Friends History Timeline
1813 - Friends Hospital founded by the Quakers. Originally called “The Asylum for Persons Deprived of the Use of Their Reason.”
1817 - Additional buildings allow for up to 50 patients.
1827 - Two additional patient wings are added.
1879 - Friends Hospital builds its first greenhouse to enhance a long tradition of horticultural therapy.
1880 - Additions are made to accommodate 90 additional patients.
1911 - “The Asylum,” as it was known, expanded its property holdings to roughly 100 contiguous acres.
1916 - Friends Hospital acquired a 326-acre farm in Trevose.
1920 - The Trevose farm’s Bensalem Mansion is opened to patients as a convalescent home.
1970s-1980s - Bonsall and Tuke Buldings are completed, pushing capacity to 192, where it remains today.
1980 - The Greystone Program opens on hospital grounds.
1989 - Hillside House is built as a companion home to the Greystone Program.
1996 - The Eating Disorders Program opened, treating adolescents and adults and is one of the only programs in the area to serve children and males with eating disorders.
1998 - Larkspur Crisis Response Center opened, providing treatment for more than six thousand inpatients each year and an additional 6,000 evaluations and referrals.
1999 - Friends Hospital was designated a National Historic Landmark by the U.S. Department of the Interior.
2000 - U.S. News and World Report ranked Friends Hospital as one of the nation’s top psychiatric hospitals.
2002 - Six Friends Hospital psychiatrists were ranked among the region’s “Top Docs” by Philadelphia Magazine.
2010 - Friends Hospital designed and opened Philadelphia’s first inpatient Recovery Oriented Unit.
Additional Historical Information on Friends Hospital
An Account of the Events Surrounding the Origin of Friends Hospital & A Brief Description of The Early Years of Friends Asylum 1817-1820
By Kim Van Atta in collaboration with David S. Roby, M.D. and R. Ross Roby, M.DPioneer of Moral Treatment: Isaac Bonsall & the Early Years of Friends Asylum as Recorded in Bonsall’s Diaries 1817-1823
By David S. Roby, M.D.
