|
|
 |
 |
|
| Scroll down to find button to
flip through pix |
 |
If you like the pages here about Kings Park, CI
and Pilgrim you will absolutely love these three documentaries.
|
|
|
Central Islip Psychiatric
Center
|
| The Central Islip Psychiatric Center
started out as a Farm Colony for New York City in 1889. The
patients were transferred from crowded city asylums on Wards,
Hart, and Blackwell Island. Eventually the asylum was taken
over by the state and was renamed the Manhattan State Hospital.
The campus consisted of 1000 acres and was the largest asylum
by land area. It had over 100 buildings, most notably a set
of 4 groups all connected via corridors that stretched a mile
long. That was called the string of pearls, referring to its
length and the quality of the buildings design. Therapy consisted
in working in the farms or one of the many shops. The center
had two rain spurs to serve the main power plant (north colony)
and the string of pearls (south colony) and even had its own
steam engine. Visitors would also arrive by train and the hospital
had its own passenger station. As with other asylums deinstitutionalization
became a trend after the 1970s and by the 1980s the population
was dwindling. The state sold much of the property with the
buildings to New York Institute of Technology and a developer.
The college reused a group of the former psychiatric center
for dorms and classrooms. The string of pearls was torn down
to make way for a shopping center and industrial park. At this
time the hospital was only housing geriatric patients and those
with serious physical ailments. By 1996 the then called Central
Islip Psychiatric Center was fully dissolved and remaining patients
were transferred to Pilgrim. |
|
|
| (c) 2003-2004
Copyright John Leita all rights reserved. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
