Photo: "Half Time"

The Laurelton State Village for Feeble-Minded Women of Childbearing Age opened in 1917, with 36 patients, and was the first facility of its kind designed to segregate and care for "feeble-minded" women from puberty through menopause. The facility was established on the principles of eugenics and the premise that one’s intelect or mental deficiency was hereditary and the segregation of those individuals was crucial to ensure they did not reproduce and pass down those genetics. in the cannery, kitchen, laundry or in the fields. There were also recreational portions to the campus, as seen above. 

In the late 1960's a radical change was made and males were admitted to the campus. Decades later, in 1998, the facility would shut its doors.  

Photo: "What Remains"

Building 253 at Hunter's Point Naval Shipyard was constructed between 1944 and 1947. It's 6 stories tall, contains a large gantry crane that was used to lift equipment into the top floor of the building. 

Maintenance for periscopes and range finders for military ships was done in this building. It was also an electrical shop, used for Radiography Instrument Calibration as well as a gauge shop.  

(From the archives, 2006)

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: "Male Violent Wards II"

 

Tech: Canon 5D Mark III + 17 TS-E. Edited using Lightroom and DxO FilmPack 3

 

The Greystone Psychiatric Hospital in New Jersey opened its doors to the first patients in 1877 and 342 patients were immediately submitted. 

The main building at Greystone was built following the Kirkbride plan and contained two wings, one for each sex. The violent wards, shown here, are at the end of the second floor of the male wing.

 

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: "Three Floors & An Armoire"

The collapse in the female wings of Hudson River State Hospital is extensive. When the hospital shut down, no efforts were made to cover the roof of the wings and the weather eventually began to take it's toll on this beautiful Kirkbride Building.

This image shows a storage closet on the second floor with a collapsed ceiling and floor, which allows us to see the identical storage closet on the first floor and possibly a patient or nurses room on the 3rd floor with a beautiful armoire.

Photo: "K Building"

IMG_9283.jpg

The Polk Building, or K Building, at the Western State Hospital in Tennessee, formerly known as the West Tennessee Hospital for the Insane, was constructed in 1932 as a psychopathic facility with 400 beds for patients.

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