Photo: "Half Time"

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The Laurelton State Village for Feeble-Minded Women of Childbearing Age opened in 1917, with 36 patients, and was the first facility of its kind designed to segregate and care for "feeble-minded" women from puberty through menopause. The facility was established on the principles of eugenics and the premise that one’s intelect or mental deficiency was hereditary and the segregation of those individuals was crucial to ensure they did not reproduce and pass down those genetics. in the cannery, kitchen, laundry or in the fields. There were also recreational portions to the campus, as seen above. 

In the late 1960's a radical change was made and males were admitted to the campus. Decades later, in 1998, the facility would shut its doors.  

Photo: "The Only Light"

Another view, during blue hour, from inside an Administration Building dayroom at Mayview State Hospital, a former psychiatric hospital in Pennsylvania. 

This is the last image in the cue from this asylum. Sadly, it is currently being demolished, so these are some of the last images from this place...

Photo: "Theatre Seating"

Mayview State Hospital, in Pennsylvania, was in operation for over 100 years. When it was founded, the patient count was around 300, but during the hospital's peak, the patient numbers reached 4,200.

The asylum was officially closed in 2008, but many of the buildings had been abandoned for years prior. 

In 2010, the campus was purchased and in the spring of 2012, campus demolition was already underway. Abatement had already begun inside the main building and a few structures had already been demolished. Inside this theatre, most of the seats had been removed and stacked against the walls, but this small section was still in tact. 

Photo: "Spilt"

An empty room in the North Annex at Mayview State Hospital, a Pennsylvania asylum constructed over 100 years prior to its demolition earlier this year.

Photo: "This Became Their Home"

While walking down the corridor in a tubercular building at Mayview State Hospital, this particular scene caught my eye. On this patient door, plastic flowers had been affixed with scotch tape near the crooked name placard. I couldn't help but wonder when they were put there and by whom...

Photo: "Night Approaches"

Night approaches inside a dayroom of the North Annex Building at Mayview State Hospital in Pennsylvania. 

Sadly, this complex is being demolished after over 100 years of service to the mentally ill. 

Photo: "Bulldozed"

As a follow-up to this morning's post about the demolition of Mayview State Hospital, here's an image of a bulldozer parked outside one of the tubercular wards. The building in the distance is the North Annex, pictured in this morning's post. 

Photo: "Central Staircase"

Central staircase inside the North Annex building at Mayview State Hospital. 

The Mayview campus contained 39 buildings and was constructed on 335 acres. At the hospital's peak in the 1930's, this campus was home to over 4,000 patients.

The hospital closed in 2008, after 115 years of service. The state sold the property in 2010, for just over $500,000, to a company with a plan to turn the property into a "high amenity regional business park."

During this visit in April 2012, many of the buildings had already been demolished. 

Photo: "Where They Are Put In Boxes..."

I found this painting, possibly done by a patient, on a wall in a first floor day room of the North Annex at Mayview State Hospital in Pennsylvania. The windows opposite this painting look out towards the other buildings on campus. From here one could see the the tubercular wards. 

Photo: "A to Z"

The first floor landing of the main staircase in the administration building of the North Annex at Mayview State Hospital.

Photo: "Weeping"

Mayview State Hospital in Pennsylvania closed in December 2008 after being in operation for over 100 years. At the time of the closure, under 40 patients remained, a drastic difference from the 4,000 patients that called Mayview home at the hospital's peak in the 1930's. 

The North Annex building, shown here, was one of the last buildings on the campus to shut down. 

Photo: "Seclusion Room"

Seclusion room in the North Annex building at Mayview State Hospital in Pennsylvania. 

Photo: "Chalked"

In one of the day rooms at Mayview State Hospital in Pennsylvania sits a lonely pool table. The cues were stacked on the rack and the chalk left next to the score counter, as though the game was played yesterday, but the paint chips covering the table tell a different story. 

Photo: "Chipped"

Patient room inside the tubercular ward at Mayview State Hospital in Pennsylvania. 

Not Every Photograph I Take Is Artistic, But That's OK

Sometimes while photographing abandoned buildings, I snap images strictly for documentation purposes.

In this case, Mayview State Hospital in Pennsylvania was already in the process of being demo'd when I saw the campus for the first time. For that reason, I shot more building exteriors and photos out windows than I have in the past. In particular, the tubercular wards on the campus were some of the oldest remaining buildings and I felt they were worth a few shots.

In a few decades nothing will remain of this former asylum, but hopefully images like this will help people see what once was.