“The Asylum”

Located in off-the-path PA, Pennhurst Asylum holds a sad story of ignorance, carelessness and downright abuse. People of all ages were brought to Pennhurst as a form of rehabilitation for behavior or disability “issues.” The treatments were questionable at best, and residents were not separated into age, gender or behavior appropriate groups. So, for example, you might find a 25-year-old male who was admitted for blindness, on the same floor as a 10-year-old girl who “acted out.”

The families were unable to retrieve their loved ones from the asylum, because they had, unknowingly, legally turned them over to the state.

The abandoned buildings, and the preserved items within them, showcase a shameful era where those with disabilities were looked at as less-than. Ultimately, families of the residents, brought the problems to light and the school was shut down. When this “state school” closed down a mere 40 years ago, it was preserved, mostly through the funding of its haunted attraction outfit.