Hudson River State Hospital March 17

DirtyJigsaw · Apr 3, 2017

Afternoon All,

Here is another hospital i visited whilst in the States. Was about a 3.5 hour drive from where i was staying in Rhode Island so was up early for this one to make our way here. Once there, we parked up and was shocked to see how much more snow there was here than there was in RI. Making our way up the hill out of sight was a mission on its own through the knee deep snow, but once up and in the building, it was all good.....until we had to move to the other buildings, it would be obvious to security someone was there due to us leaving tracks, but we made our way over the the main buildings and got inside. It became apparently that we must have been alone that day as when we were relaxing on the roof in the sun, we hadnt seen anyone else, heard any cars or anything. ALl of the roads inside the campus had been ploughed, but we must have just got lucky i suppose.

Some history from the interweb

The Hudson River State Hospital, is a former New York state psychiatric hospital which operated from 1873 until its closure in the early 2000s. The campus is notable for its main building, known as a "Kirkbride," which has been designated a National Historic Landmark due to its exemplary High Victorian Gothic architecture, the first use of that style for an American institutional building.[2][3] It is located on US 9 on the Poughkeepsie-Hyde Park town line.

Frederick Clarke Withers designed the hospital's buildings in 1867. Calvert Vaux and Frederick Law Olmsted designed the grounds. It was intended to be completed quickly, but went far over its original schedule and budget. The hospital opened on October 18, 1871 as the Hudson River State Hospital for the Insane[4] and admitted its first 40 patients. Construction, however, was far from over and would continue for another 25 years. A century later, it was slowly closed down as psychiatric treatment had changed enough that large hospitals were no longer needed, and its services had been served by the nearby Hudson River Psychiatric Center until that facility's closure in January 2012.

The campus was closed and abandoned in 2003 and since then has fallen into a state of disrepair. Authorities struggle with the risk of arson and vandals after suspicion of an intentionally set fire. The male bedding ward, south of the main building, was critically damaged in a 2007 fire caused by lightning. The property was sold to an unnamed buyer in November 2013.[5]

Heres afew shots i took

1.