Chester County Poor House

The adjacent land was originally part of the Chester County Poor Farm which was established in 1798. The Chester County Poor Farm provided food and services supporting the Chester County Poor House and adjacent mental hospital just up the hill to the north in West Bradford Township. In 1939 the state of Pennsylvania took over the hospital and home for the poor. In the decades between 1940 and 1980 the Embreeville State Hospital served as the regional mental hospital for Chester and Lancaster Counties. Embreeville was cited by the American Psychiatric Association as one of three "model hospitals" in the country in 1939. In 1962 the care for the aged poor of Cheter County was relocated to the newly costructed Pocopson Home in Pocopson township. In 1971, a juvenile detention center was placed within a few buildings at the hospital site, before finally moving on to better physical accommodations in Danville in 1992. By 1979, the total statewide state hospital census was reduced to 10,573 patients, and resulted in the closure of several smaller state hospitals. Embreeville was the second state facility in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania to close its doors, in 1980.