Allentown State Hospital, Allentown, Lehigh County

As I mentioned last week, husband Kevin and I attended the marker dedication ceremony for Allentown State Hospital this past Friday. My longtime readers know that I usually do separate posts for the ceremonies and the markers themselves; however, this event was probably the shortest of its kind that I've ever attended, and it just made more sense for me to combine it with the history behind the marker. So as a result, this post may be a little longer than usual.

The marker stands at the entrance to the former hospital
property, at 1600 Hanover Avenue

I only ever visited Allentown State Hospital once during its existence; I accompanied my mother, several years ago, to drop off Christmas presents from our church's congregation. Mostly I remember being impressed by the long tree-lined entrance road leading up to what could have passed for a university campus, with huge brick buildings and what looked like a large white bell tower on the main structure. I didn't go inside; Mom only had to take the gifts to the door and hand them off to an employee while I waited in the car. I half wondered if I'd ever see the interior.

The answer, as it turned out, was no. A few years after our visit, ASH closed for good, and it was demolished in 2021. But after it closed, a group of former employees came together to petition for the addition of a state historical marker, and we all found ourselves there on a breezy May morning to witness the unveiling. The event was like a family reunion for people who had worked at the hospital, with some wearing shirts identifying them as former employees and others bringing photographs and memorabilia to display for those of us who didn't have the same knowledge. I got the impression that most of those present were former employees, and several neighbors; I was one of a handful of media representatives. (This included a reporter from the local paper, The Morning Call. When I was looking through her pictures in the article linked below, I was a little startled to see that Kevin and I are in one of them.)

Thanks to traffic, we missed most of the opening remarks by John McDevitt, who (if my understanding is correct) used to work on the farm and dairy in Allen Township which supplied food to ASH. He was followed by C. Kim Bracey, from the Pennsylvania Historical Commission, who spoke about the significance of ASH as a pioneer in mental health. She said she knew little about it until the marker was being developed, and she reminded us that learning new things about our past is the whole reason for the historical marker program. "Each marker," she said, "establishes an important link to the past. It's my hope that this marker today will not be the end of the story, but will instead provide encouragement for further study and discussion as it did for me."

Pictured here is Steven Royer, the author of Images of America: Allentown State Hospital, who talked more about the history of the facility and its impact on the Lehigh Valley community. Closing remarks were offered by Gregory M. Smith, who had been the CEO of the hospital when it closed, and this was followed by the unveiling. As the ASH staff members shared their stories with reporters and others, the rest of us milled around to look at the various pieces of memorabilia and newspaper clippings presented for us. One couple talked about how they met while working for ASH and have been married for 40 years. I spoke briefly with another woman whose father literally grew up in the hospital - his parents had been employees and he had lived on the campus with them, the only child in the entire place until they opened their children's facility in 1930. I also met Jason Addy from LehighValleyNews.com, and I've linked his article about the event in my sources below too.

So that was the marker dedication. Now, as to the history of ASH, it was originally called the Homeopathic State Hospital for the Insane near Allentown; at the time it was built, the neighborhood where it was situated was known as Rittersville, which only became part of Allentown a bit later. It wasn't the first state mental health facility in Pennsylvania - that honor belongs to Harrisburg State Hospital - but it had tremendous impact on the treatment of mental health worldwide. 

Planning originally began in 1901, and the homeopathic facility officially opened its doors on October 3, 1912. Homeopathy, as the informative display at the event explained, is a form of holistic medicine which is designed to encourage the body to heal itself as much as possible. The chief idea is to give each patient their own individual treatment plan to address their specific symptoms, and that was the guiding principle at the hospital which eventually became ASH. In particular, its first superintendent, Dr. Henry Klopp, was very much against the use of restraints on mental health patients, which of course had been perfectly common in the previous century.

Dr. Klopp worked alongside Dr. Solomon Fuller, one of the world's first Black psychiatrists. It was their research at ASH which confirmed the 1906 research of Dr. Alois Alzheimer, who first discovered the brain disease that carries his name; Klopp and Fuller determined that yes, this disease really does cause dementia. It's not the only cause, but the development of abnormal clumps and tangled brain fibers which characterize Alzheimer's, and the worsening of these over time, are definitely responsible for many people developing dementia. Considering that people used to think dementia was punishment for sin or even a sin in itself, this was a huge step forward in how we as a society treat those with mental conditions.

By 1930, it had become apparent that while the resources of ASH were benefiting their adult patients, there was a growing need for similar treatment for children and teenagers. Thus, the Children's Institute was opened; the plan for this part of the hospital can be seen here. This was the first mental health facility in the entire country dedicated to treating the mental health of children, and tailored to addressing their unique needs rather than treating them like small adults.

Along came the second World War, and with it an increase in the hospital's population. I suspect this might have had something to do with PTSD in soldiers returning home, but it also had to do with the fact that ASH was extending its reach. Instead of catering exclusively to the Lehigh Valley, it also welcomed patients from Carbon, Monroe, Pike, and Schuylkill Counties. By 1950, it had reached its highest population count at 2,107, with several hundred employees. By 1998, ASH had gone even further than Dr. Klopp's distaste for restraints by eliminating seclusion as a treatment for mental health - the first mental health facility in the world to do so. As we were told during the marker dedication, visitors during open houses would often ask to see the padded cells, only to be told that there were none. ASH employees also created the Psychiatric Emergency Response Teams, or the PERT approach, to use non-threatening methods of approaching patients who were in crisis. The excellence of care provided by ASH earned Pennsylvania the Innovations in American Government Award in 2000. Even today, the PERT approach is still used by the World Health Organization and other systems of healthcare around the world.

As the 21st century dawned, however, the need for psychiatric hospitals waned, thanks to the ever-increasing public understanding of mental health and the ability to treat patients in their own homes. The Pennsylvania Department of Public Welfare made the decision to close ASH, transferring the remaining patients to residential care facilities or Wernersville State Hospital in Berks County. The doors closed on December 17, 2010, 98 years after they first opened.

The state took bids on demolishing the entire property, which I really don't understand. The main building in particular could have been preserved as a historic site, perhaps repurposed as a school or apartments. Some of the links I've shared in my sources showcase many of the impressive architectural features which have now been lost to us. Fortunately, they aren't lost entirely. Not only do we have photos and video footage of both the interior and the exterior, but in 2019, M. Night Shyamalan came to Allentown. He filmed his movie Glass, with Bruce Willis and Samuel L. Jackson, in the halls of ASH and at other locations throughout the city. It was an exciting time for the Lehigh Valley. Not only did many of us (not me personally, but many of us) get to encounter famous faces in our midst, but the movie ensures that ASH survived in a way. And now, so does the historical marker.

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Sources and Further Reading:

Gamiz, April. "The Allentown State Hospital gets state historical marker." The Morning Call, May 3, 2024.

Addy, Jason. "Proud ex-workers turn out as Allentown State Hospital gets Pennsylvania historical marker." LehighValleyNews.com, May 3, 2024.

Christopher, Matthew. "Allentown State Hospital." Abandoned America, updated January 30, 2022.

Royer, Steven. Images of America: Allentown State Hospital. Arcadia Publishing, 2020.

Antiquity Echoes. "Allentown State Hospital: A Century of History Lost." YouTube video, November 23, 2020.

Allentown State Hospital at the Historical Marker Database

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Except where indicated, all writing and photography on this blog is the intellectual property of Laura Klotz. This blog is written with permission of the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission. I am not employed by the PHMC. All rights reserved.