Peeling Ward Door with Brass Knob at Kings Park Psychiatric Center

Kings Park Psychiatric Center opened in 1885 as the Kings County Farm for the Insane, eventually growing to more than 150 buildings across its Long Island campus. At its peak population in the 1950s, the state hospital housed over 9,000 patients, many treated in wards connected by tunnels and covered walkways. New York State began downsizing the facility in the 1980s as mental health care shifted toward outpatient treatment, and the hospital closed entirely in 1996. Many of its original doors, hardware, and fixtures remain untouched since the buildings were vacated, left to decay under decades of exposure.

Taken September 2008