1,927 Comments for Pilgrim State Hospital

Motts u mustve been there awhile ago cause there is no more razor wire or anything. Its so sad how these places are just forgotten and then destroyed by those stupid teens and vandalized by creeps.

Sammy u lucky bastard, but I went there a couple months ago, got a steam thingy

Motts, u go here again? recently?

Bub, please share some of your experiences with us. What were some of the biggest changes you saw in your 24 years of living there? I'm sure I'm not the only one who is interested, especially because those were the years that saw both the worst overcrowding and the advent of deinstitutionalization.

I worked at Pilgrim in '56 as a secretary. I walked through these tunnels many times. Usually at the end an honor patient would sit and while walking in the middle of the tunnel he would switch off the lights. Had to use a skeleton key whenever entering or leaving a room. I typed up patient histories; back then there were no copying machines so everything had to be typed. I parked in front of the Admin Bldg and in the morning when entering the building the male patients looking out their barred windows would should all kinds of obscenities to me; I was only 19 so it really made me uncomfortable.

To all that wonder why kids vandalize things, it gives you a thrill, especially when you are at pilgrim, there is security, plus the fact that you are in an abandoned hospital gets your heart racing. When I was younger I used to go there and hang out, party and throw around old lightbulbs and fans and shit, and it was fun, of course now that I've grown up some it seems stupid to me, but that was just the way I let off a lot of steam after my father passed. Now I look forward to going through there again for the adventure aspect, just going through the buildings I have not seen and just looking around. I can tell you the scariest thing that happened there the last time i went when I was 14 was the fact that in the tunnels underneath the laundry building there were homeless people who were absolutely whacked out of their minds, one had a knife and was talking about satan or something like that. All and all good times around edgewood with all the old abandoned cars in the woods and the abandoned buildings at pilgrim. Will say this, going through the woods on old commack road late at night you will see and hear the spookiest shit. I don't know how long ago most of these people have been, but the security situation for the most part is lax, there is maybe one or two patrol cars on site that actually go around the buildings but at night they are nowhere to be found.

well its is nov8 now 2008 and just before it was nov 7th.. im a 15 year old kid from East islip new york and i am adventures.. so me and my friends here about this place called Central islip phyciatric center... we go there, its basically all rubble exxept this one building wich was an old fire department that was partially burned down... we go in there and we recorded alot and took pictures. but it wasnt that scary.. eery but not scary.. so we decided to go to pilgram state, we rolled up in the car on the side of building 23, then were like ok lets do this lets commit and go in. we get to the fron and we look down the walk way and we didnt c anything because of all the bushes. we pulled in the semi circle drive way and procceded under the over hanging cove.. there is a broken bench and half a couch there... then we pulled in front of the door and my freind jimmy screems from the back right seat of the car and he's ike somthing touched me.. so we all looked at the door way and honest to god we all saw this half of a human body in a shadowy form horizantal but hovering about 2 inches from the ground.. i was like what the " f " is that.. and right after i said it, it flew at my window really fast with its mouth agap and a balled head.. and i started to punch the window and the dash board in fear. my freind jimmy at this point litteraly pee'd in his pants and we were all screaming my freind nick was in shock for about 2 hours after the experiance.. all of them said they would never go back but not me... im so curious as to what it could have been.. im goin back soon ill post more

its still there..i was in there with my friend back in may..and i thought it was a person and i punched it

No. Way. I have this exact same print.

I work at Pilgrim.There's no ghosts or gools,and more than half the stories that people tell you are just for kicks.My mother has worked there for 30 years and at Kings Park before it closed down.That may have seemed to appear scary to the eye because goth and emo junkies want to believe this and actually sleep in these filthy abandoned places places while trippin out and blazin up."GOT...LIFE"?The only scary thing about Pilgrim State Hospital is those god damn wild dogs that live in packs that have been feeding off the innocent barn animals every F#$%ING month.Yes a barn for patient therapy.Now these dogs will be shot on site thanks to a cheap state budget,and a bunch of fed up rec council taking the law into their own hands.

well this is the room i worked in, I was a lab tech in the 60's...looks kinda different, but the truth it was weird then and spooky.

Are you going to any more places in southwest PA? I live 30 miles from Pittsburgh and could do some research for you as to some more places in that area. I know one right off the top of my head: Livermore, a famous local legend. Get back to me if you want. My email is arose_is4ever@hotmail.com

I was here! A couple of friends and I were curious and decided to walk around, and we found ourselves in this morgue. We weren't looking for this particular part or anything, we didn't even know it existed, but we just happened upon it. Obviously we were really suprised and freaked out. Just a word of warning to anyone who was thinking about doing the same thing: BE CAREFUL! There are homeless people who live in the abandoned parts of these buildings and they might not take kindly to strangers intruding into their "home".

Thanks,
1. Yes, many buildings on the campus are still being used.
2. & 3. I believe they were methods designed to help mental illness, and during the time of their use, they were often the only available treatments that would change a person's behavior if they were excitable or violent, whereas the only other options were restraint and seclusion. Once chemical drugs that provided similar effects were introduced, these procedures were phased out for the most part.

This picture is beautiful, and the colours really suit the 'mood' you'd expect.

Excuse me if these happen to be stupid Questions:
1 - If this place is only partially closed down, does that mean there's a part of it NOT falling apart?
2 - What was the point of "shock" therapies?
3 - What was a lobotomy supposed to achieve?

Thanks =)