During the 1960s, people with mental illness were reintegrated into society, following mass deinstitutionalization efforts of the United States government, rendering state-funded mental hospitals outdated.
Many of these buildings were repurposed as “haunted houses”, with heart-stopping tours and actors dressed in hospital gowns smeared with blood. Hundreds of people flock to these attractions every fall, fueling an industry that dehumanizes and mocks mentally and physically disabled people.
“I believe that many people are aware that psych hospitals are not the way they appear in haunted houses, but it could turn them away from these hospitals when they need help,” said Emma Lake, a mental health advocate.
One notable attraction in the Northeast is Pennhurst Asylum, located outside of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. According to the Pennhurst Memorial and Preservation Alliance, Pennhurst began as a state-funded institution that primarily served intellectually and developmentally Disabled patients that were deemed “unfit for citizenship” in 1903. Children and adults alike were locked away – sometimes chained to beds put in cages – with little access to the care they needed. At the peak of its operations, Pennhurst served almost double its capacity of patients, which caused the level of neglect to increase.
Despite its closure in 1986, Pennhurst’s grounds remain in use as a haunted house. Visitors can explore one of three haunted destinations: The Maximum-Security Wing, The Morgue, and The Containment (tunnels underneath the grounds). Guests will see rotting body part props and blood stains in The Morgue, pretend surgeries in The Containment and abandoned hospital rooms in The Maximum-Security Wing. Pennhurst also offers day-time historical tours, though they are secondary to the haunted house attraction that sells out tickets every fall weekend.
“I think some haunted house asylums can be harmful, like if the barbaric practices of lobotomy are the subject of the scares or if costumes are centered around something like straight-jackets,” said Lake. “Sometimes people need to be put in restraints like straight-jackets for their own safety.”
Haunted houses may perpetuate stereotypes of fear that did not previously exist. George Eberts, professor of astronomy at Ohio University and former staff member of the Athens Behavioral Center, grew up around asylums and considered them a normal part of his neighborhood.
“There were a lot of good jobs…working for the State (of Ohio) knew it’s gonna be here through the Depression and war,” said Eberts. “They knew it was well run and the people were well cared for and joked they were more concerned about the mentally ill people not in institutions”
Another famous mental hospital is the Athens Lunatic Asylum located in Athens, Ohio. The asylum began admitting patients in 1867 with a wide range of mental illnesses and developmental disabilities, most notably, Borderline Personality Disorder. The hospital was known for its treatment of Electric Shock Therapy and Lobotomies that was common practice at the time. It also housed Billy Milligan, who was acquitted from rape charges by reason of insanity. He was the first person who was acquitted for Multiple Personality Disorder (now reclassified as Borderline Personality Disorder). Before the hospital closed in 1993, it was known as a place that rehabilitated and discharged some patients and cared for other patients for decades, according to Eberts.
Now visitors of the asylum can partake in walking tours run by George Eberts and the Southeast Ohio History Center. These tours detail popular stories, like the true tale of Margaret Schilling, who disappeared from the Asylum in 1978 and was found dead two months later in another ward, where her body left an impenetrable stain on the floor from a mixture of decay and a very potent cleaning product Blu-ray, that was used to clean up. Eberts says that Schilling’s death was a voluntary event and not a murder.
“You can’t make (the stain) a tourist attraction, you can’t make it a Halloween thing, you can’t disgrace it because it is a real human being who has family living in this area … its a total perversion about everything mental health treatment and recovery,” said Eberts.
These visitors can only see the outside of the grounds, as many buildings are now owned by Ohio University. Here the premise of the tour is curiosity and respect, not fear and “othering” of disabled people.
Advocates like Eberts and Lake both believe educational tours and discussions are essential to understanding the history behind psych hospitals and the advancements that have been made to help mentally ill people live their highest quality of life.
“We need to be aware of (mental health) history so we don’t repeat it,” said Lake.
