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Archiver > PALACKAW > 2001-09 > 1000090155
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Subject: Re: [PA-LAC] Pennsylvania Lunatic Asylum
Date: Sun, 9 Sep 2001 22:49:15 EDT
Joy--this is speculation, but it occurs to me that the answer to your
question might lie in the history of the Hillside Home. I wonder,
specifically, whether they accepted patients for what we would now call
mental illness at the time your ancestor was admitted in Harrisburg.
I do not have any references to refer to here at home, but I know the name of
the Hillside Home, (CS State Hospital), and possibly the population served,
changed over the years. It was at one time operated under the aegis of the
Scranton Poor Board (or some such entity), and may have been primarily for
the shelter of indigents, more like a poor house or work house.
It may very well have served various groups, of course, all at the same time,
but I believe it has not always been exlusively for the treatment of mental
illness.
Sorry for the vagueness; maybe some other reader can refer to a history of
Lackwanna Co. for you--or Scranton--that would give some specifics about the
institution.
My point being that Harrisburg may have been the closest appropriate facility
available at the time. ???
Anne
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