If you were insane and lived in Philadelphia in the 1800's you would
probably be placed in the Philadelphia Almshouse. Opened in 1732, the
Almshouse housed orphans and the elderly as well as the insane.
In 1883 it was relocated to the Blockley section of West Philadelphia, where
the institution became known simply as Blockley. On the night of Feb 12, 1885,
disaster struck when the Blockley had a fire. Since all of the patients were
shackled together, many burned to death. After the fire the city started to
look for a new location to house the insane.
The new location was in the suburb of Byberry, the former home of Benjamin
Rush. On July 3, 1907 six patients were moved from Blockley to Byberry
City Farms. Relatives of the insane were excited about the new hospital
because it was a much needed improvement over the old insane asylum
in Philadelphia. It would not be long before their minds would be changed!
Over the years the City of Philadelphia added more buildings and changed
the name of the facility to the Philadelphia State Hospital. The asylum soon
became over-crowded and under-staffed. At one point a report, written by
an unknown anthropologist, estimates that as many as 86% of the hospital's
admissions were patients that had been treated - some multiple times - at
other hospitals and were being dispatched to Byberry as something of a
'last resort.'
The Philadelphia State Hospital, called by its popular and derogatory name,
Byberry, was, and often still is, considered a Bedlam, a mad house where
unspeakable behavior took place, on the part of the patients and personnel.
Reports of patients being abused and killed were not uncommon. Patients
would sleep naked on the floors, in hallways and in the basements. Some
became extremely violent and started to kill each other or commit suicide.
It is to be remembered that our forebears had neither the understanding,
the patience, nor the knowledge of how to handle their helpless and afflicted,
so to be sent to Blockley or Byberry was to be condemned to horror and exile.
Here in THIS microcosm of the city. Within THESE walls you will find all
sorts of physical and mental diseases, and also a multitude of social
maladies that degrade man-hood, undermine national strength and threaten
civilization itself. Here is drunkenness;
here is madness; here are the eternal priestesses of prostitution who sacrifice
for the sins of man; and here is vice in all its monstrous forms.
HERE IS BYBERRY STATE LIVE AT THE BLOCKLEY!
