Construction began on Pennsylvania Hospital’s Pine Building, the nation’s first hospital, in 1755 and was completed in 1802. The masonry structure was designed by Samuel Rhodes and retains its historic library, central court, surgical amphitheater and grand façade.
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Elder Hall Training Academy is operated by the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections (DOC), and is located in Elizabethtown,PA. Originally constructed as the State Hospital for Crippled Children, it was designed by Thomas, Martin & Kirkpatrick Architects. The majority of the building was built in 1925 (operational in 1930), and then two wings were added in on the south side of the building in 1941. The building functioned as the hospital until the 1980s when it was converted a training facility for the Department of Corrections.
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St. Peter’s Church opened in 1761, and served as a place of worship for many of the United States’ Founding Fathers. The church is mid-Georgian auditory in style and retains its original box pews. The exterior is red brick masonry with decorative white molding surrounding the doors and windows. The sanctuary is crowned by an ornate denticular cornice. In 1842, a crenelated tower and white clapboard steeple were added.
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Opened in 1829 as part of a controversial movement to change the behavior of inmates through “confinement in solitude with labor,” the massive stone structure became one of the most expensive and most copied buildings in America. More than 300 prisons worldwide are based on the Penitentiary’s radial or “wagon-wheel” floor plan.
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