a former patient. just a thought.