Inside the Abandoned Pennhurst State School and Hospital with LightFoot
(Photos by LightFoot)
The Pennhurst State School and Hospital complex, originally known as the Eastern Pennsylvania State Institution for the Feeble-Minded and Epileptic, sits isolated on 1,400 acres on the border between Chester and Montgomery Counties. The grounds once had all of the necessary means to sustain life, including a power plant, farm, 300 bed hospital, movie theater, general store, barber shop, and even its own cemetery. Operating from 1908 to the end of 1987, Pennhurst has been dubbed “the shame of the nation” for its treatment of mentally ill children. Within just the first three years of operation, the grounds were swollen with 3x the maximum amount of patients it was built to hold, lacking funds, and left to fend for itself by the government. The people that came to get treatment here stepped in to an unreal, totally isolated world where they would spend all their lives, and stay even in to death. -LightFoot
More photos…
Special shout out to OBP Photography for organizing LightFoot’s trip.
Streets Dept 
Great article! And superb photography! Really enjoyed spending the day with you guys ;) More explores to come with you guys for sure ;)
I love the composition, at times it looks like an old ship. The pictures mark the individuality of this place while also looking like it could be somewhere, anywhere else. A good statement considering these crimes against the mentally ill were par for the course.
Wow you guys saw so much