About

Originally established in the early 1860s as a department affiliated with the Western Pennsylvania Hospital of Pittsburgh, Dixmont State Hospital followed the Kirkbride system of architecture and treatment. Whereas many state hospitals are named after the town in which they are located, Dixmont was named for the reformer Dorothea Dix, who led the charge in convincing the Pennsylvania state legislature to fund hospitals for those deemed insane. Dixmont was smaller than many state hospitals. At its mid-twentieth century peak, it held about 1,000 people. The main building of Dixmont, named Reed Hall, was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1980. The Hospital closed in 1984. 

Much of the campus was sold to a private developer who demolished the buildings, including Reed Hall, to make way for a planned Wal-Mart, which was never built. The cemetery, however, remains owned by the state and has experienced multiple cycles of neglect and clean-ups. For example, a plaque at the cemetery celebrates a 2007 volunteer project that cleared fallen trees and overgrown bushes. Local reporting documented debates over responsibility for the cemetery and its maintenance in 2014, and in 2024 another volunteer effort once again cleared accumulated debris and vegetation.

The cemetery is accessible to the public through an unnamed gravel road off Roosevelt Rd. Visitors will need to walk a short dirt path past the memorial to reach the gravestones.