A Vision of the Future: Introduction

Update: As of 2019, PMPA has entered into an agreement with the Department of Military and Veterans affairs and the Pennsylvania State Historic Preservation Office for the future location of a place to memorialize what happened at Pennhurst. 



the superintendent's residence

Image courtesy of J. Greg Pirmann

Once called the shame of the nation, Pennhurst was the epicenter of a civil and human rights movement that changed the way the world saw people with intellectual and developmental disabilities. The atrocities of neglect at Pennhurst resulted in Supreme Court litigation that sounded the death knell for institutionalization worldwide. The Pennhurst Memorial and Preservation Alliance seeks to ensure that those achievements won at Pennhurst are neither lost nor forgotten. 

Recently recognized as an International Site of Conscience, Pennhurst offers the opportunity to again achieve something unique and revolutionary.