Description
Harrisburg State Hospital opened in 1851 as the Pennsylvania State Lunatic Hospital, the primary public institution within the state. Positioned atop a hill overlooking the Susquehanna River, the original building used to be an early example of a Kirkbride design hospital. The power closed in 2006 after serving the commonwealth for 155 years. Harrisburg State Hospital: Pennsylvania’s First Public Asylum presents a pictorial history of the hospital from the primary year of only 12 patients throughout the peak of state care, when the population reached over 2,500 within the 1950s. Harrisburg State Hospital used to be an innovative leader within the remedy of the mentally sick, pioneering new methods of therapy even before they were common practice. It used to be a community and a home for those whom society could not differently deal with.