Trio wants to preserve legacy of Pennhurst

Nathaniel C. Guest was in his junior year at Pottsgrove High School when Pennhurst first caught his eye.

In a 1993 essay he wrote for a local newspaper, Guest said there was something special about the buildings at the shuttered state insane asylum in northern Chester County and they should be preserved.

He knew nothing about what went on in those buildings.

But Greg Pirmann did. Pirmann, a career mental-health professional, was a newly minted graduate from Villanova University when he started working at Pennhurst in 1969. He believes that Pennhurst got a bad rap - the bad parts were sensationalized, but the good was ignored. He wants to set the record straight.

A third man involved in the project, who goes by the name of El Peecho, wants to remain anonymous because of threats he says he has received. He lived near Pennhurst, and what he heard about the place made him angry. Twelve years ago he started a Web site to document its "nightmarish" history, but as he learned the facts from former residents and employees, he changed his tune.

Now this unlikely trio has teamed up to try and preserve both the architectural and social legacy of Pennhurst. They say it is a cautionary tale of what happens when an entire segment of society is locked up and written off.

Horrific stories of abuse of residents led a federal judge to order Pennhurst shut down in 1977 and for residents to be moved out and into the community. Eleven years and more litigation later, U.S. Dictrict Judge Raymond J. Broderick declared the case closed.

But his decision provided the legal foundation for the closure of similar institutions around the country. For the trio, Pennhurst remains an enduring and physical legacy. The buildings are a fine example of Jacobean Revival architecture, said Guest, and their presence is witness to the sea change that occurred over the last century in the treatment of people with mental retardation.

"It's more than just a beautiful and forgotten place," said Guest, a third-year law student and candidate for a master's degree in historical preservation. "The Pennhurst story was and continues to be about failing to recognize the worth of people - and places - that whether we like or it not, defines us."

Guest, Pirmann and Peecho are seeking to preserve the administration building as a memorial and reuse many of the remaining 16 buildings instead of demolishing them. Their quest has attracted the support of elected officials, community leaders, and area residents.

The site's owner, developer Richard Chakejian Jr., who bought several buildings and 111 acres from the state for $2.5 million in February, has not said what his plans are and could not be reached for comment.

When the Pennhurst State School and Hospital opened its doors 100 years ago in East Vincent Township, it was considered to be a model for caring for the mentally ill.

Hugging the banks of the Schuylkill near Spring City, it was a self-contained community of more than 1,000 residents. They grew much of their own food, and many of the caretakers were themselves high-functioning residents of the institution.

"People worked hard and found themselves through their work," Pirmann said. "And all of a sudden one day we told them you can't do that anymore."

If work was therapeutic, there were other aspects of life at Pennhurst that were completely dehumanizing, Pirmann said.

"People really believed that people with mental retardation had no feelings so they weren't bothered by being naked in a room with 100 other naked people," he said. "It's really odd what we are able to justify once we divorce ourselves from people."

For Pirmann, getting that message out is a crucial piece of the Preserve Pennhurst project.

"When we dehumanize and write off a segment of our society and render them non-people, we can get away with a lot of horrible things," he said. "It is a problem if we don't recall the mistakes we made as a society."

Judge Broderick's role in the Pennhurst case boosted the efforts of people like Pirmann and other mental-health professionals who championed the return to society of people once regarded as outcasts so they could lead healthy and productive lives.

The buildings at Pennhurst have suffered nearly two decades of neglect by the state. Thieves have stripped them of their valuable metals; graffiti tags are scrawled across the walls, and a thick blanket of vegetation obscures many of the abandoned structures.

"In my judgment the state was derelict in letting this go on for decades," said state Sen. Andrew Dinniman (D., Chester). "Now all you have are shells." Nevertheless, he said that with their steel frames, the buildings are strong.

"It might be far easier for a developer to retrofit and not tear them down," he said.

Guest said that the campus at Pennhurst, with 1,600 feet of frontage along the Schuylkill, has great potential.

"A restored Pennhurst campus holds tremendous promise economically and environmentally that far outweighs those to be gained by tearing everything down and throwing up houses or a big-box store," he said. "It's part of our job to make sure people know what they have and what they stand to lose."

U.S. Rep. Jim Gerlach (R., Pa.) has spent most of his political life trying to forge a solution for Pennhurst. As a freshman state representative, he secured a $10,000 grant for a feasibility study.

As a member of Congress, he pushed hard for the site to be chosen for the veterans cemetery, but the Department of Veterans Affairs chose a site in Bucks County.

He said in a statement that he hopes any redevelopment proposal for Pennhurst will act "to preserve its wonderful historic, aesthetic and recreational resources."