Laurelton State Village for Feeble-Minded Women of Childbearing Age, Pennsylvania

The Laurelton State Village for Feeble-Minded Women of Childbearing Age opened in 1917, with 36 patients, and was the first facility of its kind designed to segregate and care for "feeble-minded" women from puberty through menopause. The facility was established on the principles of eugenics and the premise that one’s intelect or mental deficiency was hereditary and the segregation of those individuals was crucial to ensure they did not reproduce and pass down those genetics.

The first Superintendent, Dr. Mary Moore Wolfe, was responsible for the creation of the institution and ran the facility for 23 years. She believed mental deficiency was not as much a medical problem, as a sociological one caused by a lack of education. Her beliefs helped shape create academic and vocational programs to ensure women were taught the skills they needed to return into society. Many learned to read, write here and residents were expected to participate in other activities, such as farming and the raising of livestock, to maintain the institution. Additional industrial training areas included, field and lawns, central kitchen, including the bakery and cafeteria, laundry, sewing and mending room, farm colony, hospital and special housework.

In the late 1960's the facility began to admit males and the name changed to Laurelton State School & Hospital. Decades later, in 1998, the facility would shut its doors.  

Mountain Valley Inc. purchased the property in 2006 with plans to renovate and converting the facility into a resort, however no progress was made. In March 2021, the property was again sold. No future plans have been outlined.

Sources:

  • “Report of the Laurelton State Village : at Laurelton, Union County, Pennsylvania, for the biennial period ending May 31, 1944” Archive.org, May 31 1944, https://archive.org/details/reportoflaurelto00laur/page/n3/mode/2up

  • Farenish, Melissa. “Laurelton Center purchased for $1 million by Juniata County business owner” NorthcentralPA.com, April 5 2021, https://www.northcentralpa.com/news/laurelton-center-purchased-for-1-million-by-juniata-county-business-owner/article_a473fb30-961f-11eb-8527-e7289a438cec.html

  • Larocco, Christina. “Biographical Sketch of Mary Moore Wolfe” Part III: Mainstream Suffragists—National American Woman Suffrage Association, https://documents.alexanderstreet.com/d/1009656455

  • Stump, Tyler. “Reform Takes a Village".” Pennsylvania Heritage, Summer 2020, http://paheritage.wpengine.com/article/reform-takes-a-village/

  • Sullivan, Micalee. “The Expansion and Demise of the Village.” The West End Quarterly, Sept 2017, https://westendquarterly.files.wordpress.com/2017/09/weq-7-copy.pdf