Picture Pages! Picture Pages!

Construction began on the Dixmont State Hospital on July 19, 1859 and its doors officially opened to 113 residents and their staff on November 11, 1861. A vision created by Dorothea Dix, the Dixmont State Hospital was a Kirkbride building, known for creating plans for asylums that promoted the mental healing of the residents.

Located on 406 acres, Dixmont was completely self-sufficient with its own power plant, water supply, postal office, butcher shop, gardens, and morgue—it required no contact with the world outside. At times housing over 1000 patients, the grand visions of better treatment for the mentally ill, soon decayed.

Dixmont closed its doors in 1984 and has since been the target of vandals, seekers of the paranormal and youth requiring a secluded place to be youth. More than 1,300 graves (marked and numbered on small stones) can be found in the woods surrounding the Dixmont hospital. The state of Pennsylvania plans to preserve the 1-acre cemetery where these former patients are buried.

As the buildings are being cleared of asbestos, they are being demolished to create way for the new Wal-Mart Supercenter (slated for opening in May of 2007). Demolition of Dixmont is expected to be completed early in 2006. Currently, only a handful of the old buildings still remain.

Pictures can be found in the links listed below--with the exception of the staff house. Perhaps Dixmont visitors did not think that it would have anything interesting to photograph? If anyone out there has photos or information on the staff house, I would be quite interested...