Explainers

Where is Pennhurst Asylum located? Katie Burr and team of paranormal investigators explore site on World’s Biggest Ghost Hunt

Pennhurst Asylum on World's Biggest Ghost Hunt
Pennhurst Asylum featured on World’s Biggest Ghost Hunt. Pic credit: A&E

Katie Burr was one of five investigators on World’s Biggest Ghost Hunt, which aired last night on A&E. She and the team spent two weeks locked up in Pennhurst Asylum, one of the most terrifying abandoned sites in the country.

The five investigators were Katie Burr,  Max Baumle, Austin George, Zak Heino, and Ali Horrick. The team investigated the asylum, armed with the latest cutting-edge technology, to attempt to capture evidence of a supernatural presence at Pennhurst.

Their ghost hunting equipment included digital audio recorder, binaural microphone, 4K infrared camera, and tri-field natural EMF detector.

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Where is Pennhurst Asylum located?

Pennhurst Asylum is in Spring City, Chester County, Pennsylvania.

The asylum has a painful history. The facility opened in 1908, previously known as the Eastern State Institution for the Feeble-Minded and Epileptic. It was formerly an institution for the mentally and physically disabled, located about 33 miles from Philadelphia.

Pennhurst Asylum housed adult and juvenile inmates in appalling conditions. Bill Baldini exposed the inhumane conditions at Pennhurst, as a young reporter for the local Channel 10 TV station. Baldini did a five-part series on the conditions there in the late ’60s.

“Think of a ward of infants and children from the ages of six months to 5 years old. There are 80 of them in… metal cages,” he told NPR. “They had to attend to them every day, all day. These people were literally lying in their own feces for days.”

The hospital closed after a 1979 class-action lawsuit alleging “inhumane and dangerous” conditions at the facility.

Years after the facility closed, stories began spreading among the locals about spooky paranormal activity at the site, including voices, ghostly apparitions, and physical attacks.

Pennhurst is now a haunted attraction

Pennhurst Asylum is currently open to the public throughout the year as a haunted attraction. This fact means anyone can conduct a ghost hunt. The owners organize special haunted attraction events from September to November, and on Halloween.

There are day and overnight tours during which you can explore the asylum and the spooky tunnels that run beneath the facility.

Some in the local community have misgivings about opening up Pennhurst to tourists as a Halloween attraction due to its painful history. But many paranormal fans are excited about the opportunity.

Who is Katie Burr?

Katie Burr is a veteran paranormal investigator from Irvine, California. She is best known for her role on Discovery Channel’s Ghost Lab (2009-2011). She also previously appeared on the TV series Reporter Chicks (2010) and the video documentary Strange Curiosity (2016).

She came from a family of paranormal enthusiasts and started having paranormal experiences at a young age.

Burr has a Twitter account and Facebook page, where she shares her paranormal insights.

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