Institute of the Pennsylvania Hospital
The Institute of Pennsylvania Hospital, also known as Kirkbride's Hospital or the Pennsylvania Hospital for Mental and Nervous Diseases, was a psychiatric hospital located at 48th and Haverford Streets in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA. It operated from its founding in 1841 until 1997. The remaining building, now called the Kirkbride Center is now part of the Blackwell Human Services Campus.
Institute of Pennsylvania Hospital Kirkbride's Hospital | |
U.S. National Register of Historic Places | |
U.S. National Historic Landmark | |
Market Street facade in 1959. | |
| Location | 111 North 49th Street, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania |
|---|---|
| Coordinates | 39°57′42″N 75°13′2″W |
| Built | 1841; 1859 |
| Architectural style | Neoclassical |
| NRHP reference No. | 66000684 |
| Significant dates | |
| Added to NRHP | June 23, 1965 |
| Designated NHL | June 23, 1965 |
Two large hospital structures and an elaborate pleasure ground were built on a campus that stretched along the north side of Market Street, from 45th to 49th Streets. Thomas Story Kirkbride, the hospital's first superintendent and physician-in-chief, developed a more humane method of treatment for the mentally ill there, that became widely influential. The hospital's plan became a prototype for a generation of institutions for the treatment of the mentally ill nationwide. The surviving 1859 building was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1965.