Photo: "Nothing But A Memory"

 
 

If you follow my photography or blog, you’ve likely heard how devastated I am that this beautiful, former asylum has met its demise. When I took this photo, I was standing in a corridor that is now merely a memory. 

People often ask me why I shoot these locations and this building right here is a perfect example why. I first photographed this hospital 6 years ago and I returned last year for a second time. Here we are one year later and nothing remains but a small center section of the building. These places are vanishing rapidly and I want to be there to document as many historic sites as I can. 

Photo: "Kirkbride Blue Hour"

Taken during blue hour on a full moon evening.

This is another one of my favorite Kirkbride buildings at the Hudson River Psychiatric Hospital in New York. 

Much of the building has decayed over the years since closing in 2003. Poughkeepsie, New York experiences snow, heat and humidity throughout the year, which have all contributed to the demise of the wings of this hospital. Fortunately, the Administration section, shown here, has remained in tact due to a layer of protection placed over the roof before the weather took a toll. 

New Greystone Psychiatric Historical Photo Essay

Sadly, the beautiful Kirkbride building at the Greystone Park Psychiatric Hospital is at the end of her life. Demolition is looming in the very near future for this architectural beauty. 

In honor of this glorious structure, I have added a new photo gallery on my website: http://amyheiden.com/greystone-park-psychiatric/

Photo: "Teal and Golden Memories"

Sadly, in a few months, this asylum will be nothing more than dust. Abatement has already begin inside this massive Kirkbride building. 

Within four years of this facility opening in the late 1800′s, the hospital was already accommodating 800 patients, though it was only designed to care for 600. At the hospital’s peak, in 1953, Greystone housed over 7,000 patients, many soldiers suffering from PTSD post World War. 

Photo: "Not Always Good Memories, But Always Significant"

Female violent ward in Greystone Park Psychiatric Hospital - Morris Plains, New Jersey

People often ask me what draws me to places like this, but the answer is not always obvious to most. Sure people understand that I find beauty in decaying asylums, factories, ships and houses of worship, because let's be honest, they just don't make them like they used to, but the real reason is much less superficial. 

I do this for me because it makes me feel alive and it's what I want to contribute to this world, images of historic places that we are tearing down way too quickly. But I also do it for the dozens of grandparents, mothers, fathers, daughters, sons, cousins and friends who knew someone who was cared for or worked in one of these locations. During the time that these asylums, for example, were in operation, very little was known about mental health. People who were lazy, or practicing religion to frequently were admitted into an asylum. Even women experiencing menopause were deemed insane and placed inside these facilities. 

When I receive an email from a women who never knew her Grandmother because she was admitted to Greystone Park Psychiatric asylum in 1918, or a note from a son about how his father was stationed on the USNS Northern Light many decades ago, I am quickly reminded that this is why I photograph these places. It's not for money, status, likes or +1's, it's for the memories that remain inside these walls, the stories eagerly hoping to come back to life. 

Photo: "Filtered Sunlight"

 
 

Patient rooms, such as this, inside the former Greystone Park Psychiatric Hospital in New Jersey were designed to hold one or two patients, but within about 10 years of opening, the hospital experienced severe overcrowding and was treating almost double the patients it was designed to treat. Patients were crammed to these small rooms and beds were added and moved into the hallways. 

Photo: "Preserve Greystone!"

In July 2008 Greystone Park Psychiatric closed and the remaining patients and Administration Offices relocated to the new facility less than a mile away.

Since then, the state of New Jersey has been deliberating over the best course of action for the decaying hospital. In the last few years, a group known as Preserve Greystone formed and has been advocating for the preservation of the massive Kirkbride building, along with hundreds of historians, preservationists and nearby residents.

Sadly, the state has not even entertained contracts of up to $100 million to restore the facility, but instead have chosen to demolish the building using $50 million of taxpayer money. Sometime later this year, the building will be demolished and over one hundred years of history, stories and medicine will be nothing more than a memory.

Photo: "Basking Rays"

Front facing office in the Administration Building of the Hudson River Psychiatric Hospital in New York

The wings of the Hudson River Psychiatric Hospital in New York have decayed and collapsed beyond compare over the last few decades, due to weather and a lightning fire, since the asylum was abandoned, but the roof of the Administration Building was properly covered when vacated, which has left that section of the Kirkbride building in tact.

Photo: "Admin Building, Hudson River Psychiatric"

I have wandered the lonely collapsed halls of the former Hudson River Psychiatric Hospital many times, but until last month, I had never seen the Administration Building from this perspective. Standing in front of this historic grand architecture watching the moon rise was really magical.

This gorgeous building was completed in 1871, on a piece of land along the river in Poughkeepsie, New York. Most Kirkbride buildings were constructed with symmetrical wings, but this hospital was not, because there was an expectation that more male patients would be submitted than female. 

The campus operated for over one hundred years before closing in 2003. The campus not sits abandoned, mostly collapsed from years of neglect and a major fire in the male wing in 2007.