1,927 Comments for Pilgrim State Hospital

DATZ ALL BULL SHIT I WENT YESTDAY NIGHT NOTHIN SCARY I EVEN GOT OUT OF DA CAR TO CHECK IT OUT

how were you able to go in and take pix.. did you sneak or given permission? curious

I found your site this morning while searching pics of PSH on google. Fantastic images!
I used to go here in the mid to late 60's when i was a little kid with my Mom and Grandmother when they would go to visit my Grandfather, who was a patient there. He was a violent alcoholic. I guess back then he was considered insane. He never made it out of that place. He died there in 67, maybe 68, and I imagine he was autopsied in this very room. It's really extremely sad to see these pictures, no matter how fascinating they are. he was an Italian immigrant who's name is on the wall at Ellis Island, and it's depressing to think that his American life that must have began with such promise and hope for a better future ended in a terrible and demoralizing place like Pilgrim. Inever went inside. I always stayed outside in the car, but the sight of the smokestacks brings back vivid childhood images that are as haunting and depressing now as they were 40 years ago.

I stumbled across this site today and I must say it is fascinating. One of the other posts mentioned wanting to see the inside of some of these buildings etc. Well you can try going to the site below and they have a huge assortment of photos of the various buildings, plus other buildings as well. Check it out.
http://www.lioddities.com

Most likely to study the various neurological disorders. And I am willing to bet that nasty odour was formalin.

I USED TO GO TO THE OLD BUILDING ON COMMAC ROAD IN THE 70'S EARLY 80'S DURING THE DAY AND AT NIGHT I REMEMBER OF A STORY OF A GUY NAMED ABDUL WHO SUPPOSEDLY LIVED OFF THE C- RATIONS LEFT BEHIND IN THE OLD BUILDINGS BACK THEN I BELIEVED THAT LIKE ALL THE OTHER KIDS BACK THEN WE USED TO WANDER THE GROUNDS AT NIGHT AND DAY GOING IN THE STEAM TUNNELS THAT WOUND AROUND THE WHOLE COMPLEX ONE TIME ME AND MY COUSIN WENT ALL THE WAY UP TO WHAT WAS CALLED THE ' CROWN 'IT WAS PRETTY SPOOKY WE HEARD STRANGE NOISES BUT NOW WE ATTRIBUTE THAT TO AN ACTIVE IMAGINATION THE SITE IS NOW A NYS DEC AREA FOR HIKING I HAVE AN OLD PICTURE OF THE OLD BUILDING IF I CAN FIND IT ILL POST IT

PSH was named after Dr. Charles Winfield Pilgrim, who devoted fifty years of his life caring for the state's psychiatric patients. He stepped down to a superintendent position from being the chairman of the State Hospital Commission to work more closely with the patients.

What you have to keep in mind about PSH is that back in the 1950s and 1960s, when most of the surrounding architecture was brand new development homes, this was the biggest architectural feature of western Suffolk, looming over the landscape for miles.
It was spooky at night and especially at Halloween, but rather than eerie, it was appallingly dreary -- you could sense all the unwell (and desperately unhappy) people who had ever been there.
And a mental institution should NEVER be designed to look like a fortress prison. Especially one named for a Pilgrim, someone journeying to a holy place. (Besides, Pilgrims are Mass., not NY social myths.)
Just look at the enlightened "therapies" they performed. You're not officially allowed to do any of that to a prisoner of war nowadays.
Like so many of its companion "hospitals" in Suffolk, it deserves to be closed, and razed.
Maybe something healthy and good can grow there now.

35 cents ! ? ! ? !

No way !

Alright ! !

Signed: An American Soldier stationed in Mannheim, Germany.

2:31 P.M. / Sunday / 05 / August / 2007

What a very powerful image !

Signed: An American Soldier stationed in Mannheim, Germany.

2:26 P.M. / Sunday / 05 / August / 2007

i would love to talk a stroll down there and check it out...love mysterious places! i find that the stucture of the place facinating

we wanna go

i do not remember this building at PPC...
So many memories from working there... sometimes haunting...

Looks like the classic cartoons were you open a door and everything falls on you.

What the fuck is the hair coming out of the body freezer, You may never answer this, but this photo is fucking driving me nuts, What the hell IS that??