Kirkbride Buildings Blog

July 27th, 2009

Danville State Hospital Site

Danville State Hospital Web Site
Phil Thomas, the gentleman who brought us City on the Hill, has created a new site dedicated to another Pennsylvania asylum: Danville State Hospital. The site includes a history of the hospital, some pointers on how to get patient information and, best of all, lots of pictures—both historical and contemporary. Though the latter are great, my favorites are the old photos of the Kirkbride. I don’t think I knew that the original admin section was considerably different than it is today. It’s probably just me, but doesn’t the old admin make the building look more like an old fashioned grand hotel than an asylum?

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Discussion

  1. Phil August 7, 2009, 8:21 am

    Thanks for the post Ethan! I never really thought about it before, but I can see now that you are right on the grand hotel look. Perhaps that was the idea, try to get people to think of the place in a better mind set.

  2. Kathy McKee November 6, 2010, 5:44 pm

    Looking for info on Angelina V Flick who may be related to my gr grandmother who was in a Colorado State Home. See by 1880 census she was in Danville. Later reports say she was in Warren.

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Books on Amazon

The Art of Asylum Keeping The Eclipse of the State Mental Hospital The Mad Among Us America's Care of the Mentally Ill Angels in the Architecture The Architecture of Madness Asylum: Inside the Closed World of State Mental Hospitals The Eye of Danvers: A History of Danvers State Hospital
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