In 1927,
Governor Alfred Smith of New York pressed the legislature for money to build a
hospital with a minimum of 10,000 beds to relieve the overcrowding in other state
hospitals, Kings Park State Hospital and Central Islip State Hospital. By 1929,
construction began for Pilgrim State Hospital and it was named after Dr.
Charles W. Pilgrim, who was the Commissioner of Mental Health in the early
1900s. It officially opened on October 1, 1931 on 825 acres on Long Island and
100 patients transferred from Central Islip State Hospital. It was the largest
facility of its kind when it was built, according to New York State Office of
Mental Health (2019). In nine months, there were 2,018 patients who were
hospitalized at Pilgrim State Hospital. In 1954, it’s number of patients
reached its peak at 13,875 patients as well as 4,000 employees. Pilgrim State
Hospital opened as a small community that included its own police and fire
department, post office, train station, power plant, swine farm, church,
cemetery and water tower. Houses were also available for staff and
administrators to live in. Underground tunnels were used to route utilities. There
were multiple sets of buildings that did follow the Kirkbride design with the
“wing-like” additions on a main building in the middle. The additions did not
stretch out as long as other Kirkbride hospital designs. There were also sets
of buildings known as quads, which were four buildings placed around a center
building.
Pilgrim State
Hospital, as well as Kings Park and Central Islip, were considered “farm
colonies” because of their live-and-work treatment programs, agricultural focus
and patient facilities. The idea of the farm colonies was that mentally ill
patients could receive treatment while also working on the farm doing a variety
of different jobs that would help them to recover from their mental illness. As
the number of patients continued to grow, the state of New York decided to
expand its service by building Edgewood State Hospital as a subsidiary of
Pilgrim State Hospital. During World War II, the government took control of
Edgewood State Hospital along with three buildings of Pilgrim State Hospital and
renamed it Mason General Hospital. This psychiatric hospital was used to treat
soldiers returning from war who had been traumatized.
As psychiatric
medications and community care became options for patients instead of living in
an institute, the number of patients began to decline in all psychiatric
hospitals. Edgewood State Hospital closed in 1971 and parts of the Pilgram
campus began closing in the 1970s and 1980s. Several buildings were used as a
correctional facility in the 1980s but then were reverted for psychiatric care.
In 1996, Central Islip and Kings Park transferred their remaining patients to Pilgram,
and the two facilities closed due to declining patient populations.
Long Island Psychiatric Museum is currently located in
three rooms of Building 45 on the Pilgrim Psychiatric Center campus. The museum
displays photographs of patients playing softball, acting in a play and weaving
rugs in an occupational therapy session (NY Times, 2002). There is also a piece
of a wall mural one of the patients had created. The museum also has on display
an old console used in electro-convulsive therapy; commonly known as shock
therapy. Pilgrim continues to use the controversial shock therapy as a form of
treatment today. The evidence of lobotomies performed at Pilgram State Hospital
is absent from the museum, which is also debated about the truth being hidden
from the public about what truly happened at the hospital.
Pilgrim Psychiatric
Center, formerly known as Pilgrim State Hospital, is still open today but has
downsized considerably since it was initially built. Today, Pilgram provides
inpatient and outpatient psychiatric, residential and related services to patients
with approximately 275 inpatient beds, four outpatient treatment centers and
one assertive community treatment (ACT) team. There are 12 inpatient wards, 2
geriatric wards and seven psychiatric rehabilitation wards at Pilgram Psychiatric
Center (New York State Office of Mental Health, 2019).
I was unable
to find specific patient experiences or narratives about their time at Pilgram
Psychiatric Center, but I was able to find this collection of photographs from
Time Magazine. It shows 24 pictures of patients in 1938 at Pilgram and I think
the pictures speak for themselves about how patients were treated. Many of them
in straightjackets, have a lack of expression on their face and were forced
into treatments they probably did not want to do and that were still
experimental at that time. This is the link to see the photos; if you click on
the picture on the top, it will bring you to the other ones to scroll through- https://time.com/3506058/strangers-to-reason-life-inside-a-psychiatric-hospital-1938/
I do not think I would
have wanted to be a patient at Pilgrim Psychiatric Center. Especially at the
time it opened for patients in the 1930s, treatment was so poor for anyone who
was believed to be mentally ill. Medications were still experimental, and
doctors were still determining the side effects and dosages of anti-psychotic
medications as they were being introduced in the 1950s. I think many people
were used as guinea pigs and their lives were forever changed because of the
treatment they received. I think the pictures in the link above show how
patients were treated and the effects of the treatment so after seeing those
and reading all the information I did about this state hospital, no, I would not
want treatment there.
Lindsay- I definitely agree with your assessment I would not want to be hospitalized at the Pilgram Psychiatric Center after viewing these pictures (and for the many reasons you named about the time period). It's so sad to think of people who were hospitalized for reasons which did not relate to their mental status.
ReplyDelete