Basketball Net

that pic looks like it is from the movies or sumptin

the building to right of this was still filled with client files. so were a lot of the other buildings. i guess they take the HIPPA trains=)

i wanna go there

i work with alot of folks that lived here when it was bad so it just brings it more to life, the horror stories the people lived thru

Holly, do you know any specific stories or is it just too horrible for you to tell? Letchworth was supposed to have been better than other similar places.

my mother used to work there as well. she worked there from age 17-21. just reccently my mom and i broke in and took these pictures.

http://this-is-now1989...com/3017.html#cutid1

my mother told me stories, about how the institution was split up into two groups. back then [1910-1930 or 40] if you were promiscuous they put you in letchworth. you were looked at, as no different then the mentally ill. my mother also told me that the x y and z buildings would do experiments called "labodimies" which entailed doctors to cut out peices of the brain to see if it could cure a person if not just to see what happened. my mother also knew and 80 year old women who was put into letchworth for being promiscuous in her late teens- 20's. as you may have concluded she died there. what happened to all those people i so sad, not to mention what happened to letchworth itself. my mother and her friends speak about it as such a beautiful place, but after what i saw yesterday it just seems so dreary and sad. i was told that it closed because it had the highest death rate and malpratice that was not reported in the state. is that true?

nice

I was standing right next to that basketball hoop last night with a bunch of my friends, we decided to check out some of the buildings in search for the boys buliding which we heard was haunted fairly well, anyone with information that can help us plz contact me me sducky22@gmail.com

this is where i go after i eat lunch

Nice shot, Motts. This has a really eerie vibe.

OK, I know these comments are a year old, but some of this is deliberate sensationalism at worst and unknowing misunderstanding at best.
These institutions were originally set up because it was thought they would help people...then they were overwhelmed by the enormity of the needs and lack of will to expend the resources needed to meet them.

As in any other profession, there were a few cruel and sadistic staff, others who "snapped" momentarily due to overwork and exhaustion, and the vast majority who came day after day to thankless jobs, doing the best they could, finding joy in a patient's tiniest achievement, taking patients home for holidays so they would have some semblance of a family.

But these were NOT death camps. Private experiments were not done just on some doctor's whim. We have forgotten the huge public health threat that so-called chidhood diseases used to be. My ex-husband nearly died of measles just 50 years ago. His older brother did die of measles. Many children ended up in places like these because of the high fevers and resulting brain damage that went with measles, meningitis, etc. So developing vaccines was imperative, and we have a very false sense of safety today.

Lobotomies were surgical procedures that doctors hoped would help mentally ill patients. In some cases, they may have. For too many, there were untenable side effects. I can't recall ever hearing of a patient, whose only problem was mental retardation, having a lobotomy. They did NOT involve cutting off the top of the person's head and taking out parts of their brain to see which were essential! (although they were horrific procedures--but then what brain surgery isn't pretty horrific, at least to the layperson?) And now brain surgery is done for some patients with severe seizure disorders, surgery that seems in some ways similar to the principles behind lobotomy. In medicine there are many advances that come only after tragic errors.

I have worked with more than a few people who did die very sad deaths...but not until they had lived much longer, in comparatively good health given their underlying disabilities, than doctors ever predicted they would, thanks to the hourly attention and meticulous care provided by the staff too many of us are too eager to condemn.

Sorry so long.

Well said DME!

my family knows this guy that lived in letchworth. really had nothing wrong with him. he was just took a little extra time to think about what he did b4 doing it. not really "slow" at all. his family didnt want him so they dumped him there. they said he was dangerous and made up some dumbass lies. then, being around all the patients and believing he was one of them he actually started to become retarded. then (i dont remember how) but he went home, and started living again in stony point. and now hes perfectly fine accept he didnt learn anything new from when he checked in, till when he got out. he had a son, and hes a whiz kid.

Awesome pictures, Brittany, thanks for the link! And Mr. Motts, once again, you have outdone yourself!

dme's comments are a real eye opener and absolutely correct. This gallery was posted over 5 years ago. I hope future visitors to this page stop & realize that these facilities were not state sanctioned torture chambers staffed by sadistic monsters. These were ordinary health care providers who tried to make a difference doing a job 99% of the population could not do.

Either way you look at it WE WILL NEVER KNOE WHAT HAPPENED THERE. But witout a doubt something shady did happen.. Juss look up all the other institutes for the mentally challenged or handicapped.. Molboro nd Willowbrook nd Greystone. All have durrty lil secrets of rape nd tourture, I guarantee look up letchworth nd do some investigating nd youll end up crying like I did... .god its so sad how ppl just discarded there loved ones as if they were a burden.. For god sake some patients were as young as infants,INFANTS! Wtf?!