Thomas Story Kirkbride, the hospital's first superintendent and physician-in-chief, developed a more humane method of treatment for the mentally ill there, that became widely influential.

Out of his philosophy emerged the Kirkbride Plan, which created a model design for psychiatric hospital buildings that was used across the United States throughout the 19th century.

The situation offered him a unique opportunity to place his standardized concepts for mental hospital design and construction into effect at a facility under his control.

The Pennsylvania Hospital's Department for Males building was soon constructed along 49th Street, a short distance west from the original asylum.

Young architect Samuel Sloan, Kirkbride's friend and collaborator, designed the Neoclassical style building.

The remaining Department for Males building is now the Kirkbride Center, a part of the Blackwell Human Services Campus.