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By the mid thirties, conditions
of patients, given overcrowding, understaffing, and lack of any treatment of any kind, was so deplorable the city was
forced to invest state help. Byberry was transferred to state funding which, at the time, is exactly what it needed. The commonwealth
could provide the additional buildings needed to contain the constantly escalating percentage of overcrowding. The hospital
was about 300% overcrowded at this point, fortunately the worst number it would see.
The state hired a new primary architect
in 1938, as Johnson had died in 1933. George Wharton Pepper Jr, son of councilman George Pepper, freshly withdrawn from his
previous firm Tilden & Pepper, and opening his own on Walnut street, was clearly the lowest bidder. Pepper's work was
different from that of Johnson, but equally beholding. A new art-deco building plan was drawn and up and after several changes,
was accepted by the board. In 1939 ground was broken for a large dormitory building to house staff, designated S-1. It
opened in 1942. This building was exeptionally large as it housed a gracious new recreational section, which contained
a gym, a bowling alley, a swimming pool and basketball courts. Other anemities for patient use included a library, a
large occupational therapy area (as fate would have it, by the early 50's this was converted into more patient dorm space),
and a new mattress and clothing/shoe repair shop.
This was a time when transportation
was much more uncommon. The northeast section of the city had hardly been built upon and the majority of it was
farmland. Rails were method of choice for most Philadelphians, but the PRT (Phila Rapid Transit) had not laid
tracks outside most of what is today the city proper. Most of the hospital's workers lived in the city, many miles
from the hospital. As a result, many of them chose to live on the grounds. S-1 building offered a decent place to board for
most staff.
In 1942, work began on N-6, a huge, hotel-like dormitory, and it's
twin, N-7. Ground was broken in 1942, they opened in 1943. These fresh modern buildings gave the feeling of change and new
ideas. By 1945, with World War 2 coming to an end, the state was expanding the hospital a building a year, holding huge
groundbreaking and dedication ceremonies to show the public where the money was going. In 1946, a brand new kitchen
and dietary building, N-5 opened. 1947 brought S-1's twin, S-2, another staff quarters. Unfortunately, the amount of
staff the state planned to hire never reached the desired numbers, and the patient/staff ratio reached a despicable
low of 94/1. Working patients picked up a good load of the demand, a statistic that byberry was quick to throw out at
board meetings. Eventually S-2 was converted into much needed patient dorm space and its original purpose almost forgotten.
In 1948 construction began on N-3 and a stretch of underground
tunnel connecting it to N-5 (a fire would many years later rename this "the black hallway"). In 1949, the same
year ground was broken for N-10, architect Pepper died, leaving the layout incomplete. As the building layout had already
been prepared by Pepper, the state contracted out the remaining buildings to various firms, thus the strange yet subtle
differences in N-8, N-9 & N-10. Pepper's original plan called for 7 more patient buildings than were ever built. Completion
of Pepper's original layout would have put a huge damper on the overcrowding, but, as everything else in Byberry's history,
the financial side of the matter was taken.
This new building campaign was a showcase of millions of dollars
for the general public to see. That this was not the "Byberry hospital for mental diseases" of the past, but the "Philadelphia
State Hospital" of the future. Although this was an act of good will, Byberry had been deemed an impossible fate. In
other words, the headstrong state dug themselves a financial pit of approx. $4,000,000 a year to run the metropolis
they created. Needless to say, this was going to get ugly....
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| SETTING THE CORNERSTONE OF N-6, DEC 1943 |
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| CORNERSTONE OF W-6; SEPT. 2003 |
In 1951 a new and long-anticipated hospital for the epidemic of the times, Tuberculosis,
was opened. This was the largest building yet, as it contained its own full size cafeterias and kitchens (TB patients
had to be kept separate), plus a slew of hospital equipment such as a new dental office, X-RAY rooms, even an ER. Years
later, it would become the new infirmary for staff and patients, as it was equipped with modern hospital equipment. This
was designated N-10 building. Ironically in 1958, medical science had found a "perfected" way of immunizing humans to Teberculosis,
and all over the country huge hospitals built for the care of TB patients were transferred to other uses. N-10 became the
medical/surgical building for the campus, having lived up to its original purpose for only approximately 10 years.
In 1951, the Nurses' and female attendants' quarters,
S-10, got it's T-wing addition which is presently occupied by the Self-Help organization, an inpatient drug and alchohol rehab.
It was purchased from the hospital in 1976. This new addition, the third, made room for an estimated 150 more female employees
who chose the option to live on the grounds of the hospital, which now offered an array of medical training for students from
all over the area. Many of whom went on to work at Byberry or other mental health facilities, state and private. The perfected
"institution" was now a forming essence. This was probably Byberry's best time in history. But unfortunately, it didn't last
long....
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