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Recently I made a trip to New York to check out the Kings Park Psychiatric Center(originally called Kings County Asylum). Located on Long Island about 45 minutes from Manhattan the place stands heavily guarded by state patrol, city police and park rangers. I spent most the day exploring the many buildings and steam tunnels on the property.

As need for mentally ill facilities grew the “Lunatic Farm” (as it was called) became overcrowded, and New York State took control of the establishment in 1895 where it became Kings Park State Hospital. The entire hospital became a self-sufficient community, the patients and staff performed a wide variety of tasks including farming, construction, clothes-making, and food preparation. KPSH expanded to over 150 buildings, which included a power plant and a railroad spur to transport passengers, coal, and construction materials from the Long Island Rail Road. The campus included an area for TB patients, as well as a large section devoted to caring for war veterans. At the turn of the century, the hospital had grown to 2,697 patients and 454 staff workers - making it larger than the nearby town of Smithtown. The hospital reached it’s peak population at over 9,000 patients in 1954, and became quite overcrowded like so many other state run mental hospitals at the time.

The cost to run such an enormous machine became too large of a burden for the state, and with the overall de-institutionalization policy being instated on the East Coast, the hospital began closing buildings in a slow but steady process in 1970. In 1975, the institution became known as the more familiar Kings Park Psychiatric Center, or “KPPC”. Many patients were transferred to nearby Pilgrim State Hospital, nursing homes, or were released. Finally, the entire facility closed in 1996 save for two buildings which still house patients to this day.

The big question has always been what to do with the land… hundreds of acres of property were up for grabs, but at a very expensive cleanup cost. In the year 2000, the grounds of the war veterans treatment area became parkland. But to develop the rest of the land for sale, many buildings would have to be demolished or renovated, and the miles of asbestos piping would need to be carefully removed. The estimated cleanup costs are as high as $80 million, and the land value has been assessed as worth $55 million. The only feasible way of making money from the cleanup would be to build a dense residential or commercial community, which has been a highly objectionable debate for many years.

Kings Park Psychiatric Center was one of four enormous mental health systems located in central Long Island; the others being Central Islip Psychiatric Center, Pilgrim Psychiatric Center, and Mason General / Edgewood State Hospital.