Abandoned Asylum - The Disgrace of Letchworth Village
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- čas přidán 30. 10. 2011
- In 1909, New York opened a brand new facility for the aid and housing of, as the literature declares, the "feeble minded and epileptics" of that state. The new facility was named for William Pryor Letchworth, a key player in its creation, and a noted humanitarian of the time. In order to avoid creating an institutional environment for the patients, the grounds were arranged much like a college campus, with a multitude of structures dotting the landscape. The buildings were relatively small, typically not exceeding two stories in height, and were inspired by the aesthetics of Greek architecture. Walls of carefully hand-cut stone punctuated by arched windows and column-girded doorways could be found at every turn. Short walks across grassy lawns separated the buildings, and the greater campus, known as Letchworth Village, housed its own power plant, farmland, waste disposal and water supply. It was the first of its breed - A village-styled hospital center that was all-inclusive and could operate completely isolated from the outside world...
The full story can be found here -
antiquityechoes.blogspot.com/2...
Documentary audio and video clips were taken from
"The Last Great Disgrace" a 1970's exposé about Willowbrook and Letchworth Village by Geraldo Rivera.
Music - "The Host of Seraphim" by Dead Can Dance - Zábava
I lived in Haverstraw from 1964 to 1966. Every weekend we'd go visit my grandparents in the Bronx, and on the way home we'd get off exit 13 off Palisades Pkwy., turn right onto Filors Lane towards 9W. Every weekend, there would be a black guy, his name was Walter but he looked like Chuck Berry, he'd be sitting on the bridge across from Letchworth. He was obviously a patient there.
My father, who was hard as nails, bitter and angry all the time, would stop the car, get out, and give Walter a couple of packs of cigarettes and a handshake. It was one of his few displays of humanity, and now, over 50 years later, I still remember those stops.
I was a student and resident of Spring Valley and Nyack during the late 60s to late 70s and had friends that worked at both Letchworth and Rockland State Hospital- both places were dumping grounds for the unwanted of NYC. When Geraldo Rivera mentioned the children without clothes I remember one of my college roommates talking about rooms full of disabled youth with no clothes that would simply be hosed down each day with little effort to cloth them- they wouldn't keep clothes on anyway in that situation- way too many children, way too few staff. Very sad era.
I worked at St. Agatha Home for Children in Nanuet, NY and if there's any bright side to those days it's that a number of 'kids' from that place have come together for reunions and to support each other. It was wonderful to see that some of the kids I worked with are now adults doing okay for themselves after a very rough start in life- coming from homes where the parents either didn't or couldn't care for them.
In Bulgaria, Serbia, and Romania there were a lot of "care homes" very similar to Letchworth and Willowbrook, which have all thankfully been closed down and the former residents were placed into smaller homes with much better care. Unbelievable how homes like these were allowed to exist here in America, and even now, society's attitudes toward disabled people need a lot of improvement.
So SAD and HEARTBREAKING! When these poor souls pass away...all they receive in their loving memory is a number. This is how we treat and care for our fellow human beings? What a disgrace! All these people and the State should be uturally ashamed. God help us all....
I've been doing an ancestry search for my grandfather and got a hint that he was an inmate at this awful place. He was adopted and then possibly orphaned and placed here. Though I haven't confirmed this information yet, this story breaks my heart. What a horrible despicable place. It's good to know they shut it down.
Having Cerebral Palsy myself, I can only imagine being treated like this. I understand that the staff may have worked their asses off but the place was dirty beyond belief, under staffed, and the people were treated like animals. Sara Bogart a staff member who used to work there confirmed this. She was one of the very few who gave a crap at all about these patients, and would even come in on her days off and try and help, They used one medication spoon for 80 patients and shoved food down their throats! There was poop smeared on the floors, and some ran around un-clothed. They buried the corpses in un-marked graves, and stored their brains inside jars after they died!! Working hard or not that is just plain unacceptable!
The government and state should be ashamed, disgraced and held accountable for prosecution, how dare you treat human being this way, how dare you subject children to such inhumanity and under staff such a facility. The disgrace here is not the people that inhibited these places or the staff but the state that set this facility up to fail and failed yes FAILED to fund the proper care for these people ....yes people not animals...care they required....you let your own society and fellow humans down...you are the animals not those that you incarcerated behind this walls to be tortured. Urgh may you politicians all be judged for this gross misjustice in the health so called CARE system. May the dead ever make noise so the living may one day listen. Ashamed at the past and ashamed they are so forgotten, deliberately and swept under the carpet like dust. May the people who should be held responsible ever be judged by their maker. I am saddened beyond words by this, America. You should be ashamed of the way your government treats its people and continues to politically blind site you. FREEDOM IS NOT A WORD i see here....can you tell me you do? You watch these documentaries on this asylum and tell me that more funding went into the cost of the construction of these buildings more so than any care for the inhabitants. You tell me this is a place of care!!!! Its not its a place of H_____
went here and tripped on shrooms, very cool. perfect place and as long as you do not interact or bother the spirits/entities they will not bother you. was with my friend and we watched as dark entities roamed throughout the rooms. do not be afraid of spirits, but be respectful. they are peaceful mostly and were probably happy to see some life in the building as we were blasting music and having a great time. we were by the factory part of the institution in one of the lounge buildings (across from the giant smoke stack). awesome area, awesome atmosphere. might i add it was also my first time on shrooms but my fourth time visiting letchworth.
Broo I wanna do this, I would be so afraid tho
I love how my school is right next to Letchworth.
Ive been there a handful of time back around 2006-2008 .. the place is no joke haunted like without a shadow of a doubt
my brother God bless his soul was a patient here in the 60's so sad this place was so bad i am now writing a blog about my brother
The grave markers with just numbers really got to me. Would it have been so much more expensive to put a name and a date on them? Even in death, these people were treated as they were in life... just a number. So sad.
I feel the same way, it astounds me to think that they could do that to people...
I spent last Summer in Stony Point and became absolutely fascinated by this place.
So like yesterday I was curious about this place so me and a bunch of friends snuck in and explore. Shot was creepy, we even saw what seemed to be a morgue or something. On the wall of the building someone wrote in graffiti “have reverence for those who died in these walls, be safe, drink water, fuck the system” we explored the main building then dipped. The next morning I was thinking about that and looked up this place and found this video. It’s crazy to think that so much terrible things happened in that building, and then it was abandoned and left to rot. Still can’t believe I was there.
I went with my cousins two years ago at 1am and we were scared to death. I have footage. It was a crazy experience. My sister said she was pulled away from a corridor we were about to enter and we got the hell out of there.
This is probably the most well crafted video about letchworth u can certainly tell there was hard work put into this
Heartbreaking & unforgiveable that those poor dear children had to suffer such appalling neglect. Why the hell was it allowed to happen?!!
What a powerful video. I agree, great job editing and footage. The song also fit perfectly; such a devastating tragedy. My brother is mentally disable, and I cannot even imagining him being in such conditions. I am happy he and other disabled children can get the care they need. Unfortunately, those at Letchworth could not. I can only hope they are at peace now. Thank you for sharing.
all those graves without headstones :( those poor souls
Yep.. it's sad back then how they treated these people with mental health issue (sorry if my english is bad trying my best) but yea i think its really sad. i agree with you for the poor souls tho :/
Thank you very much... Now it's not just a bunch of abandoned buildings, it's people who were called patients, but they were PEOPLE... My heart especially hurts for the young lady with her hand over her face crying at the beginning.. You don't have to look very hard to see that it's hopelessness she's weeping about...
Not to mention the graves with nothing but a number on them, that was kinda hard to look at.
As a teenager I worked just up the road as camp councler at camp venture a summer camp for special needs kids.On the bus ride to camp venture we would stop in letchworth village to pick up a couple kids for camp.I rember how sad I felt seeing all those people and how they lived it still haunts me as an adult to this day.
Rip to everyone who passed away there
Uff I had to pass through this building today; at the end of the road there are some governmental offices and I have to say this place gave me chills just by looking at it. I have to go again next month and I not looking forward to it.
That's the DDSO I worked there that's for the patients to go for appointments
William Letchworth may have had good intentions.....however, the disgrace of the conditions of the patients as well as the environment they lived in...falls on the doctors and nurses that "cared" for these children and adults.....the nurses, if they felt the patients were not getting proper care...should have contacted the medical board. I blame all staff members involved....YOU had a voice, the patients did not!!!.....I hope those staff members still alive.....sleep well at night knowing they were part of this horrible and disgraceful care.
I worked in the field of Developmentally Disabled as a Behavioral Therapist for many years. THIS institution was the example in all our training services. I would talk about how times had changed from the 60's....1969 time frame when this documentary came out, shocking the world, actually. It was extremely grotesque and showed EXACTLY what the majority...not all...but the majority of Government run facilities (institutions) for the "mentally retarded" (I always hated that term)...we're REALLY like. Of course, this was also the time of Deinstitutionalization of "Asylums", Psychiatric Hospitals. It was no surprise really once you found out the horrifying conditions of State Hospitals for the Mentally Ill that it would be found out that State Hospitals for MR/DD would be just as horrifying. This video...most importantly, along with a few others, is what started actual Boards of MR/DD in every county of EVERY STATE in the United States. AND, in other countries, too. England, Australia, and other countries witnessed the horrors of these videos (movies) and along with the U.S. instituted new laws, governing boards, human rights committees, Behavioral committees, etc. What an awesome video you've done!!! Shows a fitting end to such a horrific place. Interesting how such a beautiful and pristine place on the outside can hide such a horror on the inside, isn't it?! Did you notice the graveyard? One of the things I battled while working in the field of Developmental Disabilities was the anger and sorrow many adults AND children had because their families dropped them off at the group homes and forgot about them. Maybe would stop by and see them 2 X a year. Some, now unburdened from their brother, sister, son, or daughter who were developmentally disabled found it refreshing to be untied from the restraints they felt they had on them, taking care of their family member. So, they found it very easy to move far away and be free. Never to stop in and see their family member again. Now, we DID have MANY families VERY involved, and that was great. But, I always felt bad for those who had been dropped off and basically forgotten. What a fitting end for a decrepit place. Also shows the results of Government-Run Institutions.
Let me add... Deinstitutionalization of THESE facilities that dealt with MR/DD actually was done very well. As laws became enacted, Boards of MR/DD's were started, and Group Homes with much smaller groups were built, life for these individuals became much, much better. On the other hand, Deinstitutionalization of State Mental Hospital (which also held dually diagnosed individuals...MI/DD) was an abject failure due to thoughtless foresight. A liberal plan FOR THE MONENT (traumatised by the knowledge of what went on in these institutions, and the desire for immediate change) without PLANNING for the FUTURE. So, they decide to shut the Hospitals down. And, don't get me wrong, they should have been. They were to be replaced by their families...as well as, neighbourhood mental health centers...like a Med Express of today. Putting NO THOUGHT on how the families would react bringing an individual who was mentally ill...and...also possibly dangerously aggressive (that's right...ALL were being taken out of these Hospitals) into their homes. For many, parents who had raised these individuals until they couldn't handle their behaviors any longer to to increased danger, or the parent's increased ages were now dead, and siblings, other relatives who may have NEVER thought they'd be told to come and pick up their relative on this date at this time. They will be living with you, now. And, these people may have families, young children, or they may be elderly aunts and uncles...This was a cluster F--k in the making, all the way!!! So, these people now being told that their relative with severe schizophrenia, or delutions, or auditory/visual hallucinations, and other forms of mental illness would say...NO WAY are we putting our family in danger. At the same time, money set aside by the government was quickly running out to build these community mental health facilities. Some had been built, many had not. However, the patients in these Institutions cintinued to flow rapidly out the front doors. And, this is NO exaggeration. Many were given a month's worth of there medication, taken to hotels where room and board had been set up for approximately one month, and left to fend for themselves. Unbelievable!! Our Government in full ass face mode. Many of these individuals became the Homeless of today. Interestingly...as the mental hospital institutions were declining in population, the criminal institutions...(jails, prisons) were rapidly increasing. Today, Prisons have become the Asylums of yesterday. Our Prison System is filled with the mentally ill. And Prison staff and facilities were not meant to be mental health facilities. They're Prisons. So, the judicial system has had to adjust...some very well, others poorly to a population that can be 34% to 48% filled with those with severe mental illness. Another absurd idea was the pixy dust thought that the individuals who lived on their own would be able to visit these mental health facilities and seek counseling, Psychiatric help, their medications...medications that keep their illness in check...Hmmm. Remember, many of the facilities weren't even built because of lack of funding. So...have you known people who have...say...bipolar. They take their meds, and do very well...the bipolar is in check. Functioning normal in society is successful. But, after a while of feeling "healed" they decide, "Hey! I don't need these meds! I'm cured!". Yeah...how many people who used all their meds...or even sold their psychotropics for money to live on, and now are deep into their mental illness are going to go to some facility to get a refill. ALMOST NO ONE! This whole idea of deinstitutionalization of State Mental Health Institutions was a good idea gone horribly wrong due to lack of forethought and preparation. Instead of making life better, citizens on the outside were placed in danger...without a warning...patients of these monstrosities were placed in danger, and left for homelessness, and asserted the right to be medicated or not. When, during lucid times because of being medicated they would have said, "Heck yeah! I am in control of my life when I'm on my medications!" But, have no thought other than the voices in their head when fully engulfed in their illness...while there's NO thought at all about medications...and the control they once had. Simply it was and continues to be a government's.... Liberal, Republican, and Judicial...lack of brain matter on parade. The total lack of planning due to the desire for immediate change for tremendous pats on the backs for showing care to the mentally ill place EVERYONE in grave danger. And actually, for thousands and thousands who were victimized in these Hell Holes they continued being victimized having to turn to street drugs, sell THEIR drugs for survival, turn to prostitution, commit suicide, commit heinous crimes and ending up in another institution...Where is the wonderful result of doing this WONDERFUL thing...shutting down these hospitals. Sure, there's some who managed to crawl out of the grips of Mental Illness to continue their services and medications, etc. These people you could say .."made it". Although, mental illness stigmatizes tremendously. Many don't understand it....nor do they try to. So, how far they "made it" may have not been tremendously far.
Patients here were given 30 minutes to eat, some choked on their food while the care workers shoved it down their throat and while being given medicine all the patients shared the same spoon. These people were treated worse than animals. All they wanted were basic human things but they couldn't express it. I feel so bad for the people that were stuck here. My brother has downs syndrome and I'm so glad he wasn't stuck in a place like this.
I have watched several of your videos and they are all amazing, Thank you for posting them.
My great aunt worked here for years according to my father. My grandpa used sing the Ballad of Dwight Fry going through the halls to pick her up.
i’ve been here a bunch, i’ve been in most of the buildings too. scary place, we ended up finding the crematorium and there was a big pentagram in the middle of the floor. found the morgue too.
Oncee again great work! Great song as well!
Excellent video editing and footage. I hope to visit this place sometime during the summer.
Sorry you feel this way, especially since it seems you are someone who actually cared a lot for the well-being of the patients. We know that the typical culprit of neglect with state institutions was not the care-givers, but the severe lack of funding, and that staff had to do the best with what they had available to them. Surely there were good times for patients at Letchworth Village, but we need also remember just how bad things got, else the lessons from those times will be lost.
I went to explore Letchworth Village and it was fun. I am planning to go back there very soon.
I live by this place. My grandmother and her sisters and cousin worked there.... They didn't work directly with the patients but they did tell me stories about the place. Unfortunately they were all true. That cemetery that they showed was originally a dumping ground but when the state found out they covered up saying it was the cemetery. Since then its been taken care of. However the buildings themselves are either abandoned or being used for schools and courthouses.
those who have past are now perfect in bliss with Jesus Christ
My uncle was sent there for several years back in 1940 when he was 8 years old for commiting an assault. He told us about the severe abuse and cruelty of the staff. Not sexual abuse but physical and mental. He died in 1996. The same year Letchworth closed.
No way sorry for the lost
At least he fought hard in letchworth and survived... I want to fix up the place
i lived in rockland for 18 years been in those building alot and i can tell you that they still haunt that place. My aunt worked there they used to test medicine on the patients to see if it would be safe for humans.
i've been there before...and this place is no joke....it's haunted...
Though the Geraldo exposé "The Last Great Disgrace" did primarily focus upon Willowbrook and the atrocities found therein, all the footage featured in our video is indeed from Letchworth Village. Geraldo visited the site on several different occasions, the end result of which is a roughly 7-9 minute interlude in his documentary, which is otherwise almost entirely about the old Willowbrook State School.
At 1:22 I noticed Elwood Blues standing in the background while a nurse was being interviewed. Crazy, man!
Very beautifully done!!😊
Thank you very much!
Overcrowding and underfunding seems to be key problems for all these institutions, as well as the global view of what to do with said patients. So sad.
I went tonight, yesterday, and many, many times…. I love this place…. Have had some interesting experiences here 👻…. I think everybody can agree, some kind of energy here always makes you want to go back..
This place could be haunted like Pen Hurst
Yeah i saw a ghost here on sunday
I visited the hospital as a child and my parents once worked there. NY had at least a dozen such hospitals on extensive grounds with lakes, farms, tennis courts. They were intended to be nice places but deteriorated over time. Looking at the ruins does not give a fair picture of what they were like. On the outside they looked like slightly seedy college campuses. Unfortunately I never got to see inside the locked wards so I don't know what might have been going on but the doctors who worked there were good people, not Nazis, and one problem was that the attendants they hired were local punks who mistreated the patients. I guess underfunding was a major problem. Seclusion may have been a problem too since it's a lot more tempting to let things go to seed when nobody's going to know. The patients tended to be poor and neglected by relatives I suspect.
This almost made me cry.
My dad did pluming in this place. I'm glad he didn't work here again
I am so sorry that this had to happen to you.And to so many other's.
It should never had happened.
I can not even really begin to imagine personally the torture of having to stay there was for you.
From just one person, being me, in the Medical Profession, I say I am truelly sorry that you were not cared for like every human deserves to be treated.
I'm with you, it looks absolutely bonkers.
I love your videos their amazing, i have the book forsaken its awesome, Its so sad for what happened to the patients at letchworth village
1:27 Is that Jim Belushi in the background ?
I live in rockland county and I've been here and it's creepy
So follow up since I’m just seeing my comment now, me and my friends went here and the local haverstaw police have cracked down a lot more on people being near the buildings, we got busted but they were not so mean about it so we had to leave, this place also was still functions in parts, some of it as a town hall and the other parts as government building and school property
I live near the village😕
I used to pass it all it all the time wondering what it was. But then I did my research 🙁
Reminds me of facilities I saw in Russia..amazing how we pretend to be ABOVE things like this yet it is a huge part of our history...
There is one good thing that came out of it, Fieldstone Middle School
In montvale?
@@spencer1045 North rockland
Love that I go to school there😂( cause they turned some of the buildings into a middle school)
I saw a film about a children's home in Bulgaria and it was just like this :'c the film is "Bulgaria's Abandoned Children".
Someone I know, who was familiar with Letchworth Village, called it "Leavenworth Village." Now I see why.
i was there last night, i couldn't agree with you more
my teacher went in there at night with her friend when she was in highschool. i would cry
where did you get the footage of letchworth? the old ones.
It did kinda broke my heart really...
The group homes scattered throughout upstate NY aren't much better, especially the staff. They don't give a crap.
Our mental healthcare system as a whole is shameful.
@@AntiquityEchoes Yes it certainly is.
I am sorry and I truly wish you well.
A bit like Hotel California - you can check in but you can never leave!
I was here 2 weeks ago, it's crazy.
This video just breaks my heart... To know that people were treated like animals in the country I call home.... :/
Went there, you gotta visit it to get the real feel.
Down the street is my school I always wonder what this place is
im looking for the acual documentary for Letchworth Village. It wouldnt happen to be on youtube would it?
I have been trying to find the old CBS news of letchworth villiage report . dose anyone know where the full report is?????
Mother nature tries to destroy it with the roots of plants and trees
Its as if mother nature herself is so disgusted of what happened here, that she wishes to destroy the entire facility itself.
I slept here for a week
When I was getting picked up my friends wanted to take the cookbook
It had the instructions for full frontal lobotomy they took it the car turned off our blunt went out and the vents filled with moths the car
We turned back and put the book back
Lol right
I slept there for FIVE weeks and I took a file folder with all of the names of the deceased patients, when I got back to my house all the lightbulbs blew up and my pet pig started floating through the sky until HE BLEW UP LIKE THE LIGHTBULBS! I took the folder back the same night and now I live there with William Shakespeare
So unbelievably sad. Thank goddess things have changed even though we still have a problem with people not getting mental health care, including me. 😔
jdrose1000 no clinics?
I live down the road from here. I photograph it a lot. When you walk anywhere inside, you can feel the sadness. I've found patient files, lawyer letters, xrays, dental records, etc.. Its such a sad place. I have some photos on my deviantart photo site:
wwwDOTcerenaleigh.deviantartDOTcom/gallery/?offset=24
Fucked up that I was just there
I had some messed up nightmares after watching this in Ghost Adventures.
i feel so bad for the people who lost their lives & was treated awful even they have disabillities & that place gave me the creeps when i watch ghost adventues they said a dark figure goes their & is 7 foot with glowing white eyes with legs bent backwards he might be an evil spirt or demonic so be extremly careful their
How could the government get away with this ?😮
Very good question.
Because its the government they play by there rules
Thats such a sad story, ever since ive heard of this place it has interested me. If you dont take offense to me asking but im trying to find places to ghost hunt without disrespecting anyone, but how hard or patrolled is it?
All these spots have such a horrible history.
I'm trying to find the Full documentary online if anyone could help me with that I would appreciate it
Im pretty sure if you type willowbrook on youtube there is one video I believe is 23 mins long.
i believe this is from an ABC news piece on the place rather than a full documentary, aired in the 70s
its sad what man can do to man. the numbered graves is sad too. they could of at least put there name. not a reference number to there file. it would be interesting if they dug up one of the graves to see what kind of abuse could be found.. my guess a lot.. but at this point.. i say let them rest. at least no more hell being in that place. this video makes me think of the 80s hair band white lion, and the song when children cried. rock on.
I useted have a friend in this place , one time she took sick and were in the hospital she may friend with a 17 year old girl same as her my friend said to me that the doctor tell the worked To take her to one of the room and inject an injection call a Anastasia an kill her Burrie her make cross with a num an that was its all those people death , didn't die by any sickness , their all was mouders .
Wow the dead are just numbers....that really got to me....
damn i remember the days of them mowing behind the building and being able to walk up that path
its so over grown now :(
This wasn't a hospital it was a freakin torture house
I remember I went thru the tunnels without a mask and could barely breathe on top of that there where some pretty fat spiders shit was so fucked
Where are the tunnels located? I went a couple days ago and couldn’t find much of it.
Where is the cemetery from? My uncle was in Letchworth Village before I was born and I'd like to go see the cemetery.
i stayed at willowbrook state school i was in there from the time i was 3 tell i was 13 today i am 40 and being locked up in there still effects me today when i am sleeping bad things wake me up. i don't trust people. i flinch when people touch me from behind. and i don't really miss being loved by someone because i never had it when i was a child. i was put in there because i was heard of hearing and because i could hear some they thought i was retarded and off i went.
Can I use some of the clips from this video in my video that I'm planning to do
That shouldn't be an issue, typically we just ask for credit or a link back in the credit text. Can we know a bit more about the video you're making?
@@AntiquityEchoes no response.... it must’ve been a porno
It's named after my home town of Letchworth Garden City in the UK and all I have to say is that...It's a disgrace to the name Letchworth.
I don't think you understand Letchworth and how hard it is to raise a handicapped person, some of them refused to eat and sleep and even wear clothes. It was a glorified statement and even though it's abandoned now, a nice Middle School has been created that connects to some of the buildings
No…it was named after the man who funded the buildings. It’s nothing to do with Letchworth Herts (where my husband grew up, btw, on the Jackmans.)
the documentary is called 'the last great disgrace' by abc but i haven't found the full doc yet if i do ill post it in a comment
It turned into my school and I have to got to that school next year
Does anyone know the name of this music ?
i knew that was dead can dance...I'm lookin for the documentary too
ever find the full documentary?
@Brian No matter what you find on line will not do these places justice, If you have the avail. go to the town & look at the reality of what was to be an awsome idea & the hell it turned into!
Es gibt im Internet Foto's von Leuten die diesen Ort besucht haben. Ich habe auch die " Geister" auf den Foto's gesehen ,die mit im Bild sind auf denen Leute fotografiert wurden. Und mir ist dieser weiße Fleck auch nicht entgangen, der ebenfalls immer im Bild ist. Was also ist das?
my mom has a friend who used to work here
wow.
Its easy to complain about stuff. Its harder to actually do something...
I feel you're pain bro