5,961 Comments for Kings Park Psychiatric Center

Yeah, they'd have to be break-proof mirrors if mental patients were using the place; if they weren't, they could use broken shards to cut their wrists or something.

I agree with Smurfy and Bill, I think it shows how careful they were to make the place as well equipped as their budget would allow.

I agree, I think it's beautiful too- definitely beneficial to soothe a patient's troubles. They should have decorated much more of the place like this- maybe they did and it's since rotted away, I don't know...

Maybe this kind of dorm was for the less severely ill, who didn't need to be observed all the time in case they hurt themselves or someone else. I guess the type of accomodation they got was geared to whatever their mental illness was.....

Looks like this room might have been for patients to get fresh air who were too dangerous to risk allowing outside the building- there don't ever seem to have been ordinary glassed windows in it, not even the remains of window frames. Maybe it was a kind of high-security excercise room or something.

Were these done by patients as art therapy, or were they conventional artwork used to decorate common rooms and staff quarters?
The upright one on the left looks like some kind of waterfront scene, it has a duplicate lying on the floor upside-down; the right-hand upright one looks like a Japanese style ink study of a bird or something.
The others all seem to be scenic views of one kind or another- the yellowy-brown one seems to be of horses or deer, upside down.

I would imagine that any patients whose names remain on dormitory doors would have been transferred to other hospitals when Kings Park was closed- it'd probably be quite possible to find out who they were and what happened to them if you were interested enough. I'd imagine those with less severe conditions have since got better and resumed life in mainstream society; those with really serious illnesses or who are untreatably, violently insane are probably still detained in other psychiatric centres.

I agree with JR and Aly- very sad indeed.

It's only been disused since '96 and is already in such a bad state??! The paint they used must have been of REALLY poor quality if it's got that bad so soon!! I daresay it's probably still alright structurally though- for the most part, anyway....

What IS causing the green hue? Sunlight on the green walls in a dim room, in the absence of artificial lighting? I agree with Keith, I find it peaceful- like the old place is having a quiet rest after all the sorrow and upheavals it's witnessed over the decades.
Was this some kind of a day room? I can imagine the patients sitting there in armchairs with rugs over their knees, playing draughts or dominoes, reading magazines or listening to gentle music on the radio....Maybe the doors were opened in the Summer to allow a breeze through, and nurses wheeled the infirm ones out for a trip round the lawns.

Seriously, is the old asylum REALLY said to be haunted? I'd be very surprised if it wasn't, to be honest- there must be several tormented souls hovering around there between this world and the next, waiting for help to find peace and release.
I'm currently reading a book about the Korean War ("This Kind Of War", T.H.Fehrenbach), and I wonder how many of the former inmates were poor soldiers from that war suffering from PTSD or nervous breakdown.

Maybe all the inmates were encouraged to add to it over time- each one bringing his or her own creative touch and style to an archetypal image.

Looks like the gurney from the earlier photo came from here. My God, what a dreadful, tragic location- the morgue can only have been for suicides, since if anyone was ill, they'd be sent off to a conventional hospital for treatment. The atmosphere in this whole complex of buildings must have hung heavy with the past torments of the inmates- still, by the time they reached the mortuary, they'd have at last found their release....

Here in England, we play a game called snooker which is like a more complicated version of pool, played with smaller balls on a bigger table. A pro-quality snooker table has a base made of a single sheet of smoothed slate, and can cost up to £20,000 (that's about $35,000 US dollars). Not sure if pool tables are made likewise, but if so, that' some very expensive kit they left behind...!

The place looked a lot better before it was abandoned... ;-)