The solariums were the smoking areas in wards of buildings 22 and 24 until OMH (The Office of Mental Health) banned smoking indoors in all of their buildings. Smoking cigarettes and drinking coffee were the two primary luxuries enjoyed by the patients. The Canteen was located across campus and sold cigarettes, loose tobacco and rolling papers. Chew was more of a Southern and rural "Upstate" New York thing. There was also Coffee, candy, burgers and icecream available for those with funds usually acquired from on campus jobs in various capacities from sheltered workshops to maintenance, food service, social work and clerical assistants. The folks fortunate enough to have a meager income from part-time on campus work would usually be pretty generous with their limited resources and help out the folks who had none with a cup of coffee and some smokes from time to time. There was no glass in the steel grates of these solariums so it was pretty cool in there during the winter.

Of all of the Grafitti on the walls and doors around the campus, the references "FATIMA" and the date were most prominent in and around building 23 during the 80's and into the 90's. Look up Fatima and Visions. I believe the date on all of these inscriptions was 1911 or 1918. I never found out who the patient was who kept reinscribing those messages everytime they were washed off or painted over. Eventually, I think Maintenance just left them there. They are cryptic references to visions of the Virgin Mary at Fatima around the time of the First World War in Europe which ended in 1918. Those grafitti messages, very neatly inscribed showed up all over the campus, but most of them were in and around buildings 22 - 23 - 24 and in the tunnels below the buildings.

The tunnels were common in most of the psychiatric hospitals on Long Island and quite extensive. They existed so that large groups of patients could be moved from building to building securely when there were secutiry concerns or just to protect the patients from the weather. Pilgrim, Kings Park, Central Islip and the Vetrerans Hospital in Northport, just West of Kings Park, had extensive tunnel networks. The Veterans Hospital on Middleton Road is still quite active and the tunnels are in use now. The "ghost" stories about the tunnels are intriguing and as was pointed out, an awful lot of people died in these places over the past century, but you can see what they look like when they are maintained by visiting the Veteran's Hospital in Northport, NY which is just off of Rte 25A between Kings Park and the Village of Huntington. Perhpas you can call and ask if they need any volunteers. There is also a very nicely maintained 9 hole golf course for the vets as well.

I'm not sure which building this was shot at. In buildings 22 and 24 there were two wards per floor in each building and there were three floors. I would imagine that this would one of those wards. The central room of each ward was called the "ROTUNDA" and had platered domed ceilings. The Nursing Office, Dining Room, Ward Main Entrance (Locked) Door, the Bathroom/Shower/Laundry Room, the Dayroom and the Hallway to the Patient's Dormitory Area all ran off of this central "ROTUNDA" The Dormitroy Area contained two (2) rooms with simple metal frame beds, upon whidh were institutional matteresses. The beds were packed pretty tightly toghether. Most wards had about 35 patients (There were no bunkbeds only singles on the floor for safety). The photographs of the caged solariaums at the end of each floor are of these buildings. The caged solariums were smoking areas until OMH banned smoiking indoors in all of their buildings. The Dayrooms usually contained a bookshelf or two, a pool table, a ping pong table and a bunch of padded charrs with a few loveseats here and there. There were no fullsize sofas to prevent patients from sleeping all day long on the couches. Many of the patients were so sedated they could barely keep their eyes open, but they were not allowed to lay down during the day as the door to the dorm area was locked and the MHTA staff admonished them frequently for lying in "fetal positions" on the tiny loveseats. Sometimes there was a lively game of Spades, the Television was on constantly. Some of the patients with Honor Cards would take collections and orders from the other folks without privileges and make COFFEE and CIGARETTE RUNS to the Commissary on the other side of the campus. The Locked Door to the Unit(s) was opened with a huge skeleton type Key which fit all of the units in the building. I had a key in the 80;s and again later when I was Director of Recipient Affairs during the 90's. I had intended to report it "LOST" so I could keep it as a souvenir, but t urned it in to Facilities/Engineering over by the Power Plant when I left the job in 1996.

Building 25 was renovated in the mid 90's at the same time we were redoing 80-81-82. Building 25 was the Geriatric Building. It was called the Brill Pavillion. Named after a Dr. Brill. Historical references and a bust of him were in the lobby. The lower level was Physical and Occupational Therapy and Physiatry (Physiucal Rehab Medicine) The building had 9 floors. The wards were full of long term patients, some of whom had been there (Transferred in from Central Islip State Hospital or Kings Park State Hospital) since the turn of the 20th Century.. I used to transport patients in their "geri-charis" which were reclining, padded wheelchairs, to PT and OT for awhile back in the mid 80's. The patient's history summaries in the first few pages of their charts told of being admitted for such diagnoses as INVOLUTIONAL MELANCHOLIA and DEMTIA PRAECOX back in the days when William James was lecturing, BEFORE Freud visited America. After William James arranged for Freud to guest lecture in the US, Freud left America declaring that Americans were savages and barbarians. He returned to Switzerland and never came back to America again. Karl Jung, on the other hand, opened an office in New York City whiere it remains a going concern today. That is the Jungian Center. Many of the geriatric patients who spent there entire lives trapped in the mental health system were contemporaries of James, Jung and Freud. It was quite sad.

When we closed Central Islip (which was all geriatric in the 90's) we moved most of those patients here to this building which was renovated around 94 - 95. Some patients were transferred to other nursing homes in the area, but most came here.

There was a Physical Therapist who had worked there since the 70's. He was a former Marine who had been wounded in Nam. Shrapnel in both legs from a grenaded tossed into his night time listening post position. After many surgeries at the Philadelphia Naval Hospital and a whole lot of Physical Therapy he toured Europe with some buddies by Motorcycle, then came back to the US to become a Physical Therapist himself. I can't remember the names of all of the people in the department there but they were a really nice group of folks. Unfortunatley, there weren't many of the octogenarian and older patients who wer able to effectively communicate. Many had been lobotomized or had tardive dyskinesia which impaired their ability to speak clearly due to uncontrollable involuntary movements of the mouths and tongues. Most were there for so long they weren't interested in speaking to anyone at all. The higher functioning patients could communicate a great deal of information and were motivated to attend PT as it was the only thing they had to do besides sit in their "geri-chairs" all day.

Diane - I know you posted your question in March, but if you are still checking the site, you can call New York State Office of Mental Health at 44 Holland Ave. in Albany New York. That is the Central Office for OMH. Speak with someone in Recipient Affairs (8th Floor) The office is run by Consumers/ Psychiatric Survivors/Ex-Patients. It is, or was part of the Commissioner's Office. I don't recall the phone number in Albany, but I'm sure you can get it from the OMH website or directory assistence. There was a book kept in the Business Office/Information Office and a copy at the Chaplain's Office which listed all of the patient's interred at PPC along with their grave marker number. The last burial I revall being done there was in the 90's. I think it was in 1994 or 1995. A woman who lived on the grounds for several decades as I revall. Her boyfriend may still live at Pilgrim. Kings Park and Central Islip State Hospitals also had burial sites. There may be more; than a few thousand graves at the three locations combined, but many of the bodies were claimed by family and buried elsewhere. There still may be a group of Catholic Sisters who do Chaplain duty at PPC. I think their convent is near St. Joseph's College in Suffolk County. Sister Judith was the Catholic Chaplain and there was a Rabbi who's name I can't recall. Call Kim Darrow at Mental Hygeine Legal Service located on the grounds at PPC as well. He will remember the Chaplain's names and be able to give you more information. We all worked in building 20 during 1995. I had transferred over there after we closed building 64 shortly after Pataki took office. Good Luck

The Mansions or "The Circle" was home to doctors and administrators, later some of the buildings were used to house community based or transitional serviced programs. This area was always considered dangerous at night. It is South of G Road and isolated from the former main campus. It opens up onto hundreds of acres of undeveloped state land along Crooked Hill Road/Fifth Avenue. The tract of land adjacent to these particualr buildings was home to packs of ferral dogs which attacked several folks in the area. There was at least one murder of a young patient there who was a gang member from the Bronx. He was lured out by some rival gang members and stabbed to death in that area of the campus. The neighborhood's drug trade was a factor in getting a number of staff busted (4 I think) a providers of dope to staff and occassionally patients in the 90's. The ghost stories are pretty interesting as urban myth,, but a lot of folks died there and in my day, as we were closing down Central Islip and Kings Park, the big problems were wild dogs roaming the grounds and drug gangs out of los Centranos.. I would imagine if someone were to actually look, they might find an awful lot of bodies buried in the "Pine Barrens" South of the campus. Local gansters have probably been stashing frames there since the 50's. That wooded area runs, or at least used to run, for miles down between Commack Road and Crooked Hill/Brentwood Road. Lots of scary stories, but the scariest are the one's about all of the human and civil rights abuses which happened damned near everyday in mental hospitals here and abroad. They still happen everyday here and abroad..

This was the former Executive Director's Residence. It is )or was) on the Southside of G Road, east of Building 64 (The former Single Doctor's Residence/former NYSOMH Regional Office) It was used to house community based education and counseling programs on and off during the 80's up to the early and mid 90's. I was never inside. It was closed while I was working at that part of the campus between '93 and '96. However, there were two homes being utilized in "The Mansions" section just behind and South of this House. One was occupied by a 74 year old patient who had live at PPC since 1949 until 1995. The gentleman who lived there was told by the staff at PPC;..." he would never have to move and could stay for the rest of his life..." when the Business Office fo PPC forced his eviction to an outpatient housing program located in the village of Bayshore.I held up his eviction until he hesitatnly agreed to move to an apartment set up for him by Catholic Charities Case Managememnt supervisor Kate Bishop in Bayshore. That was 14 years ago and Fred, if still extant, would be about 88 now. The other home still in use in 1995 was next door to Fred's home. It was an apartment set up for in-patients to have extended family visits. They could entertain family and friends during visitation with a full kitchen and living room. It was also used to prepare patients being discharged to independent living in the community in order that they learn or relearn housekeeping and cooking skills. It was called the "Family Visiting Center" (?) I think... and the Social Worker who ran it was a woman by the name of Fran Greene. Fran married Jim Mullins, building 64 (The NYS/OMH Regional Office) Director of Quality Assurance. His office was 2 doors down form mine on the second floor of building 64.

This is the front entrance to building 64. It is on the Southside of G Road. Earlier contributors are correct. This was once the Single Doctor's Residence. The columns are at the front door which opens into what used to be a reception room for entertaining. There was a chandelier, fireplace and a grand piano. Local debutants would be escorted to dances for the single residents and MDs to this entranceway. The dining room was attended by patient staff and patients provided the housekeeping "maid" service to the residents. For a period of time this was used as patient apartments,, but later converted to the Long Island Regional Office of the New York State Office of Mental Health. My former office was a doctor's apartment with a sitting room, a bedroom and a full bath with shower. The wall jack/mount for an old fashioned telephone was on the wall just inside of the exterior door on the second floor. I shared that office with Wendell Knight who was contracted by OMH to facilitate the development of George Fairweather's FAIRWEATHER LODGE PROGRAM between 1993 and 1996. Nassau and Suffolk County's were not particularly receptive to the model, preferring instead to seek more static and consistent sources of funding via budgetary line items in their respecti ive county mental health budgets augmented by NYS OMH contracts, grants and federal HUD support. I don't believe the building has been used since 1996. We moved the regional management team (what was left of it when Pataki gutted OMH, closed all five (5) Regional Offices, and reduced us to a staff of 7 from a staff of 35 under Mario Cuomo)... We moved few survivors of Pataki's forced retirements, layoffs and transfers to locations in building 20 and building 72. I don't know who (staffwise) is still there, and quite frankly I don't think I care.