5,961 Comments for Kings Park Psychiatric Center

Beautiful patina.

Very stark and lonely.

It's a jungle down there.

Beautiful example of natural deconstruction of something made by man. No graffiti or vandalism seen. I notice an outlet up high where a clock once hung. I also see an outline of a water fountain against the wall. I bet this was a very busy intersection at one time.

Awesome pic. Love the peeling paint. Talk about a relic, that little shelf held a telephone hard wired to that junction box. I betcha there was a chair there at one time.

For those who mention that treatments there weren't inhumane, because they were all that were available to help patients at the time, and that as advancements were available they were discontinued... I would agree that many people working there had good intentions and were well meaning, but I recently saw a very interesting documentary on the hospital directed by a former patient, and I can assure you that many of the things that went on there were HORRIFYING. Patients who were deemed bothersome were at times killed by the nurses and orderlies (this information was provided by a former doctor at the facility who was deeply disturbed by that practice). As funding for the hospital decreased and the place got more crowded, the conditions for patients got worse and worse... little consideration was given to their treatment and recovery and more about just keeping them from being a burden to the functioning of the hospital. Since the hospital was pretty much the whole town for much of the 20th century, alot of people ended up working there because there weren't many other options, not because they wanted to help people. This led to a great deal of apathy in the treatment of patients. It also meant that many people hired had no business dealing with people who were disturbed, and some took pleasure in humiliating or torturing the patients.

In the earlier half of the century, many people ended up in that hospital who had NO business being there such as the poor, orphans, or the elderly. There was a man in the documentary who was put in the hospital at age 4 when he ran away from foster care and was deemed "to difficult" to deal with. The man endured abuse, was put in ward with mentally disturbed adult males and was even sexually abused by a worker at the hospital. He was put to work on the grounds, never sent to school and never even taught to read. He was so disturbed by his time at the hospital that when they brought him on to the grounds, he couldn't even approach the building that used to be his home for years and he literally started to shake and cry. He was a perfectly mentally sound child and is now haunted by his time there even almost 60 years later. Stories like this seemed to be all too common in the documentary.

Obviously in institutions of that size there are going to be problems, it is impossible to house that many patients and employ that many people and have things run perfectly smooth or without incidents. This problem only increases when talking about government run facilities. The saddest thing is that when this place closed, thousands of patients were left homeless or shuffled through an already crowded system that doesn't care enough. Many ended up on the streets or in prison because there was nowhere else for them to go and they aren't equipped to live "normal" lives without someone to attend to them. One worker told a story about a discharged patient that was driven into the city and just dropped in front of the welfare office. The man didn't even know his own name let alone where he was, and was just left there.

There is also a mass grave somewhere on the property... a mass resting place for already tortured souls who had nobody to bury them properly... that alone guarantees some creepy vibes.

Is this the "humane" treatment that some of the people posting here are talking about?

...Sooo, I shouldn't find this attractive? :(

Stunning. I'd love to recreate this into a painting. Any objections to that, Motts?

oh, how many people looked out this window wondering, "why am I here?"

is life trying to say something while death is speaking above all

the lovely crooked smile that i would expect

has an almost aching yawn of government abuse much like others

i love it i feel almost at home while viewing these photos i love it

This building at one time held the criminally insane on the top floor who were treated with shock therapy. It is also said to be the most haunted for that same reason.

Wow that's gorgeous!