History is inescapable; all people and peoples are living histories. I am by no means a history buff but for my narrative I wanted to share a history of Long Island that not many people know about. I  have found that my generation has a diminishing knowledge of my topic: the state mental institutions of Long Island. Back in the 1900’s, Long Island at it’s hight had three mental health institutions: Kings Park Psychiatric Center, Pilgrim State Hospital, Central Islip Psychiatric Center. The hospitals operated as “farm colonies,” each with their own power plants and railroad stations. Here is my walkthrough of each location and some of the history that goes with these building relics.

-J

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Kings Park, New York

Kings Park Lunatic Asylum opened in 1885 “as an extension of the Brooklyn County Hospital” when Kings County decided they needed a facility “far away from the hectic city life” to treat patients. In 1895 though New York State needed a place to house the mentally ill, so they bought the hospital and renamed it Long Island State Hospital, which was renamed again in 1916 to Kings Park State Hospital so it could be traced back to its roots in King County. At this hospital the patients worked on the farm that was on the property, cooked, made clothes, and worked in the power plant specifically for the hospital. This hospital reached its maximum number of patients in 1954 with 9,303 and started closing down buildings in 1970 due to the cost of housing the enormous population of individuals. By 1975 many patients were transferred to Pilgrim State Hospital, nursing homes, private group homes, or released into the streets. It was at this time Kings Park Hospital was renamed to Kings Park Psychiatric Center. In 1996 the entire psychiatric center was shut down.

 

Brentwood, New York

Pilgrim State Hospital was the largest hospital built in the world and was built to relieve New York City of the overcrowded hospital population. This facility was built in 1941 and was “designed to house 12,500 patients,” but at one time housed as many as 16,000. This hospital included a theater, bakery, firehouse, farm, housing for employees, and even a small neighborhood for the doctors and their families to live. Some therapy treatments used in this facility were insulin shock therapy, electroshock therapy, and prefrontal lobotomies. This hospital closed down in 2003 when it was too large to run for the decreasing need of inpatient psychiatric care. Today this area is still used for programs that individuals with mental illness attend, but many of the buildings are either abandoned or demolished. Part of the it went on to became the Western Campus of the Suffolk County Community College in 1974.

 

Central Islip, New York

Central Islip State Hospital opened in 1889 to lessen the overcrowding in the hospitals in Manhattan. When this hospital was bought by New York State it was renamed Manhattan State Hospital. Lobotomies, electroshock therapy, and drug therapies were used in this hospital, as well as occupational therapy because the patients worked in the facilities on the property. Central Islip Psychiatric Center, as it was renamed in 1955, became overcrowded reaching 10,000 patients in 1955, which lead to its closing in 1996.