April 19, 2020
Though it has become a source of disturbance and confusion, my want to uncover the abandoned lands that hold lost asylum patients has compelled me to trudge into thorny thickets now thrice. (Sorry, watching a Jane Austen movie). I was a bit uneasy this visit, having caught sight of several Read more…
April 13, 2020
While in town to explore the cemeteries, I attempted to get back into the hospital grounds, now Olivet University. After finding maps of the property, I saw there was so much I had yet to explore. But there was an SUV at the gate that asked me to stop. The Read more…
The Eastern Gate of Heaven When I, upon returning home, realized I had missed seeing the Harlem Valley State Hospital’s cemetery, I knew I’d be back soon. The grounds of its Potters Field, called The Gate of Heaven, are very isolated… in the middle of the woods as you can Read more…
April 6, 2020
Gosh, if only I could spend my days driving and stopping at every place that tickles my fancy… Like this old farm. I just loved the contrast the open door created. Farming stuff Creeping closer… Time’s styling: shabby chic It felt nice to runaway… I’ll have to do it again. Read more…
April 5, 2020
This week’s photo excursion: the abandoned Harlem Valley State Hospital in Wingdale in New York’s Dutchess County. The hospital’s history, dating back to 1924, is much like the history of the State’s other rural farm colonies. Sprawling self-sufficient campus, catch-all for the “insane,” insulin shock therapy, eletro-shock therapy, ice-pick lobotomies Read more…
March 29, 2020
Every time I return to Staten Island Farm Colony’s remains it’s more brightly colored than the last. Because everyone is quarantining and it’s raining, I hoped I could have it all to myself–and I did. Though there was a shiny new fence securing my usual entrance off the Greenbelt Recreation Read more…
February 29, 2020
The entirety of the Pilgrim State Farm Colony was powered by its own power plant, generating electricity through the burning of coal in a transfer of energy: from chemical to thermal to mechanical to, finally, electrical energy. Massive carbon emitters, the use of this kind of electricity has been phased Read more…
I said I’d be back. But this time, I brought reinforcement. Today’s photographic missions were all about entrance, chasing the light as it streamed within the decaying structures of both Kings Park State Hospital and Pilgrim State. First, Kings Park State Hospital. We explored the doctors’ cottages because of the Read more…
February 3, 2020
Letchworth Village‘s cemetery, like that of many state-run institutions, marks its graves with nothing but a number. No dates, no names. The state policy adopted by the Office of Mental Health is to keep burial records for state mental hospitals confidential. But this practice is dated and marked with indignity, Read more…
Letchworth Village, established 1911 in Rockland County, New York, is a decaying farm colony that was once a progressive solution to caring for the physically and mentally disabled. And like Staten Island’s Willowbrook State School, the hospital’s treatment of its most vulnerable patients –children– prompted major legislative reforms in the Read more…
February 2, 2020
I hatched a scheme to take myself on another abandoned photography mission in light of a Sunday that would surely have lighter traffic. And it turned out to be perfect timing, with sunshine for my early start and heavy foreboding clouds behind the many decaying structures I’d meet with enthusiasm. Read more…
January 31, 2020
When I was scanning satellite maps around the former grounds of The Central Islip State Hospital, I couldn’t happen but notice this: And I knew exactly what it was. The old patient cemetery or the Potter’s Field as almost all of the buried remains are marked only with a small Read more…
My report on Long Island’s Farm Colonies continues with an introductory visit to the former grounds of The Central Islip State Hospital. Like Kings Park State Hospital, Pilgrim State Hospital, and Edgewater State Hospital (not yet explored though mostly demolished and captured on video), the sprawling colony was intended to Read more…
January 7, 2020
First, embrace that you need to have some level of idiocy and foolishness to embark upon many a fruitful and rewarding venture. And understand just how unbecoming trying to appear unfoolish is, you–but a peon in this massive Universe. I mean really now. We’re all fools fiddling about– isn’t that Read more…
January 5, 2020
There were only a couple of things on my list I didn’t accomplish during the holiday break from school. Visiting Fairfield State Hospital in Newtown, Connecticut, a lead from a nice person I met while exploring the Seaside Sanatorium, was one of those “to-do”s. I was told the grounds were Read more…
December 15, 2019
In my series of exploring the abandoned Farm Colonies of Long Island, a trip to Staten Island’s New York City Farm Colony. Abandoned since 1975, the scattered buildings have decayed gloriously as developers decide the future use of the land. Easily accessible and with parking at the active Greenbelt Recreation Read more…
November 24, 2019
Established in 1885, the Kings Park Asylum–like all of the Long Island Farm Colonies–helped alleviate the overcrowding in The City’s asylums. I found myself on its grounds with only a couple of hours to spare and was overwhelmed with how many structures there were, easily accessible as they sat decaying Read more…
November 14, 2019
Years ago I started compiling pictures from my very first and all-time favorite abandoned place to photograph, Pilgrim State Hospital–now the Pilgrim Psychiatric Center. Growing up on Long Island, the sprawling decay of the state-owned farm colony was always a fascinating place. With a dark and sorted past, the local Read more…
August 11, 2019
Warning: I’m on a mission to post all of my blog drafts in a very short period of time. If ever there was a time to “unsubscribe” or set boundaries on your V.V. screen time, it would be now. But I am quite excited for the ‘draft purge’ as it Read more…
September 26, 2015
**Updated for 2020** This post has received a lot of traffic since I first posted it in 2015, but more so recently. I have since discovered that it is now a retail “community center.” Considering the continued interest, I unearthed more shots from my visit in honor of the now Read more…
