Washbasin Trough Along a Patient Ward at Kings Park Psychiatric Center

Kings Park Psychiatric Center opened in 1885 as the Kings County Farm for the Insane, later expanding under state control into dozens of buildings across its Long Island campus. At its peak in the 1950s, the facility housed more than 9,000 patients and operated largely as a self-sufficient community, with its own power plant, farm, and staff housing. Wards like this one were built with rows of small patient rooms off a central corridor, a layout common to state hospitals designed for custodial care rather than treatment. The state began closing buildings in the 1980s as psychiatric care shifted toward outpatient models, and the campus was fully decommissioned by 1996.