Scouting An Abandoned Mental Asylum: A Visit To The Rockland Psychiatric Center, Part 1

Rockland and other facilities of its kind belong to an era before the decision in a court in Pennsylvania in 1961, I believe. In that era, whether a person was ever released depended upon his or her level of skill in an assigned occupation that met the needs of the facility; sort of a mental health version of Das Arbeit machen Sie frei.” (Please pardon the fractured German). I do not recall whether the Pennsylvania suit was heard in a state or federal court or what the legal question was.

Institutions like Rockland were essentially self-supporting communities; many of them had extensive farms and in some cases factories producing goods for the institution and others in the state.

The Pennsylvania decision was followed closely by a decision in a Michigan state court that turned the institutional world a little farther upside down when Judge Horace Gilmore ruled that a man sentenced to the Ionia State Hospital for the Criminally Insane on a rape conviction could not be held longer in that facility than the prison term for the offense, especially since the facility did and had not provided any appropriate psychiatric treatment.

But to return to Rockland and other facilities.

One of the best examples of use for such architectural gems is in Athens, Ohio on the campus of the Ohio University. Formerly the Athens State Hospital for the Mentally Ill, the facility became part of the university shortly after the university opened its College of Osteopathic Medicine in 1976 when the medical school faculty was engaged to provide treatment to the residents. The facullty was horrified to find that the patients had not received so much as basic physicals in years.

The facility had a famous dairy farm operated by the residents. When the facility was closed, there was some clamor for tearing it down. Fortunately the university administration had a strong bent towards historical preservation due mainly to the influence of Claire Ping, whose spouse was president of the university. There was also a strong local group of artists and crafts such as furniture-making who saw the dairy barn as a great site for a museum. The museum, referred to as the Dairy Barn, was renovated chiefly by volunteers who supplied money,labor, and materials. The museum is celebrating its 25th anniversary this year.

The main building is now the Kennedy Museum at Ohio University and is a fine arts museum that attracts considerable attention for its exhibits.

But to return to Rockland. My grandfather was thre from 1948 to his death in 1956. My sisters and I would accompany our parents on semi-annual visits. We were never allowed to leave the car but in nice weather in the spring and fall we could see him and our parents chatting on a porch. As far as I know according to my mother, he received decent care given the level of neurological knowledge at the time.

Responding to Scout’s description of areas where what he calls “barbaric treatments such as electroshocks and lobotomies were performed,” I do wonder whether or not the “community mental health movement” with its failure to provide even minimal levels of care to persons who formerly would have at least had a roof and three meals a day over their heads is less barbaric.

The mentally ill at least in Michigan appear to have found a new institutional home in the state prison system where there is a fairly minimal level of care. Those who do not fall afoul of the criminal justice system often become homeless; many of them do not have no families; others have familes who are unable to help or who choose not to participate in caring for them. One of the most pathtic sights I have ever seen occurred when an elderly woman dressed in several layers of clothing and clutchign a trash bag approached me less than half a mile from the state capitol building in downtown Lansing and asked me, “Do you know where my son is?” She was one of the homeless wellknown to the police who moved her on.

Enough. To Scout: Thank you for the tour of Rockland. I will be happy to contribute to scouting when the Boy Scouts of America adoopt a more rational attitude towards gays.

Fran F.

My dad was just telling me today that he remembers being a kid, growing up in Tappan, just five or so minutes away, and occasionally hearing the Asylum’s alarm go off, indicating that someone had gotten out.
Scary to imagine!!

I am working on keying naturalization records for New York and ran into an Irish woman who was an attendant there. She came over from Ireland in 1930.

I grew up in Pearl River, the town where Rockland Psych was located. We had all kinds of urban legends about that place. We would occasionally hear sirens and not know what they were for. We also heard the rumors that the patients were allowed out during the day and the the sirens were calling them back. My friends volunteered there in High School (mid 90s) and have a million creepy stories. I was just there the other day and it still is as creepy as ever. I hope someone sees the creepy beauty of it and films a movie there.

@CJ – last time I checked….Rockland State Hospital was mainly located in Blauvelt. A lot of local firehouses had their softball games on the fields inside the gates off Van Wyck. As kids we’d go when Blauvelt played there with no problems whatsoever! My Mom also attended the Catholic Church on the grounds….she loved it! The pics are amazing as I remember a lot of these buildings from growing up.

These pictures are fantastic. You might consider me the jackpot of your responders here. I grew up on the grounds of Rockland State Hospital for 18 years: 1949-1967, as my father was a psychiatrist there and for the longest time in charge of one of the biggest buildings.I became a rehabiliation counselor and have worked many years in the 70’s with the deinstituionlizaztion and community mental health efforts in MA and GA. Up to the 50’s in Mental Health severe behavioral issues were handled with isolation, straight jackets,shock therapy,and a little later ineffective drugs like valium. Lobotomies were performed, but by all means this was a smaller percentage that people probably think. Whatever was done in Rockland at the time was state of the art accepted practice. Not at Rockland, but even one of the Kennedy sisters received a lobotomy because it was wideheld that it should be effective. The involvement in MH and Retardation by Eunice Kennedy Shriver evolved from her first hand family experience with her sister.

What people do not know is that Rockland State Hospital was probalby in the forefront of psychiatric drug research and development. The clinical trials of Chloropramizine(Thorazine) in the U.S. were done there as well as other break through drugs research. Thorazine was the first widely prescribed snti-psychotic drug and remained on the market for decades.It was the breakthrough drug. Ironically it and future drugs helped make it possible for reducing psychatric hospital populations. Dr. Nathan Kline was the leading psychiiatric researcher in the country and he did it at RSH. Drs. like my Dad were part of doing the research as Kline was not in charge of any patients. On the grounds now there is a research center named after Kline.

Looking at pictures now and thinking “how horrible”, isolated stories, and movies such as One Flew….. do not fairly potray the whole picture. I am sure for every nurse Ratchett there were numerous Florence Nightingales and for every lobotomy there were numerous patients who were treated differently. The grounds, buildings, and facilities were beautiful and kept up very well.
Rockland also had country club like amenities for staff and patients to share: golf course,tennis courts, many fields, outdoor life guarded pool,an auditorium, bowling alley, and basketball courts. Most patients if not harmful to themselves or others roamed freely around the vast grounds. I and my neighbors among them.

I’d like to comment more and will. Some above posts are accurate like the escapee murder, but others are not-there were no sirens. There was a factory whistle that was blown every week day at 5pm and when the Pearl River school district had a snow day.

That refrigerator you asked about, was originally in the the Orangeburg Fire Department. When they were renovating their fire house the state allowed them to store some things on the campus. I remember it filled with beer.

What I don’t see mentioned is that the hospital was adjacent to Camp Shanks, on its eastern border. Camp Shanks, “Last Stop USA,” was the largest World War II Army embarkation camp, where 1.3 million US service personnel en route to Europe were processed. My mom was a nurse at the hospital during that time and the soldiers marched from Camp Shanks to one of the tall buildings (#58 or #59); where they received necessary inoculations and examinations. The soldiers left the US by boat after marching out to the end of the long “pier” of land in Piermont where there are restaurants and condos today.

Scout commented about the different styles of the buildings. I am thinking that those with the enclosed porches were patient residences and other low buildings were employee residences. You have a picture of a small building with one large shrub on each side of the entry, and a green railing on the stairs. This I believe is the employee dining room.

My Dad also worked at the hospital and I visited the wards with him few times and never felt frightened. My grandmother was a cook in the Staff House kitchen and I can remember going there to visit and even helped to set tables in the staff dining room. I was probably 8 years old. The Staff House is located outside of the gates on the south side amid a complex of doctors homes.

The whole complex was a small city; complete with medical and dental facilities, beauty and barbershops, maintenance areas, fire and police protection and entertainment. A building called The Exchange had a bowling alley on the lower level with a theater above it where movies were shown.

As a fan of restoration I, hate to see the complex destroyed.

Does anyone know if this building is still up or has it been turned into those senior condos? And is it “open” for exploring…?

Great photos! How were you able to get into the buildings to get those shots? I’ve loved in Pearl River all my life and have on numerous occasions driven through the facility on my way home. I believe my great grandmother was actually treated there. My father was a police officer in the area and was often called to Rockland Psych. He has commented on the horrible things he saw there but never went into much detail. Growing up, I remember a story of a man escaping and murdering an entire family in the house across the street. The father of one of my childhood friends was a psychologist there in the early 90s. They lived in the staff housing (yellow buildings across the street). Parts of the facility are still operational (powerplant, machine shop, etc.) Now the grounds house the Nathan Kline Institute and a drug and alcohol treatment center as well as a well-attended church. As I drive through, and marvel at the beautifully decrepit grounds, I find my mind wandering and wondering about just what went on in there. I’d love to do some investigating and photography sessions there myself,