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State Set to Transfer 131-Acre Byberry Hospital to PIDC

PHILADELPHIA-The hitch is: PIDC's plan for the vacant, nearly 100-year-old mental institution that has become a popular Halloween haunt, must be community approved by mid-January or the state gets it back. Cleanup and building demolition will cost $15 million.

By Marita Thomas | Updated on August 05, 2003

PHILADELPHIA-The state has agreed to transfer the 131-acre former Philadelphia State Hospital for the Insane, better known as Byberry, at Southampton Road and Roosevelt Boulevard in North Philadelphia to the Philadelphia Industrial Development Corp. for $850,000, providing PIDC can have development plans for the site approved by the surrounding community by January 16, 2004. Otherwise ownership will revert back to the state.

Byberry, which once housed as many as 7,000 patients, opened in 1907. The state took over the facility in 1938 after inspectors revealed fire and health violations. In 1990 it was ordered closed by then-Gov. Robert Casey, following revelations of mismanagement and patient abuse.

Since the close, the facility has become a favorite haunt of trespassers, especially teens on Halloween, and it is currently featured on numerous haunted house websites. “No Trespassing” signs and police patrols around the perimeter have failed to discourage people attracted by its ghoulish notoriety.

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