Dixmont State Hospital

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Dixmont State Hospital was a state mental hospital built in 1862 on a hill northwest of Pittsburgh, in Kilbuck Township. It followed the Kirkbride Plan and was part of a large, self-sufficient campus that covered about 407 acres. The hospital closed in 1984 and was demolished in 2006. Reed Hall, the main building, is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Origins
The hospital grew from the Western Pennsylvania Hospital in Pittsburgh. Dorothea Dix urged the creation of a separate institution for the mentally ill. Construction began in 1859, and the hospital opened in 1862. A time capsule placed in the cornerstone contained papers and a letter from Dix.

Growth
The first patient population was 113. By the late 1800s, between 1,200 and 1,500 people lived there. In 1907 it became an independent hospital, the Dixmont Hospital for the Insane. The campus was designed to be self-sufficient: it had its own farmland, livestock, a rail line, a post office, water and sewage plants, electricity, and many workers, from bakers and butchers to electricians, a barber, and a dentist. Reed Hall was the main building, with the west wing finished in 1868 and the east wing started soon after. The center housed the front lobby, offices, and a chapel. A dietary building behind Reed Hall held the kitchens and storage.

Later buildings and changes
The Cammarata Building, built in 1971, was the geriatric center and later renovated in 1999. It became the Glen Montessori School from 2001 to 2012 and is the only Dixmont structure still standing. The Hutchinson Building, built starting in 1949 and completed in 1954, housed the intensive care unit, x-ray facilities, a morgue, and other facilities. It was demolished after drainage problems made renovation too costly. Over time, more than 80 structures existed on the campus, but many were demolished in 1967 to modernize the facility.

Decline and closure
In the 1920s the hospital became crowded as veterans returned with PTSD after World War I. The Great Depression brought financial trouble. In 1946 the state took over the hospital. Treatments such as lobotomies and electroconvulsive therapy were used during this period. By the mid-1970s, deinstitutionalization reduced patient numbers, and state funding fell. Reed Hall was partly empty by 1983. The hospital closed in July 1984, with about 300 patients moved elsewhere.

After closure
Several reuse plans were proposed but most did not happen. From 1985 to 1988 Holy Family Institute used the Cammarata building after a fire damaged their facility. A late-1980s plan to build a county jail on the site was canceled in 1989. In 1999 the property was sold to a private owner. In 2005 a plan to build a Walmart on part of the land led to landslides that damaged roads; the plan was abandoned in 2007, and the site was left to nature. The cemetery remains state-owned, and the log book with patient markers is publicly available.

Today
Reed Hall has been demolished after a center fire in 1995. The Cammarata Building is the only Dixmont structure still standing today, and it has served as a school in the past. The Dixmont campus once had many other buildings, but most were removed as the site faded from use.