Edgewood State Hospital was a tubercular/psychiatric hospital complex that formerly stood in Deer Park, New York, on

Long Island Long Island is a densely populated continental island in southeastern New York (state), New York state, extending into the Atlantic Ocean. It constitutes a significant share of the New York metropolitan area in both population and land are ...

. It was one of four state mental asylums built on Long Island (the others being Kings Park State Hospital, Central Islip State Hospital, and

Pilgrim State Hospital Pilgrim Psychiatric Center, formerly known as Pilgrim State Hospital, is a state-run psychiatric hospital located in Brentwood, New York. Nine months after its official opening in 1931, the hospital's patient population was 2,018, as compared wit ...

), and was the last one of the four to be built.

History

The hospital was built in the early 1940s, believed to be a

Works Progress Administration The Works Progress Administration (WPA; from 1935 to 1939, then known as the Work Projects Administration from 1939 to 1943) was an American New Deal agency that employed millions of jobseekers (mostly men who were not formally educated) to car ...

-funded project. It consisted only of ten buildings (including its massive, prominent 13-story main building), making it the smallest of the four as well (although it was planned to be a larger complex, those plans never made it past paper). The facility was commandeered by the War Department after the United States entered

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

. The War Department completed its construction for use as a psychiatric facility for battle-traumatized soldiers. Its entire campus (in addition to three buildings from nearby

and numerous temporary structures) was used as "Mason General Hospital" by the department. When the war ended, the hospital was transferred back to

New York State New York, also called New York State, is a state in the northeastern United States. Bordered by New England to the east, Canada to the north, and Pennsylvania and New Jersey to the south, its territory extends into both the Atlantic Ocean and ...

, where it essentially operated as the tubercular division of Pilgrim for a few years. In 1946 film director

John Huston John Marcellus Huston ( ; August 5, 1906 – August 28, 1987) was an American film director, screenwriter and actor. He wrote the screenplays for most of the 37 feature films he directed, many of which are today considered classics. He rec ...

was assigned by the U.S. government to film a documentary about recovering soldiers in the hospital for

propaganda Propaganda is communication that is primarily used to influence or persuade an audience to further an agenda, which may not be objective and may be selectively presenting facts to encourage a particular synthesis or perception, or using loaded l ...

purposes, titled ''

Let There Be Light "Let there be light" is an English translation of the Hebrew (''yehi 'or'') found in Genesis 1:3 of the Torah, the first part of the Hebrew Bible. In Old Testament translations of the phrase, translations include the Greek phrase (''genēt ...

''. Advancements in medicine throughout the 1950s and 1960s offering alternatives to institutionalization led to

deinstitutionalisation Deinstitutionalisation (or deinstitutionalization) is the process of replacing long-stay psychiatric hospitals with less isolated community mental health services for those diagnosed with a mental disorder or developmental disability. In the 1950 ...

, and the hospital was closed by governor

Nelson Rockefeller Nelson Aldrich "Rocky" Rockefeller (July 8, 1908 – January 26, 1979) was the 41st vice president of the United States, serving from 1974 to 1977 under President Gerald Ford. He was also the 49th governor of New York, serving from 1959 to 197 ...

in 1971. From that point on, it was left to the mercy of vandals, arsonists and time. A 1983 fire lit by drunken teenagers gutted the rooftop on the nurse's quarters dormitory, while the main tower's was torched in 1985, leading to their demolition in stages throughout 1989. The final remaining structures were disposed of around 1990–91. Today, the site sits as an open, state-protected oak-brush plains preserve under the

New York State Department of Environmental Conservation The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (informally referred to as NYSDEC, DEC, EnCon or NYSENCON) is a department of New York state government. The department guides and regulates the conservation, improvement, and protecti ...

(NYS DEC) department. One can still find remnants of the former hospital, such as the old rail spur, fire hydrants, etc., scattered about. People can obtain a free DEC permit for access to the preserve. Activities include hiking, biking, dog training, and

model airplane A model aircraft is a physical model of an existing or imagined aircraft, and is built typically for display, research, or amusement. Model aircraft are divided into two basic groups: flying and non-flying. Non-flying models are also termed s ...

flying.

References

{{authority control Hospitals established in the 1940s 1971 disestablishments in New York (state) Buildings and structures demolished in 1989 Babylon (town), New York Psychiatric hospitals in New York (state) Tuberculosis sanatoria in the United States Defunct hospitals in New York (state) Demolished buildings and structures in New York (state) Works Progress Administration in New York (state) Protected areas of Suffolk County, New York