Sunday I decided to take a quick ride to Tionesta. As often happens, one thing led to another and I never actually made it to Tionesta. During my travels I did come across a mysterious town. Since I am all about adventure, I decided to explore this town. Hopefully somebody will know the story of this place and fill me in.
In the picture to the left you can see what appears to be the main building in the town. It appears to be very old but it is in very good condition, as are most of the buildings in this town.
The grounds are maintained like a golf course, but there was absolutely no sign of life.
There must be times when the place is very busy because there were pavilions ond chairs everywhere, just no people to be seen. It was actually a little bit creepy.
There were a lot of busses and passenger vans parked all over the town, but they had no markings on them to identify them.
As you can see in the picture the streets are all named and there are also streetlights.
Here are some pictures of the many buildings in this town. Notice how abandoned everything seems, but at the same time it is all so well maintained.
Another interesting thing I found was a very large generator.
The buildings mostly seemed to be pretty old, and a lot of them had fallout shelter signs.
There was some activity, because a noise was coming from this building and smoke was coming from the smokestack.
Here are some more pictures:
OK, now you tell me. What is this place? A secret government facility? A religious cult? A college?
I have no idea what it is, but I hope someone out there does know!
Damn, that looks cool as hell. So, I take it there were no signs as to the name of the place? Where is it located?
I know somewhere in Pennsylvania there is a town that had to be abandoned some years ago due to an underground coal mine fire. I doubt this is it though.
The town with the underground burning mine is Centralia. I have a ride planned for mid May to check it out!
This place is near Polk, PA.
I looked up Polk Pennsylvania on Google Earth and there were two pictures on it. Both were titled “Polk Center” and they show the same building as in the first picture, the one with the tall steeple like thing with clocks on all sides.
Some further searching shows it is some type of huge health care complex. It has a large home for the mentally retarded.
http://www.google.com/search?q=polk+center+pennsylvania&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a
I followed some of the links from the google search in Jim’s comments. They’ve had some trouble there in the past. The link that showed their audit findings in 2006 was interesting. Wow it costs a bunch of money per person to run a place like that. I wonder if they just recently shut it down if it looked abandon but well maintained. Looking at the style of the buses the first one can’t be more than a couple years old. The county next to us that has a place like this abandon is trying to revive it for other uses. I was involved in a tour there last winter. It’s interesting how those places were set up and what all they had there for the residence to do. Very similar to this one.
Yes, mystery solved. Here is a link to the report:
http://www.auditorgen.state.pa.us/Reports/Performance/SO/stoPolkCenter110906.pdf
I wonder if it is still operating?
it is polk center…i work for the PA conservation corps and we go there to hold education meetings…it used to be a hospital but it is now under the care of PA. the inside of the building doesnt suggest anything creepy, infact there are still permanent and temporary residents which recieve special care but not too many. it is also a facility for small state projects…
I’ve just happened across your site. I grew up in Polk, PA. The facility you visited was originally “Polk State School for the Feeble Minded”. It was built in 1897. I lived there during the 1940s and 50s. It was then “Polk State School and Hospital”. My great-grandmother was among the first employees hired to work there. My father was the head gardener, so we lived in a staff house on the grounds. It was a wonderful,vibrant place. It was almost completely self-sustaining. 800 acres of fields, orchards, dairy herd, cattle, chickens and hogs for food. It had it’s own bakery, butcher shop, carpentry shop, etc. When I lived there there were about 3,000 patients. About 1,500 staff. In the early 1970s, patients began to be transferred into group homes or released to live on their own. Nowadays with advanced medical care, relatively few people are institutionalized. I’m not sure what’s being done there now. The photos that you took are wonderful. I hope you don’t mind if I save them for my own photo files. I’m 65 and have lived in Virginia for over 30 years. Those photographs bring back endless, happy memories.
I’ve worked with former residents who now live in group homes.Some real horror stories out of this place. Some former patients actually said it was OK.A guy I cared for is deaf, autistic, he had a real hard time. His mom hated to take him there when he was 10. She said they wanted to put him in a cage. She wouldn’t allow it. He was in a four point restraint alot lf the time. In the group home, he would ask daily if he would have to go back. He had terrible flashbacks. He got out in 1990 and it took years for him to calm down. I can’t imagine what his life was like there. There is a cemetary to the left of the bldgs., through a cornfield, past a sign that says “keep out”. Sad place, think bodies were creamated. Glad those places are gone but alot of those folks wound up in prisons. What’s better?
HI
Interesting pics- I worked there as volunteer while I was at Clarion State (now Clarion U). NO horror stories then (1972-76) ANyone know what is happening there now? I was told all ‘residents’ went to group homes. Was well run opearion when I was there- but hear some pretty grim stories of why some older residents were sent there! Curious what is happening to the place now?
GEOF
I work at Polk Center now. About 304 individuals still live there full time. Alot of total care, not being able to do anything for themselves. Some are very independent and are able to move about the grounds freely. They work doing different things and get paid accordingly. Some go out into the surrounding communities to work and get paid. ALL residents go out and about doing different things such as shows, shopping and out to eat on a regular basis. They are all very well cared for and the staff that work there genuinely cares for each and every person that lives there. It is an old place and it shows its age. But…we have the most up to date equipment and supplies to care for our people and try to make them as happy as we can.
I worked at Polk in 1967. I don’t remember the name of the building but it was the first one when you entered up the side road. I was young (20) and had purposely gone there for a job because I wanted to work with mentally handicapped. I came from a town near New York state line and eventually worked in group homes in Pa that took in some Polk residents. I saw some pretty horrible things as well as good things while there. Some staff members were mean to the residents and of course some caring and compassionate. We were so understaffed, two staff per 50 women, mostly violent. I think supervisor of mine from the group home eventually went to work at Polk.I would love to know what happened to him. I loved seeing the photos.