Pennhurst Asylum

Commissioned on January 23rd, 1903, Pennhurst Asylum began its life as a state school dubbed, the eastern Pennsylvania state institution for the feeble-minded and epileptic. A home for those with intellectual disabilities and epilepsy, to be taken care of and learn in a safe environment. Later, more than 20 buildings in total would make up the sprawling campus.

As time went on, the Pennhurst state school would fall into disrepair due to overcrowding, understaffing and low funds.

In Pennhurst, all residents were called 'children' even though there were many adults living there, with the average age in 1974 being 36 years old, and most spending over 21 years at Pennhurst.

In 1968, almost 60 years after the opening of Pennhurst, a documentary was filmed, called 'suffer the little children', which showed to the public, the awful living conditions of the facility. One of the doctors at Pennhurst, called Dr. Fear, admitted in the documentary to threatening and punishing patients, going as far as to inject on patient with the most painful injection that would not cause damage.

The documentary also revealed that the average zoo in the country would spend $7.15 on each animal every day, whereas Pennhurst would spend $5.90 on each resident per day at the time of filming.

In 1974, a resident of Pennhurst named Terri Lee Halderman, filed a class-action lawsuit against Pennhurst state school and hospital. During his time as a resident, Halderman reportedly suffered about 40 injuries, including cracked teeth, a fractured finger and a broken jaw.

During the trail, the conditions of Pennhurst were described and were later 'undisputed' by the supreme court, with one quote being 'the conditions at Pennhurst are not only dangerous, with residents often physically abused or drugged by staff members, but inadequate... Indeed, the court found that the physical, intellectual and emotional skills of some residents have deteriorated at Pennhurst.'

Many residents were found to have been abused by either the staff or through neglect, some cases leading to death. A former resident Roland Johnson described in his autobiography that Pennhurst 'just smells like faeces.... rats crawling, cockroaches crawling all over. Faeces and pee on the floor, flies coming in the windows.'

In 1984, the final settlement of Pennhurst vs Halderman called for the closure of Pennhurst, and in 1987 Pennhurst state school and hospital were officially shut down.

Despite protests against re-opening Pennhurst as a Halloween attraction, the site opened in September 2010 and is now known as Pennhurst Asylum.

With all this misery, some have come to believe the building to be haunted. One of the active locations being the underground tunnels, which is how the multiple buildings were linked together when Pennhurst was still operational.

There is a lot of reported activity in the tunnels, even having one of the property managers refuse to go down there alone.

A book was even written about the haunting of Pennhurst by author Tamera Lawrence, who worked in the mayflower building in 2011, a detail the 4 spirits who haunt the second floor of the building.

The first is a little boy called Howie who plays with a fisher price airplane found in the building, and who reportedly acts out when anyone touches it.

The second ghost is a shadow man, reportedly seen in the common room or the bathroom, with one couple claiming his name is Fisher, which can be found written on one of the bedroom walls. The shadow man has been captured many times on camera by paranormal investigators.

The third ghost is one of a little girl who is reportedly seen throughout the second floor, and the fourth being that of an angry nurse. Some people have reported the feeling of being stabbed with what feels like a needle and both have had reported sighting in what Lawrence calls the 'art room.'

The most active floor is reportedly the 3rd floor, which used to serve as dormitories for patients, which the current caretaker believes that some of those residents still remain.

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