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All the United States New York State New York City Thiells Letchworth Village

Letchworth Village

Decades after testing the polio vaccine on unwitting patients, this historic mental hospital sits in ruin.

Thiells, New York

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Letchworth Village canteen and kitchen   Luke J Spencer
The main administrative building   fleshxharvest / Atlas Obscura User
Upper level of the hospital   Luke J Spencer
The village synagogue   Luke J Spencer
Inside the synagogue   Luke J Spencer
The cemetery and its numbered graves   Luke J Spencer
One of the girls dorms   Luke J Spencer
A hallway   Allison / Atlas Obscura User
Left behind at Letchworth Village   Allison / Atlas Obscura User
Inside the morgue   Allison / Atlas Obscura User
Going back to nature   Allison / Atlas Obscura User
Overgrown at Letchworth Village   fleshxharvest / Atlas Obscura User
Inside some of the ruins   Allison / Atlas Obscura User
Letchworth Village power plant   fleshxharvest / Atlas Obscura User
Letchworth Village power plant   fleshxharvest / Atlas Obscura User
One of the abandoned buildings   fleshxharvest / Atlas Obscura User
Another abandoned building   fleshxharvest / Atlas Obscura User
A painting in the canteen   Luke J Spencer
In the Records room   Luke J Spencer
From the Administration Office   Luke J Spencer
Inside one of the boys dorms   Luke J Spencer
Letchworth Village   Luke J Spencer
Letchworth Village   Luke J Spencer
Letchworth Village   Luke J Spencer
Letchworth Village   Luke J Spencer
Letchworth Village   Luke J Spencer
Letchworth Village   Luke J Spencer
Letchworth Village   Luke J Spencer
Letchworth Village   Luke J Spencer
Letchworth Village   Luke J Spencer
Letchworth Village   Luke J Spencer
Letchworth Village   Luke J Spencer
Letchworth Village   Luke J Spencer
Letchworth Village   Luke J Spencer
Letchworth Village   Luke J Spencer
Letchworth Village   Luke J Spencer
Letchworth Village   Luke J Spencer
Letchworth Village   Luke J Spencer
Letchworth Village   Luke J Spencer
Letchworth Village   Luke J Spencer
Letchworth Village   Luke J Spencer
Letchworth Village   Luke J Spencer
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Letchworth Village   th4698 / Atlas Obscura User
Letchworth Village   th4698 / Atlas Obscura User
Letchworth Village   th4698 / Atlas Obscura User
Interior of building   boydestruction / Atlas Obscura User
Overgrown interior   boydestruction / Atlas Obscura User
Letchworth Village   th4698 / Atlas Obscura User
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Administration building  
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About

The hamlet of Thiells, New York, about 40 miles north of Manhattan, is a quiet, unassuming place nestled in the rolling hills of Rockland County, not far from the Hudson River. It has a peaceful, small town feel, and in 1911 it was chosen to be the home of a progressive experiment: a utopian village where the mentally ill could find calm and refuge. The institution was to take care of 2,000 patients in a complex of over 130 buildings spread over 2,000 acres – as it boasted, “an acre for every patient” – and its name was Letchworth Village.

The sprawling complex was created as a home for "the segregation of the epileptic and feeble-minded.” While this archaic language makes the facility seem as though it was a sinister institution from the start, in its time it was actually seen as fairly progressive. The able-bodied tended on-site farms, there were rows of shops, a power station, sprawling grounds, and places of worship. Trying to duplicate the feel of a village with its layout of smaller, more personal dwellings in a bucolic setting, Letchworth didn’t follow the standards of the imposing asylum buildings that had previously been the institutional model. Unfortunately, despite such good intentions, Letchworth Village was almost immediately overcrowded, with the majority of its patients being children.

Almost as dependable as the life cycle of a butterfly, early mental institutions like Letchworth seemed to follow a trajectory: from "noble-facility-for-healing," to "abusive-human-rights-horror-show," to "haunting-ruins." And here was no exception. Contrary to its early ideals, the over-crowding led to insufficient funds and shortages in staffing, which in turn, as could often be the case, curdled into abuse. What may have been a simple design of self-sufficiency resulted in patients never having to leave, eventually calcifying Letchworth into an institution where mentally ill children were sent "up river," and too often forgotten.

The facility was up-front about its intention to use the patients as guinea pigs in clinical trials. The most famous case was the experimental polio vaccine, which was successfully tested on an eight-year-old boy in 1950. Testing was subsequently carried out in more children, and the success of the vaccine at Letchworth ushered in the widespread use that we still see today. It may also help explain why there was little outrage at the time, which may have also contributed to Letchworth being allowed to remain open for several more decades.

Letchworth Village was finally closed in 1996, after years of reports of abuse, neglect and abysmal conditions. The closing came on the heels of successful human rights campaigns that had closed a number of similar facilities around the country, including the infamous Willowbrook in Staten Island as reported by Geraldo Rivera in his ground-breaking expose (which had also featured horrifying glimpses into Letchworth). The full truth of what happened inside these village buildings we'll never know, but one thing not in doubt is in evidence about a mile from Letchworth – a small cemetery hidden in the forest off Call Hollow Road comprised of about 900 shallow graves, most of them about the size of a child. In place of names, the graves are merely numbered. Following a report in the New York Times about the graveyard, public outcry eventually led to a memorial, which lists those who are buried there under the inscription "Those who shall not be forgotten."

Like so many other closed and abandoned mental institutions, acres of the grounds at Letchworth Village have been left to simply rot and be retaken by nature, adding credence to the hoary horror movie trope of the creepy abandoned institution with the disturbing past. While some of the buildings have been repurposed, and parts of the grounds have been transformed into a golf course and public park, many of the neo-classical buildings are still left abandoned and in utter disrepair. While the once-high principals of a utopian village are slowly crumbling into ruin, it can be a peculiar sight to see groups of golfers and families walking their dogs against such a disturbing backdrop.

Additional material from Luke J Spencer (Author)

Related Tags

Abandoned Insane Asylums Abandoned Hospitals Abandoned Ruins Graveyards Cemeteries

Know Before You Go

Letchworth Village is located in Thiells, New York, off the Palisades Parkway. A large portion of the property is now a public park, with many of the abandoned buildings only feet away from walking paths. However, posted signs warn that visitors must remain on the paved paths at all times and are strictly prohibited from entering any of the buildings. The local police patrol the property fairly regularly and will arrest trespassers.

Community Contributors

Added By

fleshxharvest

Edited By

Molly McBride Jacobson, boydestruction, dlc31723, Allison...

  • Molly McBride Jacobson
  • boydestruction
  • dlc31723
  • Allison
  • EricGrundhauser
  • dkphotology
  • Angela1828
  • th4698
  • missingfilm
  • Miscellaneous Juice
  • jmexplorations18
  • TheKopasClan
  • merstar81
  • Housatonic
  • EmilGH
  • julez7
  • jmocklin

Published

November 17, 2014

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Sources
  • http://abandonednyc.com/2012/08/05/legend-tripping-in-letchworth-village/
  • http://minskysabandonedamerica.com/2015/08/13/letchworth-village/
  • http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/13/nyregion/13towns.html?_r=0
  • http://heresdave.com/2013/10/24/the-deplorable-letchworth-village-insane-asylum/
  • http://www.weirdus.com/states/new_york/abandoned/letchwork_village/
Letchworth Village
Letchworth Village
Thiells, New York, 10984
United States
41.212429, -74.023462
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