Abandoned Ward Building, Kings Park Psychiatric Center, New York

Kings Park Psychiatric Center opened in 1885 as the Kings Park State Hospital, built to relieve overcrowding at other New York asylums. At its peak in the 1950s, the facility housed more than 9,000 patients across dozens of buildings on a sprawling campus in Suffolk County, Long Island. Many of its brick ward buildings were constructed in the early to mid-20th century to accommodate the growing patient population under the state's mental health policies. The hospital shifted toward deinstitutionalization in the 1970s and 1980s as treatment approaches changed and patient numbers declined sharply. It closed permanently in 1996, and much of the property was later transferred to New York State Parks, leaving many of the original structures vacant.

Photo taken in September 2008.