3,698 Comments Posted by Motts

It was actually a niche in a hallway outside of the x-ray room, if I remember correctly.

Well, it didn't look so creepy back when it was operational...

Also, I'm sure most, if not all of the families who put their children here did not know what it was like back in the wards... perhaps all they saw was the wonderfully decorated administration building.

I try not to publish where these places are.

Ah, damnit!

There are a lot more psychiatric institutions out here in the Northeast, well, because there were a lot more people, especially in the late 1800's when these asylums were first being built. The west and midwestern states were just beginning to become populated in this pre-automobile age.

Thriving cities such as New York, Boston, and Philadelphia had constructed many large state hospitals around them in their heyday, and many have been demolished shortly after abandonment in the 1970's & 1980's - the overall number of state hospitals out here is really quite astounding!

Yeah, pretty much... I think they botched the demolition of the other buildings on the property, the rubble has been sitting there for quite some time. This place must be a nightmare for the EPA.

Ed, I think they yanked the speakers out.

I hope to expand this site to include some more historical information of that sort, but the book "The Farm Colonies", by Leo Polaski is all about how the LI asylums began, operated, and closed, and has a very nice aerial shot of KPPC.

Yes, this wasn't a room for patients who would be physically aggressive, it was probably most likely used as a "time-out" room. It looks like the window had a cover so the person couldn't look out of it.

The tunnels were used to transport people across the firing range without getting struck by falling projectiles. These windows provided light and ventilation with the least chance of shrapnel entering the tunnels.

The Kirkbride is still standing, as well as the large complex across the road, but they have started construction on the buildings surrounding the Kirk.

Cheap AA batteries.

Could be a cartoon character or a sports mascot, there were similar stickers on the others too. There could've been a younger person in one of these for a long time.

The machines don't tilt, and the patient must be on their backs at all times for the pressure to push the air in and out of their chests properly.

Nope... it has actually been a major point of my friend to find one at some point, a holy grail if you will... it took a few years of searching before seeing these!

There is one more older iron lung in worse shape than these that he is still looking for. I hope to find an authentic electro-shock therapy device in somewhere other than a museum, myself.