Harrisburg State Hospital
Susquehanna Township, Dauphin County, Pennsylvania
Marker Inscription
The first State mental hospital in Pennsylvania. Opened in 1851, a result of efforts by the noted humanitarian, Dorothea Lynde Dix, to improve this State's treatment of the mentally ill. The hospital is on the wooded hills east of this marker, overlooking the city.
Erected by Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission
The Story
When it opened in 1851, this was Pennsylvania's first state mental hospital—a direct result of the tireless campaigning of Dorothea Lynde Dix. Traveling the country to expose the cruel neglect of the mentally ill, Dix pressed legislatures to build humane public asylums, and Pennsylvania answered by placing this one on the wooded hills above Harrisburg.
Why it matters
The hospital marks a turning point in American attitudes toward mental illness, when reformers first won the idea that the state owed compassionate care to its most vulnerable citizens.
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Related people
- · Dorothea Lynde Dix
Themes & tags
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