Allentown State Hospital: Former employees reflect on it's history
Original airdate: 2/25/2019 & 2/26/2019 | View a photo gallery of pictures taken an the former Allentown State Hospital at WFMZ.com: www.wfmz.com/news/lehigh-valle...
More than a century after opening and a decade after it last housed patients, Hollywood recently gave the Allentown State Hospital a final curtain call.
Its 200 acres was the setting for M. Night Shyamalan's blockbuster movie Glass. Leftover upgrades remain. Stepping away from the movie spotlight it's easy to see time has proven to be the building's antagonist.
John McDevitt worked at the hospital for 35 years.
"The main building has beautiful marble floors, marble walls, marble columns, things you couldn't afford today," he said.
The former hospital has a marble-covered entryway, a now crumbling kitchen, and a dining hall.
In January 69 News' cameras captured perhaps the last images inside, which included underground tunnels.
"In any given weather you can go anywhere and not be outside. That is how different things would get to storeroom and different food truck would come that way," long-time employee Bill Hirschman said.
However, his favorite memories happened above ground in the Auditorium. He talked about how the stage hosted vaudeville-style shows put on by staff for patients.
"I would do more of the grunt work in the background to help because I can't sing. hahaha. Some of the docs thought they were Frank Sinatra or Elvis Presley. They did a great job, and everyone had fun," he said.
McDevitt found his fun not on stage but on the farm.
"Largest component would have been the dairy herd. Had a milking herd of Halstein cattle," he said.
The hospital had its own 850-acre farm in Weaverville. McDevitt was the assistant manager at the farm from 1967 until it closed in 1981.
It provided not only milk and food for several state hospitals but also a form of therapy for patients.
"Farm was designed with that in mind. Would provide an environment where patients could find something useful to do and many enjoyed it," he said.
Former employees reflect on Allentown State Hospital's history:
www.wfmz.com/news/lehigh-valle...
How former Allentown State Hospital became national leader in treating patients:
www.wfmz.com/news/lehigh-valle...
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View a 360 degree virtual tour of Allentown State Hospital here: kzread.info/dash/bejne/pmWEk8SOoqq_g6w.html
I am outraged that the city of Allentown didn't do all they can to save the state hospital and it's legacy. This is tragic.
No one in the Pennsylvania legislature has seen what has been done with Buffalo State Hospital or Traverse City. It's pathetic that they are so myopic to what can be done with this facility. No one builds with these materials or level of quality anymore. It's a terrible shame.
Disgusting how such a historic series of buildings are destined to be destroyed. Why? Greed? So called “” progress ?”” Nauseating to witness such history circling the drain.🤢
@graciegj63
4 жыл бұрын
Make a protest to the township to make it a historical landmark.
@margaretr5701
3 жыл бұрын
@@graciegj63 People did protest but were not listened to. What a waste of a beautiful building.
I delivered medical equipment for 28 years and had numerous deliveries to the back of the hospital. A high fenced, locked seperate building. I was not allowed in to deliver or get signatures. I would love to know what or who was locked in there.
@seanmarsh2217
3 жыл бұрын
Hi Rick this is Sean MARSH how are you doing that hospital is creepy a lot of history
My school is literally right across this building. Amazed to see the history of this facility!
Micheal my brother had issues all his life, in first grade the school district or teachers union decided he was to hard to manage because of his AHAD, Epilepsy, and being partially brain damaged due to having seizures. He was forced to be enrolled in a program called 20/20 at the Allentown state hospital were he lived and went to school between 80-83 only getting to come home every other weekend. On one of these weekends he was supposed to come home we were out of town and weren't able to pick him as usual. One of their staff members decided they didn't want to work that weekend and drove him over 60 miles to our home in Dingmans Ferry and with nobody home, left him there. By the grace of God he was able to break a basement window and crawl in and fend for himself for a couple days until we got home, I don't remember how we found out but I remember my mom getting a speeding ticket in Ohio trying to get home. They also prescribed medication that ended up deadly when mix with his regular medication and if it wasn't for our dad giving him CPR in our living he would have died. I found out years later our dad had an opportunity to get involved in a lawsuit against the state hospital but declined to do so. After he did his time there our dad said he had gotten worst because someone had to hover over him to get him to do anything. A few years after his time, I got interested in Billy Joel music and every time Piano Man came on he would freak out he told me hated that song because his whole time there that's all they played in the halls in-between classes. He passed away November 5, 1990 with leukemia.
That would have been an awesome apartment building
@sbmacmane21
4 ай бұрын
Omg, yes I would!!!!
Deinstitutionalization was one of the worst things that ever happened for mental Healthcare. It then became the responsibility of the prison systems and general public.
This place has some awful history (I have two family members that were patients and another who worked there). I find it interesting that they barely touched on that. I mean this is an old hospital, so of course medicine wasn't as advanced as it is now, but still...
@franfran7102
5 жыл бұрын
They only put it on spot light because of the movie .my mom was gonna get admitted there when I was little but she didn't want go for some reason she said about there certains in the front of the building creeped her out.... they took her to mulenburg she has schizophrenia
@whitneysanborn7934
5 жыл бұрын
@@franfran7102 I get it - that place is CREEPY. Patients talked about shadow people being present, and even the workers had weird experiences. Has Muhlenberg been good to her?
@graciegj63
4 жыл бұрын
@@franfran7102 The world seems to want to explain away things they can't explain. Your mom definitely has someone protecting her. God gives knowledge, even on a subconscious level.
@Superduper666
3 жыл бұрын
Whitney Sanborn What patients talked about shadow people?
@whitneysanborn7934
3 жыл бұрын
@@Superduper666 I can't share that for privacy reasons
Could have been a very good halloween attraction
feels like the beginning of the end for USA. Tearing down such buildings rather than rehabilitate them. sth so wrong.
Finally something positive in the treatment of the mentally ill.
My grandmother was formley a gest here. she told me of the tunnles. And her experiance. Its a shame there going to tear it down. But times change.
The good ole Funny Farm! Great building but what went on there? Crickets
@graciemaca6996
Жыл бұрын
My parents used to call the place "Rittersville". Presumably named after that area in Allentown back in the 1930's.
@akeffo
Жыл бұрын
@@graciemaca6996 I used to live on Grandview Blvd in Bethlehem and I could access the grounds at the end of my street which was a dead end. It’s a crime that they destroyed it.
“The last images inside” lmao ai I’ll be there next week. I gotchu guys with updated pics. Demo crew there or not this a gta heist
@mrmouse7778
3 жыл бұрын
Nice
@sucnipii6834
3 жыл бұрын
@@mrmouse7778 bruh I got the pics 80% of the place was gone