Comments

Come on in, the waters fine.

I'd drag a bed in the basement over that, so other explorers wouldn't have to worry about nearly stepping in that.

I worked there
What ward did u work on? Do I remember me Dennis Bunting from ward A and 3-east? Please get whole of me and let Mr know who you are. I've only talked to one other staff from Gaebler. Atleast send me a E-mail and let me know. I will keep it to myself if you like, but I would love to hear from you and who you are.
dennisremoval@aol.com

I have the disorder cataplexy, a symptom of the more familiar sleep disorder Narcoplepsy. Cataplexy is very similiar to being in a straght jacket- in a padded room left with nothing, other than your thoughts. Any strong emotion (laughing, anger, sadness) results in a complete loss of muscle control. Physically I am paralyzed, mentally I am wide awake. So basically it's like being trapped in a room with your thoughts. This is not as horrible as one may think. In the episodes in which I could not move, lasting minutes at times, once I dismissed movement as an option I could move again. One difference is that I was still aware of my surroundings- which in a padded room you are not- but like this method of punishment, as much as I'd like to tell people I'm fine, I cannot deliver the message. I regain control the instant I stop reacting emotionally. Placing someone in a straight jacket in certain situations may serve the same purpose.Depriving someone of all physical control might possibly be the only way tor them to prevent emotion from controlling them.

I always think the building itself looks like it has smallpox - beautiful shot though

a light in the branches - nah its a soap dispenser

I was thinking this is the response of staff and patients to the Geraldo expose

I live here!
its Avalon now

I used to volunteer to visit in the early 80's thru Ryan H.S . It was a scary place , some of the inmates were just wild. One really scary guy grabbed my best friend Mia and tried to kiss her . We stopped going. That place was very sad . Just horribly sad.

You hit the nail on the head Flora, the land Halcyon sits on is what has been Coveted, since BEFORE Bennett College even CLOSED!

It converges Rt's 44, 343, and 82, at a point that is scenically
beautiful, relatively undeveloped, and the kind of location, that if you are headed somewhere, you want to get through quickly, no matter
WHERE you are headed. It is a mile and a half from the geographical center of the county [for that, see Copperfields]


For all intents and purposes, it is surrounded by it's same neighbors
from the late 1890's onward: thoroughbred country estates, Millbrook's
country club, it's longstanding Caddyshack-vibe notwithstanding, lol,
and the 4-way marker Monument which people seem compelled to smash their cars into all of the time for no holy reason at all.

Other than the smashing sounds generated by those continuous wrecks [why, people?] that area of South Millbrook is still almost
idyllic. Quiet. Very nice. It was that way when I was a small child.
And I was assured it was that way long before.

There are a ton of other reasons the Halcyon /Bennet parcel is
multiply attractive to any number of potential purchaser/ developers.
It is zoned for almost any-a-thing you might want to do here. I have
routinely propose all manner of preposterous scenarios. As nuts
as they all are, ZONING would be the LEAST obstacle to Any of them.
Look what WAS ready to rip on through, ya know?

It also has fairly stable neighbours. The condo dev already there has
proven fairly civic-minded IMO. The golf course to the east is one of the oldest in America [that may NOT be the best way for me to put that stat,
lol...] South Millbrook below is still the country hamlet i remember,
mostly formed by the expansion of the college, but overlapping
the earlier historical era from the County House.

East of Bennet is The Dutchess Land Conservancy, which has
put so much of central Dutchess, right here, on the forever wild,
forever undeveloped rolls. And forget propaganda you hear, these
are not land grabs. It is mostly convincing landowners, large and
small, to do what is indisputably in their interest, AND YOURS, MINE
and ANYONE else who can appreciate why the vicinity NEEDS,
AND MORE IMPORTANTLY DESERVES protection from INCONSIDERED development, the likes of which you can go see
ANYWHERE, if you really need to seek out that sort of thing.
It is All the %& @# around you!
Why in the WORLD , MUST you HAVE TO see It HERE?! AS WELL?!!

It is hard to believe The Millbrook Hunt wouldn't fancy trotting through here, The way they used to, depending on what the site becomes. There are a multitude
of scenarios, but.... forget MY cynicism, how many times has this
town shot Themselves in the foot over this Spot.? On the face of it
suppose.

But their is another side. This place has been used often for
various reasons as excuses for this that & the other.
Evasion of Code Enforcement. Paradoxical Selective Enforcement
of Building Code. Simultaneously.

But i don't think local government can really do much, anyway
forgetThe Legal Realm. The machinations of the Private Sector Prevail....example..
The Cardinal Hayes Home proposed a group home at Exmoore
House, former President's Mansion for Bennet College,
a great house in great shape, jewel of the property but not part of the
parcel. In real Estate terms, this house has flipped more times
than Flip Wilson [ok, I might be losin the kidz, here]
It is a fabulous house, but is locked in hostage to the Bennett
scenario whatever TF that is going to be.

Denied State funds in light of economic downturn, [pre-Sandy, even]
the plan has just been abandoned. Real estate interests would have
liked to see that in light of NO development anywhere else near
The Parcel. Others view that as the Kiss of Death longterm for
attractive development post-Halcyon demo. So for many, grand
rotting, pain-in-the-ass Bennet College helped prevent a group home
landlocked into their future plan.


Score One More for Victorian Ruin As Real Estate Golem.

If not for Halcyon's hopeless condition, that sort of Usage would not even
be Contemplated there. it is sorta, kinda complicated. Or it seems
that, way to me. I don't think my hometown has a bigger
[or smaller] NIMBY complex than small towns anywhere else, really.
I actually think Millbrook has always been way more progressive than most in that regard, in moral terms. But it is just about business,
today, gone later today.

So locals and neighbors see development here being a major drag.
Newcomers who see killer frontage/acreage in their own terms,
well, what can you say?And I qualify my use of the term Newcomer,
accordingly, OK? I get it. We are All Newcomers. That is not only right,
but necessary. But look abouthcha' a bit before you want to build
anything like a theme park...or a housing dev that looks even a little BIT like one, here.

A ruin like this has invited conceptually bad development already.
Until the building is Gone it will continue to be THe Radioactive
Bermuda Triangle of Millbrook's real estate cabals. THat is just
undeniable. They are gonna ratchet up a whole new scenario,
again, I have seen it a dozen freakin times....and yet there is
never any actual Disposition. So that must be how the people who
decide things, decide its gonna be? Right?THat's how it's always gone, so that's how it will be. I guess?
I string a phrase or two sarcastic here and there, but I'm not quite
Copernicus. Or The Oracle of Millbrook's Delphi.
But it seems it would require a seer, or some sort of financial
mystic, to auger the influence of planet Halcyon over Millbrook, village
of, in the year of our Lords, 2013.

Like a Black Hole, of Realty, it 's magnetic attration is so
strong that even light [and all sense, with it] gets sucked inexorably
into the void. It's YogiDejaBerryVu all over again.

Hopefully, they will have Some Sense of SCALE. & PROPORTION.
I dont' think Reasonable people expect anything more than that.
But, then again...

The old water tower should be taken down
as well the climbing vine and BG& E pole

Cells to the left of me,
Windows to the right.
Here I am, locked in the cellblock with you!

cos I would really believe anything that Geraldo said - only interested in ratings not the truth

The reason things got swanker higher up was because of no air conditioning. Higher equals cooler back then.

Located in the Dix Hills area (West Brentwood) of western Long Island, New York, Pilgrim State Hospital was created by the Legislature in 1929 and named for Dr. Charles W. Pilgrim, commissioner of mental health in the early 1900s. It opened on 825 acres with 100 patients transferred from Central Islip. Nine months later it had 2,018 patients. By 1935, it housed nearly 9,000 patients. The peak census was in 1954, with 13,875 patients. At times, Pilgrim had been the world's largest mental hospital. As of 1999, the Pilgrim campus contained 75 structures.

http://www.rootsweb.an...ilgrim_ny/index.html

Not 15,000 patients and my guess is it was not designed for so large a group. The mental hospital where I volunteer was built for 300 and had 2600 at its overcrowded maximum. Just warehousing imo, no longer a hospital or an asylum.

maybe thay where hiding somthing there like the things thay used or documents