In 1870 the State of New York purchased land from local area farmers. In 1912, after the construction was completed, the hospital was opened boasting 32 patients. The campus began to grow at a rapid pace and soon had a total of 50 buildings. In 1959 the hospital is reported to have housed 7,000 patients.
During the 1960’s the asylum was described as overcrowded, poorly equipped, and understaffed. During this era the deinstitutionalization of psychiatric patients caused the decline of many asylums and mental hospitals. Without patients to sustain them they slowly fell into disrepair.
Today most of the buildings are empty and remain abandoned. Less than 500 patients were still housed in the facility during our visit in 2007. We managed to pass patients and ambulances on the immense half-abandoned and forgotten campus even though it was mainly deserted. Strange visions in this desolate landscape.
We explored building 25 and it contained cells, solitary seclusion rooms, a refectory and day room with strange paintings on the walls. Two sad dilapidated porches with thick steel bars are the only glimpse of the outside world patients could expect. One can only try to imagine and guess what types of mental illnesses were present in such a large facility with overcrowding.
Some really great photos here. Very nice lighting...I assume it was natural, low light. Time exposures on a tripod? Wide angle lenses ...looks to be 35-20 MM range. Nice stuff!
looks like the old psych hospitals in Orange County NY.
I am very interested in going to this place with my friends, can anyone place tell me the city and state its in. And is the name of the hospital really hospital x?
The pics are amazing! In pic 20 is that someone standing there?....freaky! Good work! X
it looks alot like king park but i closely looked at every building on the map i have of the kpc grounds and this does not fit. could you email m with the location o this hospital?
the child was holding a hotdog
is def not kings park its similar in some ways but iv'e been studying that hostpital for years now. i could be wrong but in my opinion this is not kppc
Why the secrecy? Well to keep it intact, untouched, as it currently is.
Are you sure? The shape of the building and its orientation on the map shown above agrees very well with the satellite photo on Google Maps. If it's not Kings Park, where is it and why the secrecy? BTW: Great web site!
Nope, it's not!
I believe this is in Kings Park, NY on long island near Sunken Meadow State Park.
maps.google.com
this is in new york?? what city/town is it in?
Actually, most of if not all hospitals in America of all types have a safety policy. They're supposed to be safe, sanitary, etc. Mental hospitals (keyword: MENTAL) are meant to house people who are too unstable to live on their own or to go out in public. Most asylums allowed patients to go out and around the area under supervision, and all of these places had therapy/recreational rooms.
My mom knew someone who worked at a huge asylum, and he came home almost everyday with at least one story. Some of these include inmates getting into fights over stupid shit, inmates trying to rape each other and even inmates basically saying "hey whats up? my name is so-and-so" to one another and then just slugging them.
I also knew someone who was in one of these places who tried to cut her wrists with a cd that she broke in half (ironically, she was known as one of the "kool kidz" in elementary school).
So do you still think it was wrong for them to have been kept in a place where they were closely supervised, kept from harming others/themselves (assuming the hospital can catch them before they try to start a brawl), yet still be provided with recreational activities AND therapy?
keep moving on godd picture
Ah ha! Thanks for clearing that one up.
Sorry to disappoint you, but indeed, there was someone exploring with me, and he can be seen on photo #20, he is not a ghost (at least, as far as I know...)
I love websites like this - excellent photos and history. I have to agree with Caroline - it really does look like someone standing by the door in photo 20.
Keep up the good work. If it wasn't for sites like this, so much history would be lost.
When I look at these pictures it makes me think of the patients who were these institutions, often against their will, what kind of things they had to enjure in the name of psychiatric medicine. The pictures appear to be of a locked ward where patients had no access to the outside whatsoever. This is evident by the picture of the chairs in the room with the windows looking out. Also with the pictures in the hall, the doors have tiny windows in them, these are only used in locked wards where patients are committed involuntarily to do either acute psychiatric illness or criminal insanity. In some respects it's a good thing that mass institutionalisation of mental patients has come to an end in most of the western world. The only problem is that really sick patients who do need institutions now tend to have nowhere to turn to and are found in the streets of our cities.
These photos need to be seen by whole lot more people. If more people saw them maybe their attitudes to mental illness might change.
Sorry, I know this isn't that type of website but in Picture 20 you can make out the figure of a man in the middle of the photo. Probably light dispersement, but an amazing effect nonetheless.
Wonderful photos.
Yeah! U smash my mind!
Redgards Syggi
The photos are truly amazing! You have captured the intense, sad, creepy atmosphere very well! A truly piece of art! /Pelle
The images reminded me of the Old Nova Scotia Hospital I once worked at 20 years ago. As mental health moved into the community setting due both to advances in medication and the over all acceptance of the mentally Ill in our communities. Our over sized buildings from the turn of the century or before seemed to fall to disuse. One Particularly large building named the Dewolf building fell to such a fate albeit over a 50 year period. With a kindred sense of history and exploration not to mention a set of keys including a skeleton set provided to me as I took on a summer painting Job, I used as many breaks and lunch hours as possible exploring the enormous building. Five floors above ground, two as it turned out below and two levels of attic space. The building took almost 8 minutes to walk around at a quick pace from the outside. And was modeled on a prison design I was told. The wood Planking used in construction was over 3 inches thick and fully 20" across. No expense was spared in the construction with literally miles of oak trim 6"x 1" lining every 12' room and hall as well as three story spiraling oak staircases. This building was in much better condition then what I have seen in your gallery as it had been HEATED for over 100 years. This left an incredible find possible, A very well appointed resident doctors apartment from the late 1800's complete with uncracked dishes in an oriental pattern and all the furnishings was discovered, left as it was last used, housecleaned no doubt, locked and ready for the next Physician. One who never arrived it appeared. Just one of probably 800 rooms lost to time. The rooms included fully equipped labs, an X-ray machine from early in the century in a walled off basement, time-out rooms, attics well lit with full story windows and even one a story and a half high with a large circular window facing the harbor where a young intern had committed suicide many years before. The danger of exploration alone was real I discovered as I nearly found my self trapped in one attic passage as a self closing door, a fire limiting feature I discovered, shut firmly behind me and left me six floors above ground with only an untried door at the other end ahead. Lesson here my friends ( tell someone where you are exploring or you will eventually die hot, thirsty and alone), O' yeah don't let doors shut behind you either! There was an actual tunnel to the sea where coal was delivered from the harbor far too dangerous to explore I was warned by maintenance workers who checked it out twenty years before. As you worked down in the building from the top floors the decades rolled by as the lower levels were the last occupied. Large reel to reel players with tape still on board were discovered(I can only imagine now the contents of the tapes) as well as copious notes and files from a time when medical records were not such a private affair were left by the arm load scattered in nursing station drawers. EAch level was greatly furnished as only the newest equipment and furniture was moved to the lower floors as the upper ones fell into disuse. On one memorable occasion voices of young women could be heard echoing in the hall ways on one level of the building No not ghosts, it turned out the previously empty wing had been renovated to house prostitutes as a safe house. I kid you not. Though not easily spooked until I learned what was going on I really considered leaving the place once and for all . It was torn to the ground to make way for an eventual community college but not before leaving an indelible memory in a young explorers mind of an era gone by. I wonder if these kids would be curious to know the history lurking beneath their feet. Perhaps a curious soul will read of my adventures in forbidden places.
beautiful. this place just sucked me into its history and its imagery. I feel a road trip coming on...
the pictures give me a weird feeling,i love places like that. you never no what happends in such buildings. greetings from spooky holland.
Just wanted to let you know that this was really amazing to read, and the pictures were especially nice also. Thanks!
not a knife or a pet......nothing.
Hi! im talking to everyone out there who love insane places as much as i do! keep following your dreams and dont give up!!! All though i am quite young, i know what im talking about!!!!! you inpiered me! I thinks its nothing.
I wish i could go to places like that. It looks so cool and soothing there! thats my dream. You have inspired me!
its eather pilgirm state or edgewood state hospital but they were in the same complex to a point
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