Overgrown Exterior of a Ward Building at Kings Park Psychiatric Center

Kings Park Psychiatric Center opened in 1885 as the Kings Park State Hospital, established by Long Island municipalities to house patients transferred from overcrowded Brooklyn and Manhattan asylums. The state took over operation in 1895, and the campus eventually grew to more than 150 buildings spread across roughly 875 acres on Long Island's north shore. At its peak population in the 1950s, the hospital held more than 9,000 patients, making it one of the largest psychiatric institutions in the country. Changing treatment practices and the push toward deinstitutionalization led to a steady decline in the population, and the facility closed in 1996. Many of its brick ward buildings, including multi-story dormitory structures like this one, have stood vacant ever since, with the surrounding grounds now part of Nissequogue River State Park.