Pennsylvania State Lunatic Hospital - Harrisburg, Pennsylvania

In July 2019, my family and I visited that wondrous, magical place - Hershey Park! We had a great deal of wholesome family fun (though I almost perished on The Comet, which sent me on a terror-inducing drop for which I was wholly unprepared).

Pre-COVID, no masks. Sigh. Actually, immunologists have recently confirmed that the human/Reese's hybrid species is immune, so our host would have been safe anyway. Phew!

OK, time to stop messing around. After our Hershey Park hijinks, I was able to find a few minutes to sneak away to the former Harrisburg State Hospital. Enjoy!

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INSTITUTION: Pennsylvania State Lunatic Hospital (later Harrisburg State Hospital)

LOCATION: Harrisburg, Pennsylvania

OPENED: 1851

CLOSED: 2006

DATE OF VISIT: July 27, 2019

 

Built in 1850 by the renowned architect John Haviland, the Pennsylvania State Lunatic Hospital was the fourth Kirkbride Plan hospital to have been built in the United States. Well, I'm pretty sure that's true. These days, facts are not really facts but personal beliefs are. I believe it to be true, so let's go with it! The Kirkbride building was plagued by a number of problems and became outdated in pretty short order. It 1910, it became the first Kirkbride building to have been demolished. Pictured here is the cornerstone of the original Kirkbride, the only part of the structure that survives.

 

I suppose we should back up a bit. What in the name of Sam Hill is a Kirkbride hospital? Glad you asked. Dr. Thomas Story Kirkbride (1809 - 1883) was the most influential of the first generation of American asylum superindendents in the 19th century. His view was that asylums for the insane should be built according to a common architectural design - the so-called Kirkbride Plan. Kirkbride Plan hospitals had a large administration building in the center and patient wards that flanked to either side in its distinctive shallow V-shape. The photo above? Oh, no big deal. It's just a Kirkbride building that I constructed using my daughter's Perler Beads.

Over 70 Kirkbride hospitals were built in the United States (and only a sprinkling outside the States). Many have been demolished. Some still stand; I created this handy dandy Google map to indicate which ones. The remaining Kirkbrides exist in various states of use. Some are still in use as psychiatric hospitals (like Dorothea Dix Psychiatric Center in my home state of Maine). Some have been beautifully restored and are enjoying new lives (lookin' at you, Richardson Olmsted Campus in Buffalo!). Some are eagerly awaiting adaptive reuse (we're waiting, Hudson Heritage project!). And some are just rotting.

 

And here's me, in my favorite T-shaped blouse, trying to simulate Dr. Kirkbride's expression. This shirt can be yours for the modest sum of $18.19!

 

Gosh, I do get distracted easily. Back to business. After the demolition of the Kirkbride, the facility came to embrace the cottage plan; in short, a large number of small, detached buildings as opposed to one ginormous castle that housed everybody. Here is the former administration building, built after the cottage plan came into vogue. Fun fact - parts of the film Girl, Interrupted were filmed in this building! I was most starstruck upon encountering this Hollywood darling of a building.

 

Sorry - too late.

 

Dorothea Dix (1802 - 1887) was a social reformer who worked tirelessly on behalf of individuals with mental illness in the 19th century. She criss-crossed the country, documenting the often miserable conditions in which folks with mental illness lived in jails, poorhouses, and the like. Dix then took her findings to state legislatures and pressured them into building facilities of specialized treatment and care - insane asylums. She was a driving force behind the construction of most early asylums in the United States. Harrisburg was once home to the Dorothea Lynde Dix Museum, but unfortunately, this building is now empty and it has fallen into disrepair.

 

These metal file cabinets were abandoned when Harrisburg State Hospital shuttered in 2006. Would you consider opening your heart to one of these metal file cabinets?

 

At the conclusion of my visit to the former Harrisburg State Hospital, these stairs took me back to my car which took me back to my family, still recovering from their chocolate coma, no doubt.

FURTHER READING: Check out this short piece on the rise and fall of Harrisburg State Hospital published in 2013 in The Burg, Harrisburg's community magazine.