City on the Hill - Harrisburg State Hospital

City on the Hill - Harrisburg State Hospital Founded on April 14, 1845, the hospital was originally known as the Pennsylvania State Lunatic Hospital and Union Asylum for the Insane.

Harrisburg State Hospital
Pennsylvania State Lunatic Hospital

City on the Hill is a website and page dedicated to Pennsylvania's first public facility to house and care for the mentally ill. Later the name was shortened to just Pennsylvania State Lunatic Hospital, and eventually it was changed again to Harrisburg State Hospital. The hospital served 12 surrounding counties, which at the time of it's founding, had a population of 926,452 in an area of 8,000 square miles. The facility provided over 150 years of service to Pennsylvania's mentally ill, until January of 2006, when it was closed.

I tried to get this for the museum but money talks.
03/30/2026

I tried to get this for the museum but money talks.

03/28/2026
Stopped by the campus today. This is all that is left of Hillcrest.
03/18/2026

Stopped by the campus today. This is all that is left of Hillcrest.

Drone video from Feb 14 and Feb 28.
03/01/2026

Drone video from Feb 14 and Feb 28.

This demolition progress video covers two visits. 2/14/2026 and 2/28/2026. There is not much left. Eaton is demolished. Hilltop is demolished. Hillcrest in b...

Reposting this because Facebook is the worst. Sorry all my posts keep wanting to prompt you to send me a message. If you...
03/01/2026

Reposting this because Facebook is the worst. Sorry all my posts keep wanting to prompt you to send me a message. If you have never managed a page then you probably don't know how horrible the platform is to use. Anyway...

Easton is gone.
Hilltop is gone.
Hillcrest is probably be gone by next weekend.

https://www.wkok.com/patient-charged-after-danville-bomb-hoax/
02/23/2026

https://www.wkok.com/patient-charged-after-danville-bomb-hoax/

DANVILLE — A bomb threat at Danville State Hospital earlier this month was traced to a current patient. According to NorthcentralPA.com, police say 22-year-old Ashton Smith made the hoax call on Feb. 3. State police say an unidentified man called state police around 7pm claiming he planted explosi...

Full video is now live on my YouTube channel.
02/22/2026

Full video is now live on my YouTube channel.

In this video, I take the tunnel system into the Willow Oak Data Center that was added in the 1980s. This video is a little shorter than my others, but it wa...

Demolition progress as of Feb 14, 2026-Eaton is almost completely demolished-Hilltop and Hillcrest are waiting to be dem...
02/15/2026

Demolition progress as of Feb 14, 2026

-Eaton is almost completely demolished
-Hilltop and Hillcrest are waiting to be demolished
-Ground work and leveling is still going on.

The campus is closed to the public and any trespassers will be prosecuted. Capital Police and PA State Police are patrolling the grounds.

This was last night at Danville State Hospital. I can't find any news more recent, so I guess the PSP did not find anyth...
02/04/2026

This was last night at Danville State Hospital. I can't find any news more recent, so I guess the PSP did not find anything.

Pennsylvania State Police said Tuesday night they are currently on an active investigation at 50 Kirkbride Drive in Mahoning Township.That's the Danville State

01/30/2026

Not sure what building this sink was in, but I'm very glad that OGT is acknowledging that it came from HSH.

Address

Harrisburg, PA

Website

https://www.flickr.com/photos/thomasp94/albums, https://amzn.to/3W5Z9Sj

Alerts

Be the first to know and let us send you an email when City on the Hill - Harrisburg State Hospital posts news and promotions. Your email address will not be used for any other purpose, and you can unsubscribe at any time.

Shortcuts

Share

Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Share on LinkedIn
Share on Pinterest Share on Reddit Share via Email
Share on WhatsApp Share on Instagram Share on Telegram

Category