1918: Marking a Decade of Operation at Pennhurst State School & Hospital

• With its unmistakable architectural design and signature cupola perched atop the roof, the Pennhurst State School & Hospital's Administration Building is often the first image to come to mind when thinking of the former institution. 1918 marked both the year of the building's completion, and the completion of Pennhurst's first ten years of operation. Photo of Pennhurst State School & Hospital Administration Building, 1922. Photo used with permission from the Pennhurst Memorial & Preservation Alliance.

When one thinks of the Pennhurst State School and Hospital, the first image of the property that likely comes to mind is its imposing Administration Building. Designed by architect Phillip H. Johnson, the Administration Building remained the architectural face of the institution, and remains so to this day. It was modeled in the Jacobean style, made of red brick, granite trimmings, terra cotta, with its iconic cupola perched on the roof above. The full property itself was designed in the Cottage Plan model, a style which became popular in the nineteenth century and remained so into the twentieth century. Different from the Kirkbride model which housed all residents in one large building, the Cottage Plan usually involved multiple smaller buildings which could house "specific types" of residents. Still, despite its architectural significance, it is a disservice to the 10,500 individuals who lived, at one time or another, within the Pennhurst State School and Hospital’s walls between 1908 and 1987 when its doors finally closed. Let us use the completion of this building as a marker for the end of the first decade of Pennhurst’s operation.

- Photograph of Philip H. Johnson (1868-1933), the architect behind the original buildings on the Pennhurst property, including the Administration Building. In addition to designing the buildings at Pennhurst, Johnson also designed the Philadelphia Hospital for the Insane. Photograph from Philadelphia Architects and Buildings, https://www.philadelphiabuildings.org/pab/app/ar_display.cfm/25016.

Consider: Pennhurst’s first resident, then referred to as “Patient number 1,” came to stay at Pennhurst on November 28, 1908. At that time, many of the property’s original buildings were still under construction, including the Administration Building. Pennhurst’s first resident would have resided there for a decade before the Administration Building would be completed. Also worth considering, in 1916, two years before the building's completion, Pennhurst's Board of Trustees encouraged the State to think about expanding the institution further to include female residents (where originally the institution only housed men). The proposed the construction of additional facilities to house 1,200 female residents. Pennhurst's "Female Colony" opened in 1930.

-Aerial Photograph of Pennhurst's campus in 1922. Photograph used with permission from the Pennhurst Memorial & Preservation Alliance. http://www.preservepennhurst.org/default.aspx?pg=21&ssgrp=64&ssitem=10.

Also worth consideration is the fact that Pennhurst’s operation was plagued with issues from the beginning, the most considerable of these was overcrowding. As the Pennhurst Memorial & Preservation Alliance explains, “Designed for epileptics and persons with intellectual and developmental disabilities, there was tremendous pressure to admit many different persons whom society, steeped in the eugenics movement, wanted removed from the gene pool, including immigrants, orphans, criminals, etc.” This pressure resulted in an influx in the institution’s early years of new residents.

In a 1912 report to Pennhurst’s Board of Trustees, however, Pennhurst’s Superintendent asserted “It is without question absolutely wrong to place the feeble-minded and epileptic in the same institution. They are not the same; they are as different, one from the other, as day is from night. They are mentally, physically and morally incompatible, and require entirely different treatment.” Later, the institution changed its mission to clarify that only individuals with intellectual disabilities would be admitted, excluding those of “normal intelligence” who could be admitted previously. Whether of “normal” intelligence or whether one had a disability, it goes without saying that no one should ever have been subjected to the conditions, overcrowding, and eugenic philosophies at Pennhurst.

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Sources:

1. Philadelphia Architects and Buildings, “Johnson, Phillip H. (1868-1933),” Philadelphia Architects and Buildings, 2018. https://www.philadelphiabuildings.org/pab/app/ar_display_projects.cfm/25016. (Accessed 1/20/18).

2. Asylum Projects, "Pennhurst State Hospital," Asylum Projects, 2017. http://www.asylumprojects.org/index.php/Pennhurst_State_Hospital. (Accessed 1/30/18).

3. Asylum Projects, "Cottage Planned Institutions," Asylum Projects, 2015. http://www.asylumprojects.org/index.php/Cottage_Planned_Institutions. (Accessed 1/30/18).

4. Pennhurst Memorial & Preservation Alliance, "Pennhurst Patient Number 1," Pennhurst Timeline, 2015. http://www.preservepennhurst.org/default.aspx?pg=93. (Accessed 1/20/18).

5. Pennhurst State School & Hospital, "Trustee Report, 1916," Pennhurst Memorial & Preservation Alliance, 2015. http://www.preservepennhurst.org/default.aspx?pg=93. (Accessed 1/20/18).

6. Pennhurst Memorial & Preservation Alliance, “Problems From the Start," Pennhurst Timeline, 2015. http://www.preservepennhurst.org/default.aspx?pg=93. (Accessed 1/20/18).