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Featured Article Of The Week

Danville State Hospital


Danville Cont 03.jpg

From the Pennsylvania Department of Public Welfare web page: Danville State Hospital for the mentally ill, located one mile southeast of Danville, Pennsylvania, was incorporated on April 13, 1869. In October 1872, three years after the cornerstone of the Block Building was laid, Danville State Hospital formally was opened. By September 30, 1873, 138 male and 72 female patients had been admitted for treatment. Other maintenance buildings had been erected by this time in order to increase the size and services of the facility.

The land on which Danville State Hospital stands today was originally a tract owned by pioneer Daniel Montgomery, cofounder (with his father) of Danville and for whom the town was named. He willed it to his son, Daniel Strawbridge Montgomery, who gave it to his daughter, Margaret. Margaret married W.W. Pineo. As Executor of her Estate, the latter conveyed it to the State Hospital. Its 250 acres were brought for $26,600 and Danville citizens backed the project by contributing $16,123.12 of that total.

The late Dr. Horrace Victor Pike (1877-1948) was a great innovator at Danville State Hospital. He initiated the first mental health clinic in state hospital service and was the first clinical director in the state under the Bureau of Mental Health, Department of Welfare. He was a specialist in neuropsychiatry, a widely known nerve specialist and the author of over fifty papers in the fields of mental hygiene, child guidance and psychiatry.Click here for more...