# Pennsylvania State Hospitals

The Pennsylvania State Hospital System is a network of psychiatric hospitals operated by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. At its peak in the late 1940s the system operated more than twenty hospitals and served over 43,000 patients. As of 2011 fewer than nine sites remain in use, and many of those serve far fewer patients than they once did. Many facilities or portions of facilities no longer in use for psychiatric treatment have been repurposed to other uses, while some have been demolished.
The first facility in the Pennsylvania State Hospital system, Harrisburg State Hospital, opened in 1845 and from its inception was tasked with providing care for mentally ill persons throughout the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. Many facilities within the system were state-operated from the start, while some initially operated as county poor farms, county hospitals, or other institutions.
As the number of institutionalized mentally ill dwindled many state hospitals have been, in whole or in part, converted to other uses. Many have remained state-operated facilities, such as office building repurposed as correctional centers. A few former state hospitals have been demolished.
Western Center was also a state facility for the mentally disabled and was located in Canonsburg, Washington County, Pennsylvania. It consisted of multiple buildings. It closed in the late 1980s or early 1990s. Southpoint (a commercial development) now sets on the site that was once Western Center.

## Plans

Most state hospitals consisted of a number of individual buildings spread across an often rural "campus." Most can be characterized as falling into one of several "plans" or designs.

### Kirkbride plan

Kirkbride Plan refers to a system of mental asylum design advocated by Philadelphia psychiatrist Thomas Story Kirkbride in the mid-19th century. Kirkbride developed his requirements based on a philosophy of Moral Treatment. The typical floor plan, with long rambling wings arranged "en echelon" (staggered, so each connected building still received sunlight and fresh air), was meant to promote privacy and comfort for patients. The building form itself was meant to have a curative effect. These asylums tended to become large, imposing, Victorian-era institutional buildings within extensive surrounding grounds which often included farmland. By 1900 the notion of "building-as-cure" was largely discredited, and in the following decades these facilities became too expensive to maintain.

### Cottage plan

By the middle of the nineteenth century, some doctors complained that large monolithic asylums had not lived up to their expectations. But psychiatrists did not immediately abandon their belief in the therapeutic environment; instead, they argued for a different therapeutic environment. Clinging to a belief that architecture influenced human conduct, they proposed smaller cottage-like structures to replace the Kirkbride-plan hospitals. These cottages were to be arranged in a village, an homage to the Belgian town of Gheel, where citizens looked after mentally ill people who for centuries gathered there to worship at the shrine of St. Dymphna, the patron saint of lunatics.

### Payton plan
## List of Pennsylvania State Hospitals

| Hospital | Location | Opened | Peak Population | Peak Year | Current Population | Status | Plans | Notes |
| Allentown State Hospital | Allentown | 1912 | 2012 | 1950 | n/a | Demolished 2020 | Payton |
| Clarks Summit State Hospital | Scranton | 1938 | 1046 | 1947 | | active | Cottage | originated in 1862 as a poor farm |
| Danville State Hospital | Danville | 1872 | 2916 | 1947 | 163 (2008) | active | Kirkbride |
| Dixmont State Hospital | Emsworth | 1862 | 973 | 1947 | n/a | closed 1984, demolished 2006 | Kirkbride |
| Eastern Pennsylvania Psychiatric Institute | Philadelphia | | | | n/a | closed 1981 | Cottage |
| Embreeville State Hospital | Embreeville | 1898 | 1017 | 1955 | n/a | closed 1980, Demolished 2022 | Cottage | originated as county poor house |
| Farview State Hospital | Waymart | c 1912 | 1096 | 1947 | | repurposed | | now a correctional facility |
| Harrisburg State Hospital | Harrisburg | 1851 | 2441 | 1947 | n/a | closed 2006 | Kirkbride, Cottage |
| Haverford State Hospital | Haverford | c 1964 | 562 | 1987 | n/a | closed 1998 demolished 2008 | Cottage |
| Hollidaysburg State Hospital | Hollidaysburg | 1938 | 369 | 1947 | n/a | closed 1979 | Cottage | originally opened in 1904 as Blair County Hospital for Mental Diseases |
| Lawrence Frick State Hospital | Cresson | 1916 | | | | closed 1984, repurposed | Cottage | now a correctional facility |
| Marcy State Hospital | Pittsburgh | 1915 | | | | closed 1982 | Cottage |
| Mayview State Hospital | Pittsburgh | 1938 | 3785 | 1967 | n/a | closed 2008. demolished 2012 | cottage | began in 1892 as |
| Norristown State Hospital | Norristown | 1880 | 4954 | 1947 | | active | Echelon |
| Philadelphia State Hospital | Philadelphia | 1907 | 7000+ | 1960 | n/a | closed 1990. demolished 2006 | Cottage |
| Polk State School | Polk | 1897 | | | n/a | closed 2023. |
| Retreat State Hospital | Newport Township | 1938 | 1103 | 1947 | n/a | closed 1980, repurposed | Cottage | began in 1878 as a poor house later converted to a correctional facility that closed in June 2020. |
| Scranton State Hospital | Scranton | | | | n/a | closed, demolished 1991 | single building | |
| Somerset State Hospital | Somerset | 1938 | 463 | 1947 | n/a | closed | cottage | Began as county poor farm. Is now converted to a Correctional facility |
| South Mountain Restoration Center | Mont Alto | 1907 | 1100 | 1970 | | active | cottage | also known as Samuel G. Dixon State Hospital |
| Torrance State Hospital | Derry Township | 1919 | 3300 | 1950s | 229 (2008) | active | Cottage |
| Warren State Hospital | Warren | 1880 | 2562 | 1947 | | active | Kirkbride |
| Wernersville State Hospital | Wernersville | 1891 | 1851 | 1947 | | active | Cottage |
| Western Psychiatric Institute of Pittsburgh | Pittsburgh | | | Was never a custodial "state hospital" but a freestanding Psychiatric Hospital and was and still is an acute care setting affiliated with Pitt for years prior to becoming part of UPMC| | repurposed | single building | Now part of the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center |
| Woodville State Hospital | Carnegie | 1854 | 3200 | | n/a | closed 1992, demolished | Cottage |

### Pennsylvania State General Hospitals

During the late 1800s, the State built many hospitals for coal miners in Pennsylvania, these hospitals were also referred to as State Hospitals for Miners. These hospitals were not built as psychiatric facilities, but rather as general medical hospitals. In 1985, Pennsylvania began the transfer of these hospitals from State ownership into private or community facilities. As of 1992, all have been divested from State ownership.

## State Hospitals for Miners

* Ashland State General Hospital Divested from state in 1990, renamed Saint Catherine Medical Center Fountain Springs
* Blossburg State General Hospital Closed by state in 1972 before divestitures began
* Coaldale State General Hospital Divested from state in 1992, renamed St. Luke's Miners Memorial Hospital. The hospital is maintained as part of the St. Luke's University Health Network
* Connellsville State General Hospital Divested from state in 1985, renamed Highlands Hospital and Health Center
* Hazleton State General Hospital Divested from state in 1986, renamed Hazleton General Hospital
* Nanticoke State General Hospital Divested from state in 1990, renamed Mercy Special Care Hospital of Nanticoke
* Philipsburg State General Hospital Divested from state in 1991, private until 2006, closed 2007 due to bankruptcy, to be demolished
* Punxsutawney State General Hospital
* Scranton State General Hospital Closed by state in 1988 due to no merger partner found for divesture
* Shamokin State General Hospital Divested from state in 1992, renamed Shamokin Area Community Hospital. As of 2012, renamed Geisinger-Shamokin Area Community Hospital, A campus of Geisinger Medical Center. The hospital is maintained as part of the Geisinger Health System.