Most importantly, two released patients were found dead in the Delaware River in two successive days after their release. The hospital was in need of a separate unit to house adolescents, which would in time, became its south campus. Having been successfully hidden from public awareness, Byberry's truths 1943. The photos were shown to a number of people, including then-First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt, who subsequently pledged her support in pursuing national mental health reforms. It exceeded its patient limit quickly, maxing out at over 7,000 in 1960. Burial Ground", and no disturbance is to come of this area. A Pictorial Report on Mental Institutions in Pennsylvania. Closed in 1990 for pretty much the same reason. It stood about three feet high and a little over This was going to require some research Richard Thornburg, to initiate investigations. They were Follow The Encyclopedia of Greater Philadelphia on Instagram Harrisburg: Pennsylvania Department of Welfare, 1946. my fascination with Byberry, this is the book for you. At this time the media Asylum: Inside the Closed Worlds of State Mental Hospitals. N10s original purpose was no longer being needed, it became the medical/surgical building. Particularly, the administration of Philadelphia Mayor Samuel Ashbridge, who politically benefited from hiding the rising social iniquity in the city, by removing the neglected poor and insane out of the public's peripheral vision. Luckily, Jennings mother worked in state mental health oversight, and soon a committee was investigating Byberry that uncovered abuse and a culture of covering up that abuse. Opened in 1876 with the infamous name "New Jersey State Lunatic Asylum", this hospital was constructed to relieve the immense overpopulation of New Jersey's only other mental health hospital in Treton. nation's best example of a free, world-leading society's inability to embrace it's own element of the unknown and undesirable. A staff member administers a shot to a patient at Byberry mental hospital. I entered a building swarming with naked humans herded like cattle and treated with less concern, pervaded by a fetid odor so heavy, so nauseating, that the stench seemed to have almost a physical existence of its own.". industrial buildings) was the northeastern extremity of the first tract purchased by the city in 1903, the Keigler tract (see Philadelphia State Hospital (Byberry). As S1 was opening, work began on the N6 and N7 buildings which were large dormitories that housed patients who suffered with senility. Satanists held ceremonies on the grounds, and amid reports of dead animals being found, the police were frequent visitors. Italics indicates facilities no longer in operation as state psychiatric hospitals. The bodies were to be moved to the "Glenwood Cemetery" in montgomery county that was to open by 1940. The hospital was created as a mental health facility and admitted a variety of patients with various mental and physical disorders. I had my camera, tripod, flashlights, and water for the journey, and the Philly . It became a horrendous place for patients. The calculated removal and cleanup of the former state hospital campus amounted to somewhere between $13-16 million, not including the demolition of the physical structures. rumors abounded that Philadelphia State Hospital (Byberry) was to be closed. However, some patients who wandered off ended up committing suicide not far from the hospital. Byberry was scheduled for demolition in 1991, but bulldozing was brought to a standstill when vast amounts of asbestos were found within the building's walls. Casey placed a gubernatorial order that the hospital should be closed immediately, with the scheduled date of September 30th 1989.