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Embreeville State Hospital

USA / Pennsylvania / Thorndale /
 abandoned / shut down, psychiatric hospital / clinic
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The now-abandoned Embreeville State Hospital in New Bradford got its start in 1798 as the Chester County Almhouse. The facility housed the area's most needy: The poor, the mentally ill, and the homeless. The Chester County Almhouse would evolve into the Chester County Poorhouse by the late 1800s. The poorhouse, which welcomed the mentally ill and the destitute, ran on a rather innovative concept.
Residents, who had the physical and mental ability, contributed to the care of the facility by doing chores including the laundry. Within time, however, patients from other mental asylums began transferring to the Chester County Almhouse. Chester County eventually purchased the Chester County Almhouse in 1914 and renamed the facility Embreeville State Hospital. With the name change also came a mission change. With the purchase by Chester County, Embreeville State Hospital began focusing solely on the care of the mentally ill from both Chester and Lancaster Counties. Over the years, buildings were added to the now-225 acre Embreeville campus. Under the watch of Chester County, Embreeville State Hospital adopted what it coined an open ward policy. Doors to wards remained unlocked and, according to officials quoted at the time, the relaxed atmosphere led to less angst among the residents, a decline in the need for drugs, and fewer destructive incidents. In fact, a Gettysburg Times article from 1968 cited pretty impressive statistics about the care of the residents at Embreeville State Hospital. Most patients, for example, were discharged from the hospital within 40 days. What's more, the newspaper noted that 90 percent of all of the facility's residents left within a year. Of all those residents who were discharged each year, 80 percent had somewhere safe to go to rebuild their lives. The impressive statistics coming out of Embreeville State Hospital earned the asylum a nod as one of the three best facilities in the country by the American Psychiatric Association. The hospital expanded in 1971 when a juvenile detention center was added to the property. Embreeville State Hospital got caught up in a statewide consolidation of mental health facilities and closed in 1980. It sat abandoned - except for curiosity seekers - until it was purchased for nearly a million dollars in 2012.

www.onlyinyourstate.com/pennsylvania/embreeville-hospit...

www.philly.com/philly/business/real_estate/residential/...
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Coordinates:   39°56'41"N   75°43'31"W
This article was last modified 7 years ago