May 30, 2021
The accessibility of large scale abandoned ruins fluctuates. Though there are plenty of photographs of The Willard Asylum for the Chronic Insane on the world wide web, the property is currently owned by the New York State Corrections Office. It’s secured. And even photographing the exterior is a concern. But Read more…
March 21, 2021
Reading my map wrong, I made everyone hunt down a hallway that didn’t exist in this conglomerate structure. I am terrible at reading maps… but it allowed us to see the entirety of buildings 136 and 137, which was dynamic and colorful! And I don’t think I need to return Read more…
Getting into the tunnels was on my list of KPPC to-dos. And I brought my tripod and flashlights for the occasion. Though they were sealed, I was happy to experience them even briefly as they are less obvious way to enter some of the more protected buildings. While we were Read more…
Back at Kings Park with some loose goals. The site still has not fully revealed itself to me–a fact that keeps drawing me in. You may have noticed… Today, finally, inside the towering structure that welcomes you upon arrival to Nissequogue River State Park, Building 93–the 13 floor infirmary. Throughout all Read more…
January 24, 2021
According to the sources below, this structure at The Kings Park State Hospital is Building 3, the National Network of Public Health (NNPH) Administrative Office. According to me, this structure is one of the most decrepit of the entire campus. With its door’s board ripped off and now reclining on Read more…
More exploring at The Kings Park State Hospital, one of the most dynamic abandoned sites that merits repeated returns. This post is mostly the kitchen and communal dining areas of Building 136 and a quick walk into the wards of Building 137. With construction and a repurposed building nearby, I Read more…
I was back at the The Kings Park State Hospital on a very cold winter’s day, knowing full well that the piercing wind would surely push us inside for shelter. After finally exploring the exteriors of the structures across Old Dock Road., the plan was to get inside the Quad. Read more…
December 16, 2020
Despite Edgewood State Hospital, the least known of Long Island’s Farm Colonies, being constructed last, it is the only one that is completely demolished. Or is it? Though this report on the remains of Deer Park’s Edgewood State Hospital rounds out my goal to explore all of the ruins of Read more…
December 14, 2020
With time to kill on Long Island’s North Shore, a quick stop at The Kings Park State Hospital. In writing up my last visit, I was floored by how much of the campus I had yet to discover. The mission of this visit, squeezed in before the early winter sunset, Read more…
December 1, 2020
The future of Middletown State Homeopathic Hospital, a groundbreaking care center that employed homeopathic techniques in treating mental illness that opened in 1874 as the State Homeopathic Asylum for the Insane at Middletown, is still in limbo. Its history remains in a sprawl of buildings off State Route 211 in Read more…
August 12, 2020
Back at The Kings Park State Hospital… with reinforcements! Though this post summarizes two visit to this rapidly changing site of ruins, I have still yet to explore the tremendous campus in its entirety… Which is fine as everyone that accompanies me to the site wants to return. Below is Read more…
August 9, 2020
Roosevelt Island (Manhattan) Formally Blackwell’s Island, nicknamed Welfare Island, was the historic home for New York City Lunatic Asylum–whose deplorable conditions would prompt the construction of massive asylums in the farm lands of Long Island, one of which I am visiting today! But from afar on a boat you can Read more…
July 23, 2020
Though most of the old Western State Hospital, whose history I summarized here in my DeJarnette post, has been repurposed or is in some phase of construction to be repurposed, there are still some parts to explore. Like the old steam plant–available for sale! And it looks very much like Read more…
Of course I had a couple of abandoned spots on my recent itinerary, starting on day one as I drove through Baltimore. Though I devoted a good amount of my morning trying to access Forest Haven Asylum, all my efforts were in vain. It was actually quite humorous as I Read more…
July 13, 2020
Last time I was on the Creedmoor State Hospital grounds, State Troopers had me delete all my photos. So this time I was ready to read all the signs carefully, use multiple memory cards and hopefully capture some of what I had to delete back in January. I arrived by Read more…
June 30, 2020
The tale of the Indiana Hospital for the Insane, later the Central State Hospital, is much like Farm Colony hospitals all across the country. Opening in the mid-1800’s, the sprawling and self sufficient colony covered 160 acres outside of downtown Indianapolis and included male and female wards, a farm worked Read more…
May 30, 2020
With some errands on Long Island, I would of course make the most of my trip. A quick return to the grounds of the Nassau County Sanitorium in Plainview first. I explored the grounds 5 years ago and had many folks comment on the post–family of staff, family of patients. Read more…
May 28, 2020
This second haul of pictures wraps up a jam-packed day of exploring Connecticut’s abandoned places–a trip that took me four days to sort through the pictures. Since I wrote all about Norwich State Hospital’s history in my previous post, please enjoy these images without my chatter. Soon these structures will Read more…
May 25, 2020
With a packed Connecticut itinerary, a stop at Middletown’s Connecticut Valley State Hospital, formerly the Connecticut Hospital for the Insane. Though the campus contains a still-functioning psychiatric hospital, many of the old buildings sit unused on the well-manicured property. But these derelict parts are sufficiently boarded up with no easy Read more…
May 16, 2020
Though I found myself again at Staten Island’s most dynamic photo stop, The New York Farm Colony, first a visit to the barely accessible remains of the infamous Willowbrook State School. Since 1993, many of the former buildings of this disgraced state school for the physically and mentally disabled are Read more…
May 3, 2020
Facing the active parking lot for the walking paths the runs through Letchworth Village is an administrative building with no roof. A victim of arson years ago, the building is barely fenced and, upon our arrival, explorers walk freely within the crumbled walls that remain. In fact, people wandered through the Read more…
I had to consult this map of Letchworth Village to figure out what this building was, a wide open space that my wide angle lens just loved to shoot. It is named Attendants Building, but appeared to be a kind of communal gathering space. There was the usual raunchy graffiti, Read more…
The Hospital of a Farm Colony is always the saddest structure. Particularly at Letchworth Village‘s grounds, the birthplace of the human trial. Except the human trials performed at Letchworth were without consent. Inhumane a tremendous understatement, doctors–who classified patients as either “idiot,” “imbecile,” or “moron”–were reported to collect brains from Read more…
Jewish patients were able to worship on the premises of Letchworth Village after 1977, when Congregation B’nai Israel was built. The temple has been abandoned since the hospital closed in 1996. This was a favorite location to photograph for many reasons although it is just a single room. For one, Read more…
After my first visit to Letchworth Village in February, I knew that I would soon return. The expansive cluster of accessible remnants to the asylum for the physically and mentally disabled that was established over 100 years ago seems destined for eventual demolition… like in your next step through its Read more…
May 2, 2020
Creepy places on a beautiful day? Yes please. Emboldened by company and the bright blue sky, I watched the peeling paint in Rockland State Hospital‘s staff quarters. Following the sun’s rays out and about, there was just so much to explore. I wanted to take that hutch. We found it Read more…