Property Name: | Harrisburg State Hospital |
Address: | Cameron and Maclay Streets |
Owners: | Commonwealth of Pennsylvania |
Priority Since: | 2014 |
Status: | Under an agreement of sale with Dauphin County Redevelopment Authority. The state will continue to occupy until 2023* *revised from Sept. 2021 |
Originally called the “City on the Hill” and listed in the National Register of Historic Places as an historic district, the Harrisburg State Hospital was the first in Pennsylvania—and one of the first in the United States—built for the care and treatment of the mentally ill. It contains approximately 30 architecturally significant buildings designed by noted Pennsylvania architects and a beautiful campus setting, a portion of which is traversed by the Capital Area Greenbelt. The State Hospital has been closed since 2006, although several buildings remain in governmental or institutional use. HHA is leading an effort known as “the Committee for the Future of the Harrisburg State Hospital” which advocates that sale of the property by the Commonwealth should result in three distinct outcomes: protection of the historic buildings and their spectacular hilltop setting through some form of adaptive reuse or historic preservation tax credit investment; preservation of the natural open space area that includes the Asylum Run watershed and the Greenbelt corridor, possibly as a municipal park; and responsible development of the extensive remaining acreage.