Institute of the Pennsylvania Hospital

Significant dates

Institute of Pennsylvania Hospital Kirkbride's Hospital
U.S. National Register of Historic Places
U.S. National Historic Landmark

Market Street facade in 1959.

Location	111 North 49th Street, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Coordinates	39°57′42″N 75°13′2″W / 39.96167°N 75.21722°W / 39.96167; -75.21722Coordinates: 39°57′42″N 75°13′2″W / 39.96167°N 75.21722°W / 39.96167; -75.21722
Built	1841; 1859
Architectural style	Neoclassical
NRHP Reference #	66000684
Added to NRHP	October 15, 1966
Designated NHL	June 23, 1965

Interior, hall and stairway.

Interior, first floor hall.

The Institute of Pennsylvania Hospital, also known as Kirkbride's Hospital or the Pennsylvania Hospital for Mental and Nervous Diseases, was a psychiatric hospital located at 48th and Haverford Streets in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA. It operated from its founding in 1841 until 1997. The remaining building, now called the Kirkbride Center is now part of the Blackwell Human Services Campus.

Two large hospital structures and an elaborate pleasure ground were built on a campus that stretched along the north side of Market Street, from 45th to 49th Streets. Thomas Story Kirkbride, the hospital's first superintendent and physician-in-chief, developed a more humane method of treatment for the mentally ill there, that became widely influential. The hospital's plan became a prototype for a generation of institutions for the treatment of the mentally ill nationwide.^[1] The surviving 1859 building was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1965.

History

19th century

Pennsylvania Asylum for the Insane—Kirkbride's Hospital

In the late 1830s, the managers of Pennsylvania Hospital began erecting a large asylum to replace the hospital's crowded insane wards at 8th and Spruce Streets. The 101-acre (41 ha) site chosen was a former farm in the as-yet unincorporated district of West Philadelphia. The first structure for the Pennsylvania Asylum for the Insane was designed by Isaac Holden and was located near what is now 46th and Market Streets. Completed in 1841, the facility offered comforts and a "humane treatment" philosophy that set a standard for its day. Unlike other asylums where patients were often kept chained in crowded, unsanitary wards with little if any treatment, patients at the Pennsylvania Asylum resided in private rooms, received medical treatment, worked outdoors and enjoyed recreational activities including lectures and a use of the hospital library. The facility came to be called "Kirkbride's Hospital."

Kirkbride Plan

Superintendent Thomas Kirkbride developed his treatment philosophy based on research he conducted at other progressive asylums of the day, including the one in Worcester, as well as his deep-seated personal opinions regarding mental health and his experience at the Pennsylvania Asylum. Out of his philosophy emerged the Kirkbride Plan, which created a model design for psychiatric hospital buildings that was used across the United States throughout the 19th century. He described his system in great detail in his influential work, On the Construction, Organization, and General Arrangements of Hospitals for the Insane with Some Remarks on Insanity and Its Treatment (1854).

Department for Males building

Overcrowding had become a problem in the original Pennsylvania Asylum for the Insane by the 1850s, so Kirkbride lobbied the Pennsylvania Hospital managers for an additional building. The situation offered him a unique opportunity to place his standardized concepts for mental hospital design and construction into effect at a facility under his control. The Pennsylvania Hospital’s Department for Males building was soon constructed along 49th Street, a short distance west from the original asylum. Completed in 1859, this huge structure consisted of several wings extending from a main central building. It introduced many innovations in terms of spaciousness, airiness and light, that were subsequently widely reproduced in other facilities. Young architect Samuel Sloan, Kirkbride's friend and collaborator, designed the Neoclassical style building.

20th century

Mental health services at the Institute of the Pennsylvania Hospital continued to expand throughout the 19th and early 20th centuries. But by the mid-20th century, the 1841 hospital building proved unusable for this purpose and was demolished in 1959. All treatment moved to the Department for Males building in 1959. That structure was listed on the National Register of Historic Places and was designated a National Historic Landmark on October 15, 1966.

The Institute was located in what is now the Mill Creek neighborhood of Philadelphia. It continued operations until 1997 when, in the face of shrinking revenues from insurance providers, Pennsylvania Hospital sold the property and moved its mental health services back to the main hospital campus at 8th and Spruce Streets. Three tall housing projects and a multi-purpose social-service facility were built near the site of the 1841 hospital. Other parts of the property were sold for commercial and residential development in 2001.

21st century

The remaining Department for Males building is now the Kirkbride Center, a part of the Blackwell Human Services Campus. ^[2]It houses the West Philadelphia ACES Charter School, Pennsylvania Hospital's Mill Creek School, Philadelphia Health Management Corporation's Adolescent Residential Treatment Center, and a Traveler's Aid's emergency family shelter.^[2]

References

↑ "NHL nomination for Institute of the Pennsylvania Hospital" (PDF). National Park Service. Retrieved 2017-03-21.
1 2

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Pennsylvania Hospital for Mental and Nervous Diseases (Kirkbride's Hospital).

The Kirkbride Plan

People

Physicians	Thomas Story Kirkbride
Advocates	Dorothea Dix
Architects	Samuel Sloan Elbridge Boyden Nathaniel Bradlee John G. Haskell Levi Scofield Shepley, Rutan and Coolidge Richard Snowden Andrews

Notable buildings

Northeast	New Jersey State Hospital Harrisburg State Hospital Taunton State Hospital Northampton State Hospital Institute of the Pennsylvania Hospital Dixmont State Hospital Hudson River State Hospital Danville State Hospital Buffalo State Hospital Warren State Hospital Greystone Park Psychiatric Hospital Worcester State Hospital Danvers State Hospital
Mid-atlantic	St. Elizabeths Hospital Central State Hospital (Virginia) Spring Grove Hospital Center
Midwest	Central State Hospital (Indiana) Jacksonville State Hospital Dayton State Hospital Wisconsin State Hospital Kalamazoo Regional Psychiatric Hospital Mount Pleasant State Hospital St. Peter State Hospital Anna State Hospital Elgin State Hospital Topeka State Hospital Winnebago State Hospital Independence State Hospital Athens Lunatic Asylum Columbus State Hospital Eastern Michigan Asylum for the Insane Kankakee State Hospital Clarinda State Hospital Northern Michigan Asylum Nevada State Hospital Cherokee Mental Health Institute Fergus Falls Regional Treatment Center
South	Western State Hospital Jackson State Hospital Austin State Hospital Bryce Hospital Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum Central State Hospital (Kentucky) Broughton Hospital Arkansas State Hospital Terrell State Hospital
West Coast	Napa State Hospital Oregon State Hospital Agnews State Hospital Eastern Washington State Hospital Patton State Hospital Eastern Oregon State Hospital
Outside the U.S.	Nova Scotia Hospital Callan Park Hospital for the Insane

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