J. P. Webster Libri

The ruins of Philadelphia's grandest structures show the city's dramatic evolution. Smoke no longer spews from the Philadelphia Electric Company's hulking riverside power plants. Nature long ago reclaimed the rusted steel bones of the Frankford Arsenal. Graffiti artists tag the Beury Building, while Philadelphia's Gilded Age elite rest beneath the weeds of the forgotten Mount Moriah Cemetery. Such sites mark three centuries of progress and destruction in William Penn's Holy Experiment." Through deep research and his stunning photography, J.P. Webster documents the slow decay caused by neglect and the passage of time in Philadelphia's factories, military sites, schools, cemeteries and more. Discover a bygone American era through Philadelphia's vanishing cityscape."

Join author J.P. Webster as he explores the fascinating and complex history of the Philadelphia State Hospital at Byberry. The Quaker City and its hospitals were pioneers in the field of mental health. Yet by the end of the nineteenth century, its institutions were crowded and patients lived in shocking conditions. The mentally ill were quartered with the dangerously criminal. By 1906, the city had purchased a vast acreage of farmland incorporated into the city, and the Philadelphia Hospital dubbed its new venture Byberry City Farms. From the start, its history was riddled with corruption and committees, investigations and inquests, appropriations and abuse. Yet it is also a story of reform and redemption, of heroes and human dignity--many dedicated staff members did their best to help patients whose mental illnesses were little understood and were stigmatized by society.