About

Woodville State Hospital began in the mid-nineteenth century as the Allegheny County Home, an institution that held the county’s poorest residents. By the early twentieth century, it included a department for those deemed insane as well as a sanitarium for people diagnosed with tuberculosis. In 1941, the state took control of the mental healthcare portion of the institution, and the population reached over 3,000. When Woodville was closed in 1992, 460 remaining patients were relocated. The Woodville campus is unique in its drastic, thorough redevelopment. The property now contains the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation headquarters, shopping centers, and residential neighborhoods generally deemed an upscale outgrowth of Pittsburgh.

The cemetery is wooded and overgrown. Graves are marked with small, numbered stones, though they are very difficult to see amid the vegetation. One large stone marks a rededication from 1987. There are conflicting accounts of the number of graves: the township estimates about 700 people, but the former chaplain of Woodville, Reverend George DeVille, asserted that around 1,064 people were buried there. The Collier Historical Society has identified the names and burial numbers of just 200 people, as the additional burial records went missing when the institution closed. The last known community clean-up took place in 2014, after reporting on Woodville and neighboring Dixmont revealed the poor conditions. 

The cemetery is accessible to the public through a short hike on the Hilltop Walking Path Park, or from Marigold Ct.