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.
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
August 27, 2021
Since I had a car, I thought I’d check in on Letchworth Village‘s grounds. Because when the sun blazes the temperature into the 90’s, nothing is more satisfying then slinking around putrid abandoned decay. To follow, the current state of things–in four parts. This is part 1: Congregation B’nai Israel.
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…
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…