Allentown State Hospital, Pennsylvania

Allentown State Hospital in Pennsylvania opened in 1912 and shut down in 2010 after being operational for ninety-eight years as a source of mental health care. The hospital was closed primarily due to an extreme decrease in patients following deinstitutionalization that no longer made it necessary. Most buildings were from the 1920s and the hospital was eligible for the National Register of Historic Places for its architecture. However, a 2019 state law from the Pennsylvania Department of General Services declared that the site had to be cleared for potential new developments and the forty-four structures on the property were demolished in 2020.²  Allentown is an example of a historic asylum that was eventually abandoned and destroyed; however, it differs from other abandoned asylums such as Pennhurst as the majority of the attention paid to it is for its architectural significance and it differs from abandoned hospitals such as the DeJarnette Center that were/are to be demolished as Allentown did not have the same extremely complicated history in eugenics that led to mixed feelings about whether the site should be preserved. Rather, the demolition of Allentown is treated almost across the board as a tragedy for the community surrounding the hospital and those interested in architecture and historic preservation.

This is illustrated by videos and photos taken during and immediately previous to the demolition. One such example is the video “Exploring the Abandoned Allentown State Hospital – Amazing Asylum Architecture!” by popular urban explorer youtube channel The Proper People. Describing Allentown as “one of the most magnificent asylums” that they have ever encountered, they marvel throughout the video at how detailed everything from the staircases to the light fixtures are and how the history of the building is etched into the architecture itself with differences over time being visibly clear. They additionally note that it is rare to see a well known building in such good condition; while there is some decay in certain parts, there is almost no vandalism and most of the obvious missing pieces that were known to be previously there are attributed to being part of the destruction process. There is a clear difference in attitude shown in this video than in many other contemporary discussions of abandoned asylums. This difference is noted in the video itself; the creators say that asylums are often thought of as dark places, but they find it hard to feel that being inside Allentown, where the elaborate architecture, paintings of the hospital by patients, and brightly lit rooms seem like an act of kindness and evidence that someone cared enough to create such a place to provide care.⁴

This idea that the demolition was a tragedy is also shown in discussions of the demolition itself. The above clip from the Proper People video shows the demonstrations on site and this below image of the flowers and notes left at the fence around the hospital during its demolition both point to the anger and grief felt by the public at the loss of the structures.⁵

The below clips are from the Proper People video of the main building of the hospital prior to its destruction and a video filmed by an organization that documents abandoned buildings during the destruction of the same part of the campus. Through these clips, one can both get an example of the architectural characteristics of Allentown and see another instance of the way people reacted to Allentown’s demolition; the description of the video recounts the author’s feelings witnessing what they see as an injustice, evocatively describing the destruction of the central lobby and spire as “ripping out the innards of the old hospital as if it were a vulture picking apart the body of a dead animal.” Dramatic in its wording, this description illustrates the strong emotions that the loss of Allentown sparked in those who felt a connection to it.⁶

That Allentown is remembered for its architecture rather than its “ghosts” seems to show further that the reputation of the hospital and if was perceived as treating its patients well has great influence over whether or not abandoned asylums are seen as scary. However, that is not to say that the history of Allentown beyond its architectural significance is ignored, but it is quite a bit different in that unlike is the case for places such as Western State and the DeJarnettes Center or Pennhurst, the emphasis is less on remembering the traumatic experiences that occurred there and more on memorializing it as a place that was often at the forefront of progressive developments for mental health care in Pennsylvania. Two years after the demolition of Allentown, efforts by the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission began to have a historic marker placed at the former site of the hospital. The proposed text shows what elements of its history the group wanted Allentown to be remembered for, highlighting the early reduction of restraint, the development of influential new techniques, the work done there by Dr. Solomon C. Fuller who was the first black psychiatrist, and its role as the first state hospital of Pennsylvania.⁹ That this is the type of history that those connected to Allentown – the Commission wished to have former maintenance workers from Allentown install the marker and planned to have a ceremony to bring the former Allentown community together again¹⁰ – chose to highlight shows the difference in how Allentown was remembered and provides insight to why the reaction to the abandoned hospital prior to and after its destruction was so overwhelmingly positive.

1. Kurt Bresswein, “The main building of Allentown State Hospital is nearly demolished Wednesday, Dec. 23, 2020, under a state contract to clear the land for sale to a redeveloper” (Image), Lehigh Valley Live, December 24, 2020, https://lehighvalleylive.newskeepsake.com/?image_id=833986&source=lehighvalleylive&subscription_url=https://www.lehighvalleylive.com/digitalsubscription/imagedownload&has_subscriptions=1&market=lehighvalleylive ↩︎
2.  Kurt Bresswein, “Here’s a look at the Allentown State Hospital demolition, and what’s next (PHOTOS),” Lehigh Valley Live, December 24, 2020, accessed September 11, 2023. https://www.lehighvalleylive.com/allentown/2020/12/heres-a-look-at-the-allentown-state-hospital-demolition-and-whats-next-photos.html ↩︎
3. The Proper People, “Exploring the Abandoned Allentown State Hospital – Amazing Asylum Architecture!,” Youtube Video, 37:23, October 16, 2020, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8_1pkBEHNC4 ↩︎
4. The Proper People, “Exploring the Abandoned Allentown State Hospital.” ↩︎
5. Kurt Bresswein, “Mementos adorn the fence around the main building of Allentown State Hospital as demolition is nearly complete Wednesday, Dec. 23, 2020, under a state contract to clear the land for sale to a redeveloper” (Image), Lehigh Valley Live, December 24, 2020, https://lehighvalleylive.newskeepsake.com/?image_id=838003&source=lehighvalleylive&subscription_url=https://www.lehighvalleylive.com/digitalsubscription/imagedownload&has_subscriptions=1&market=lehighvalleylive ↩︎
6. Antiquity Echoes, “Demolition of Allentown State Hospital,” Youtube Video, 4:37, January 10, 2021, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D1lQgwHQL-M ↩︎
7. The Proper People “Exploring the Abandoned Allentown State Hospital.” ↩︎
8. Antiquity Echoes, “Demolition of Allentown.” ↩︎
9. Paul Muschick, “Paul Muschick: Allentown State Hospital is gone, but its place in history will be preserved,” The Morning Call, December 23, 2020, accessed September 11, 2023. https://www.mcall.com/2022/12/10/paul-muschick-allentown-state-hospital-is-gone-but-its-place-in-history-will-be-preserved/ ↩︎
10. Muschick, “Paul Muschick: Allentown State Hospital is gone, but its place in history will be preserved.”
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