August 18, 2024
When the GPS put me through Staten Island, I knew I had to stop at the Farm Colony. Last time I visited there was some indicators of activity. But this time, stumbling upon a man named Joe walking his dog in the grounds, I learned that that activity had something Read more…
May 14, 2024
The first federally owned psychiatric hospital in the U.S., The Government Hospital for the Insane opened in 1855 in Washington DC. Though the expansive campus is undergoing redevelopment, many buildings remain in a state of decay–awaiting their turn for repurposing. And like the many historic large and overcrowded psychiatric complexes Read more…
March 5, 2024
October 16, 2023
On the way home, I had to hit another sprawling abandoned campus, missing their proximity dearly. I stopped at Letchworth Village in Rockland County. The foliage was gorgeous.
February 4, 2023
December 4, 2022
Long overdue, another visit to Kings Park Psychiatric Center! I’m happy to report on some new interiors as access points continue to change. Building 90: Business Office & Personnel Office Though I have been inside these connected structures, this was a first venture to the upper floor. The hallways were Read more…
March 19, 2022
When Building 93 was completely vacated in 1996, only 1/3 of the massive 13 floor structure was in use. Like many large psychiatric hospitals, the advent of psychotropic drugs returned many patients back to their homes. It was Chlorpromazine, or Thorazine, that was the first to offer mentally ill patients Read more…
The quest to get in all the remaining structures at The Kings Park State Hospital, aka KPPC, continues! Building 7: Medical-Surgical-X-ray Labs & Clinic It was first back to the morgue–on the ground floor of Building 7. From there we spread out into portions of Building 21, the Brooklyn units. Read more…
January 1, 2022
Mount St. Mary’s Hospital in Niagara Falls, New York has had a fascinating history that, for all intents and purposes, ended in 2003. The site was once Electro Magnetic Sanitarium, in operation from 1901-1906. This unique sanitarium provided treatment for those afflicted with chronic nervous and mental disorders. At the Read more…
October 17, 2021
All I wanted for my birthday during my Long Island Celebration was a trip to the morgue at Kings Park. Am I nuts? Kind of I suppose. But first a waiting in the car selfie on a glorious autumn day… Ok, so the goal was to enter Building 7 again Read more…
October 2, 2021
Last time I checked in on Letchworth Village a few weeks ago, I meant to hit the interior of the buildings on Ridge Road, adjacent to the golf course. Wanting to make my quick trip slightly north even more worthwhile, I added more to my Letchworth count… though so much Read more…
August 28, 2021
July 11, 2021
Based on my experience, sanatoriums–hospitals that treat patients with Tuberculosis which was once thought to be cured with fresh air and sunlight–carry a lighter psychic energy than the ruins of sanitariums, typically to care for the mentally ill. I’m not challenging google search results that ultimately claim both to be Read more…
May 31, 2021
On the way back south from my Memorial Day road trip I stopped in on Middletown State Homeopathic Hospital‘s ruins. On my last visit, I was taken back by the ease of exploration and the dynamic decay. This time, after heavy rain, the prospect of climbing into a building that Read more…
December 24, 2020
I’ve spent a good amount of this holiday season creating my own set of holiday greeting cards. This was the final addition. A quick trip to Staten Island’s Bayley Seton Hospital with a little bit of festive trim. The hospital was bustling, as most are right now. And the decaying Read more…
November 14, 2020
It was a gorgeous day to spend island hopping in New York City! First, Ellis Island… My trip to the island would allow me to cross something off my NYC Bucket List–a trip to the old Ellis Island Immigrant Hospital. In operation between 1902 and 1951 when it treated 1.2 million 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 18, 2020
Like a lot of New Yorkers, I picked up a rental car today. My secret for an affordable price is to rent on my neighbor, Staten Island. While I was there, multitasking as usual, I planned to hit up a Caribbean eatery that offers a vegan dish. So I had Read more…
May 28, 2020
And with this visit to the remains of Norwich State Hospital, I’ve visited all of Connecticut’s state psychiatric facilities, the other two being Fairfield State Hospital and Connecticut Valley State Hospital. Norwich’s story is much like other state-run psychiatric hospitals… bucolic location, sprawling rural campus, self sufficiency, eventual overcrowding, expansion Read more…
May 27, 2020
A small psychiatric hospital in Portland, Connecticut lay in ruins awaiting its new life, a mixed use retail and residential space called Brainerd Place (Ooh! Another Starbucks!) But before you can order your complicated coffee beverage using some multisyllabic nonsense words–a walk through the Elmcrest Hospital campus, which, like many Read more…
May 3, 2020
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…
March 29, 2020
It’s always the staff quarters that are so much more accessible than other abandoned hospital parts. Sure they don’t promise the kind of eerie details so attractive to an urban explorer, but I enjoy the homeyness, the underpainting of comfort and safety as time and neglect peel the paint from Read more…
March 23, 2020
Sitting on the shoreline of Jacob Riis Park in the Rockaways is a decaying old hospital, the Neponsit Health Center… previously known as the The Nesponsit Beach Hospital for Children. It was a project of muckraker Jacob Riis who had exposed squalid living conditions in the tenements of New York Read more…
January 20, 2020
Back in Staten Island? Well, my list of places to see and things to eat grew quickly. Very, very quickly. With a full day of exploration, it’d take three different posts to house the highlights. Starting with the abandoned parts of the active Bayley Seton Hospital in Stapleton. The campus Read more…