deuxième partie de ma visite, pilgrim state hospital. Chambres, salle de rayons x, entrée principale, cafétéria.
By 1900 overcrowding in New York City's psychiatric asylums was becoming a serious problem. There were several strategies implemented to deal with the escalating patient overload. One was to put the patients to work, farming in a relaxing setting on what was then rural Long Island. The new state hospitals were dubbed "farm colonies" because of their live-and-work treatment programs and emphasis on agriculture. However, these farm colonies, as well as other psychiatric institutions, such as Kings Park State Hospital, which was subsequently named Kings Park Psychiatric Center) and Central Islip State Hospital (later named Central Islip Psychiatric Center), became overcrowded, like the institutions they were meant to replace.
NY state began making plans for a third farm colony, which was to become Pilgrim State Hospital, named in honor of the former New York State Commissioner of Mental Health, Dr. Charles W. Pilgrim. The state bought approximately 1,000 acres (4.0 km2) of land in Brentwood and began construction on the hospital in 1930. Pilgrim State Hospital opened on October 1, 1931 as a close-knit community with its own police and fire department, courts, post office, a LIRR station, power plant, potter's field, swine farm, church, cemetery and water tower, as well as houses for staff and asylum administrators. A series of underground tunnels were used for transporting food from the kitchens to the buildings, as well as carrying steam pipes. Each set of buildings were known as quads, a pattern of four buildings situated around a center building, where the kitchen was located.
The hospital continued to grow as the patient population increased. Eventually, the state of New York bought up more land to the southwest of the facility to construct Edgewood State Hospital, a short-lived facility that was a subsidiary of Pilgrim State Hospital. In fact, Pilgrim State Hospital was so large that it reached into four Suffolk towns: Huntington, Babylon, Smithtown and Islip, and had two state roads passing through its bounds.
During World War II, the War Department took over control Edgewood State Hospital, along with three new buildings at Pilgrim State Hospital, buildings 81, 82, and 83. The War Department constructed numerous temporary structures and renamed Edgewood State Hospital and buildings 81-83 "Mason General Hospital," a psychiatric hospital devoted to treating battle-traumatized soldiers.
After World War II, Pilgrim State Hospital experienced an increase in patient population that made it the world's largest hospital, with 13,875 patients and over 4,000 employees in 1954. In fact, at one time it was listed in the Guinness Book of World Records as the largest mental hospital in the world. In the 1950's more aggressive treatments, such as lobotomy and electro-convulsive therapy (ECT) were implemented. The best known controversy about this surrounded the case of Beulah Jones, a patient there between 1952-1972 who received both such treatments and was left in a childlike condition. However, Pilgrim State Hospital and the other state hospitals began to decline shortly afterwards with the advent of pharmaceutical alternatives to institutionalization.
Death of the "Farm Colonies"As psychiatric medication and community care became an increasingly viable alternative to institutionalization, large mental institutions began to decline. Edgewood, the last psychiatric hospital to be built on Long Island, closed its doors in December, 1971, following decentralization. Kings Park and Central Islip State Hospital remained open, while slowly downsizing. During this time Pilgrim State Hospital and parts of the campus began to close, continuing to downsize into the 1970s and 1980s. Buildings 81-83 were briefly used as a correctional facility in the 1980s, but after community protest they reverted back to psychiatric use. In the early 1990s, with declining patient populations in the three remaining hospitals, the New York State Office of Mental Health (formerly the Department of Mental Hygiene) began making plans to re-organize the Long Island hospitals, which were implemented in the fall of 1996, when Kings Park and Central Islip State Hospital were closed, and the remaining patients from those facilities were transferred to Pilgrim State Hospital. Parts of Central Islip Psychiatric Center became a campus for the New York Institute of Technology, as well as a residential and commercial development. At Kings Park, three buildings housing community residences administered by Pilgrim remain open. Much of the former campus has become a state park, while the rest sits unused.
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Boiler room, Kings Park psychiatric centerby insulationking1,328 views
You made a great video.....These building are finally coming down in May 2012..They have alredy started gutting them and taking the windows out.
wmtibius 5 days ago
@wmtibius Thanks for the comment. Sad, its a great part of history that is disappearing. I really enjoyed this visit.
insulationking 5 days ago
damn this is a 20 min walk from my house,haha
d1an45 4 months ago
@d1an45 its 6-7 hours driving from mine =(
insulationking 4 months ago
I really enjoyed the video! Whoever shot this video has a frighteningly similar "video shooting personality" that I have! If I was the one shooting the video, things would have been strikingly similar! However, I would have liked to have worn protective gloves before touching anything in this place, especially when picking up the X-rays from this filthy table. Thanks be to Jesus that I'm not in a place like this--as a patient!!!
From John Nozum
JNozum 9 months ago
@JNozum Thanks for the good comment! Yeah for the gloves i had some, but i dunno i dont like to wear gloves lol. I'm more concerned about asbestos so i had my respirator at least. We went to the restaurant after, you can be sure i washed my hands thoroughly before eating!
insulationking 9 months ago