In Philadelphia, parts of a female asylum collapse, killing fifteen patients and injuring twenty more

A structural defect, said to be caused years before in faulty installation of new boilers, caused several of the walls of the Female Insane Department of the Blockley Almshouse in Philadelphia suddenly to collapse. Dozens of inmates were buried in the rubble. Fifteen died and more than twenty more were seriously injured.  (By John Osborne)   
Source Citation
Thomas Scharf and Thompson Wescott, History of Philadelphia 1609-1884, in three volumes (Philadelphia, PA: L.H. Everts & Co., 1884), I: 817.
    Date Certainty
    Exact
    Type
    Crime/Disasters
    How to Cite This Page: "In Philadelphia, parts of a female asylum collapse, killing fifteen patients and injuring twenty more," House Divided: The Civil War Research Engine at Dickinson College, https://hd.housedivided.dickinson.edu/node/41808.