Infrared Building 25

And by ACTIVE you mean, what?

I worked their in this building on the 2 floor in the dinning room. From 1982-1989.

Sure brings back memories. I worked in this building, building 81 and building 10. I enjoyed working at PSH, have since retired and reside in Arizona. So happy to see this site.

The way everything is set up in this photo, it almost looks like a minature model. It seems fake.

Agreed. A number of the Pilgrim exterior shots look like fake miniatures instead of the real thing, which is even weirder.

I knew a woman who got sent to Pilgrim in the 1980s after a suicide attempt.
She had no money and no family to speak for her at the time, so she was just sent there, transfered in the middle of the night
She describes a feeling of stark terror on seeing this facade as the car escorting her entered the campus.
She was on one of the wards for about a month until being discharged upon case review.

I agree on the minature thing, I was thinking the very same thing. The front smaller buildings look totally out of place like they don't belong.
Motts, you said the walkway between the large building and the smaller building is full of junk?
Do workers and or patients have to go from building to building via that walkway? Those buildings sure dont look like theyre in use!
Also, what is that at the bottom of the pic - looks like shurbs maybe?

The pictures are taken with infrared film, which tends to give a very flat and matte look.

I moved to Brentwood in 1959. This is what these monsters looked like even on a clear day!

my grandmother worked in the dinning room for many, many years. i remember going there when i was 3 or 4 yrs. old with her . i am now 51, and it's weird to see these pictures ! it still looks spooky !

Kafka's turning in his grave. Just hard to visually comprehend.

I applied to nursing school here in '64 and was invited to spend the day touring the facility. I remember the nightmares I had that night of when our bus approached the building. No way I could spend three years there!

I worked in bldg 25 in 1982 as an "MHTAT". I remember being trained by RN's to administer meds. I was a nervous wreck. In the summer, the wards had NO AC. Just really big fans . In 1986, I worked there again as an RN. This picture brings back alot of memories.

for everyone that worked at PSH at some time in their life do you have any stories of mistreatment you noticed? And/or any runaway attempts failure/successful?

I saw some abuse. I worked there 1968-1971. I worked in the med surg bldg. People where brought in obviously beaten up. The attendant would say the injuries were from a fall. If some one was admitted and put on the critical list for twenty four hours it was not an ME case. my head nurse got wise to this and started refusing the admissions. I saw alot of neglect mostly. There were many escapes, both failures and successes. We had a man once that jumped three stories, broke his back.

The immensity of it all, you captured it .

I agree, they do look like models. If this place is still operating, it sure looks like hell from the outside. I mean, it looks like it has been abandoned for years. It looks in disrepair, grass needs cut, etc. Is it that bad in real life?

I lived in brentwood for 30 years. In 1979 I had a friend visit me from Detroit. I drove her to see this place and we got lost driving around. During one of those going in circle moments, a 350 african american nurse stuck her head out and screamed that we were going the wrong way. It took an hour to find our way out and I was a wreck but Ellen from Detroit loved every second of it.

gives a whole new meaning to "warehousing."

Was wondering......Back in the 30's and 40's, did PSH employees live on site? And what explanation might someone have for a birth occurring at PSH? Was the facility capable of handling childbirths? Was this a common occurence?

Patients were allowed outside, unattended and had boyfriends/girlfriends and got together. There were births and the babies were adopted. When my mother drove to PSH for the overnight stay to see if I would like to school there, we saw a black man walking arm-in-arm with a white, very pregnant woman.... looked ahppy and cozy together... it was a beautiful day for a walk... didn't see mixed couples very much back then...
This was an adult facility, BTW, to address someone's question on an earlier photo. Kids weren't admitted here.. there were other state facilities... a famous one was Willowbrook State School but that was in Staten Island... made Geraldo Rivera famous in his expose in the 1970's, but Long Island had state facilities for kidsin Huntington or somewhere not too far from there... I can't remember just now, where we as PSH students had to go for MHMR training. As a student I didn't see physical abuse, but lots of verbal abuse.. from the 'attendants' who were not well educated and 'institutionalized' in the true sense of the word, as well as the patients were...

That is a huge building!! No wonder it is still active.

Hi Lynne,
If you're around and have time can you answer a question of mine?
This is going to sound odd but I figured you'd know.
My uncle worked for the FBI for years. Over the weekend we went to his house for dinner and he began to explain how many mafia guys he arrested attempted to fake insanity. He claims that althogh most people who fake insanity get caught by one professonial or another once in awhile one of them will actually get away with it.
According to my uncle what a really good crook will do is fake insanity VERY young before they have any bad record on them. That way the "I"m a lunatic" stage is set before they get into legal trouble.
This struck me as really weird. Is it possible for someone to completely fake insanity and get away with it? Like is it actually possible to fake insanity so well that you can fool dozens of professionals such as doctors, nurses, orderlies, etc?
I'm just wondering because the concept struck me as strange. I would think that you'd be caught eventually but according to my uncle a good few of these criminals managed to fake madness, do a week or two in an asylum and then go home to a family member. That way even if they were ever suspected of doing something illegal it was very difficult to convict them.
Anyway I know it's a weird question but you know an amazing amount about insanity and I was just wondering if you think it's possible to fool that many professionals into believing your'e crazy.
Thanks. :)

LOL she might have to after she reads the size of that thing! :D

Lynne....where are you? :-)

Sorry - surveyors are in town and we've been working early and staying late last week and this.

It's possible, but it's difficult. There are a lot of tests that are specifically designed to detect "malingering," as it is called. There are a lot of things you do naturally if you have depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, etc., many of them involuntary, and there needs to be a consistent pattern before someone gets the diagnosis. A good mental health expert should be able to detect the fakes most of the time. However, I am sure there are a handful of people out there who have gotten away with it, probably under the circumstances in which the person is exceptionally good at faking PLUS the mental "expert" isn't that good.

If you have lots of time to observe someone (months) it would be very, very, very difficult for someone with any skills NOT to figure it out. Ironically, with the way insurance is going these days they try to make you prove 1,000 times over the person has a true problem or they won't pay you and/or the courts won't allow the person to remain in a mental health facility.

Thanks Lynne,
Thanks for your reply, I'm siting here reading all your comments, they are really fascinating. I love how you described how to handle people with loss of reality control. Like starting with the day and stuff, I'm getting really into learning about all this! :-)
Your job sounds hard but you seem to love it. I think passion has a lot to do with how good you are at your work.
My uncle claimed that the younger someone is when they pull an insanity stunt the better it works, I suppose that does make sense since if something is wrong with the brain it would show up young.
Has a patient ever managed to do something so disturbing that deep down you were a bit unnerved?
Sorry for all the questions but I find it so fasniating to hear the opinions of those who work with and care for the mentally ill.
Sorry about my spelling. :)

The majority of cases of schizophrenia are first seen when people are teenagers/young adults. It is very rare that someone exhibits any signs of schizophrenia in middle age or later if they haven't already done so when younger. If someone starts to look "psychotic" anywhere after 30 or so and with NO history of psychosis, you have to rule out other factors, like brain trauma, medication, tumor, alcoholism, electrolyte imbalance, etc.

But again, the pattern of signs and symptoms of schizophrenia are fairly consistent, and even if someone faked it as a younger person, a good clinician should be able to tease it out, especially if there were good reasons why the person would have wanted to malinger.

As far as being unnerved, I'll have to think about it. I've done this so long and seen so many things that I can't think of any specific time I was particularly unnerved, but that may be due to the fact that after all this time the events seem natural, like having lived through a natural disaster makes you forget that rough times aren't necessarily part and parcel of everyone else's world.

Thanks Lynne!
Man your fingers are getting a work out typing tonight! :-)

Hey, I'm Irish and I used to be from Long Island -- what a small world!! ;-)

Gotta practice these sign thingies.

i want to work here <3

me n my friends finally went to the asylum n i took a pic of that building, its so cool man.

This is for janet...i don't know if your going to get this or anyone who would know. But theres a building by an enternce and a exit. That building me and my friends were there. my boyfriend saw a window opened and something told him a person jumped out the 3rd story. I would like to know how i can find out more information about that.....maybe even the guys name....anyone who can help me......my email is oconnors986@hotmail.com

Thank you very much
-Stephanie

That building is #25 and it was renovated in the mid 1990s, now has AC and all the modern amenities. It looks rough from this view, but if you were to look at it from the other side it is a magnificent structure and will be in use for many more years.
Also, Bldgs 81-82-83 were renovated around 1999-2000 and in fact an addition was just built on the west side. A new powerhouse, much smaller, has replaced the old one which was shut down in late 2004. The upper (coal furnace) sections of the old powerhouse were abandoned in 1984 when the oil burners were added on the north side extension. Many of the buildings on utility road WILL be preserved so PLEASE don't damage anything!

this building looks like factory and a big one !

is the building still being used?

the caption states that the building is still in use.

absolutely gigantic. i have to guess that this is not the front side of the building though.

Thanks Ben, do you know if the present day Pilgrim Psychiatric Centre and this building are one of the same as photos of Pilgrim Psychiatic Centre appear similar.

Old psychiatric hospitals here in Scotland look nothing like the old Pilgrim

How forbording. Talking about your basic warehousing. Who lived in the penthouse? It's bizzaroworld.

OOps. Excuse me , I got it wrong. My brain was into waterboarding. I know, I know, it was forboding. Hey give Johnny Mac a break.

talk about house on haunted Hill.

I was wondering if anyone knows what the building in the foreground is/was used for. its connected to the building behind the photographer but not the inpatient facility, so I'm wondering if it was just a service center for the building we can't see? anyway just curious!

i was wondering if anyone who chats on this site happened to work at Pilgrim in the early 1950s, specifically 1950 to 1953. i just found out that my mother was an inpatient here for those three years. I would love to chat with anyone who might have known her. Her last name was Gleason, she would have been about 18 yrs old or so when admitted. I would appreciate any info you might have. Thanks,

i worked at ppc for many years... the stories i could tell...... but who would believe them?

Wow these bring back lots of memories. I lived, worked, and went to school here from 1974 to 1977.

As a senior in high school in North Babylon I was enrolled in a program where we worked half a day at Pilgrim. Earned a Certified Nurses Aide Certificate there. We worked in all of the different areas...pharmacy, occupational therapy, recreational therapy, and numerous buildings. I also worked full time the summer after graduation (1967) I was accepted to Nursing School there, but chose to go somewhere else. I don't remember ever seeing abuse of patients, even though it was a very difficult ,sad and depressing job. If I remember correctly it was mandatory to take a certain amount of vacation a year because of that. On occassion there were young patients who were sent there to have medical procedures done and also sometimes the criminally insane. The saddest was the elderly who were placed there by children who did not want to take care of elderly parents with perhaps mildly confused. I never liked going down into the underground tunnels that connected some of the buildings. I saw and learned a lot during that year, but never any abuse. That being said...it was an awful place to be.

i use to work in that from 1988 to 1991 on housekeeping i got a lot of memories of that building is someone use to work for that years and want to write me this is my email...chegui402006@yahho.com ..thanks

i am sorry this is my e mail ..chegui402006@yahoo.com thanks

Pilgrim used to be like a self sustained small city, the employees could live there pretty cheap back in the 70ties. I know a few people who did.
I work in all the buildings, had an office in 25. It looks much better now!
As for people faking an insanity, yeah I am sure there are. I know clients who were under the impression that as a mental patient they would get out of doing their time. But instead, they wind up spending much longer in the facility then if they went to prison. As a prisoner you have more rights than as just a patient. As a prisoner you have a date or time set for parole when you are admitted, as a patient you do not.
Its not pretty being a patient..
As for talking about previous patients, I wouldn't expect any responses. Even if you are a former employee you could be charged with violating the patients right to confidentiality. You can't even acknowledge the name of a person who resided there without risking lawsuit or legal charges.
That building in the foreground is across the road from bldg 25. Its not a real road, but the road you use to get to bldg 25. It is owned by someone else now, think its an outpatient service of some sort.

BTW, I know the eighties complex is considered 3 separate buildings they are completely attached. and appear as one building. The eighties complex is much larger than building 25 and is very active still.

Does anyone know if there was a separate ward for geriatric patients with Alzheimer's in the 1960's?

Motts u mustve been there awhile ago cause there is no more razor wire or anything. Its so sad how these places are just forgotten and then destroyed by those stupid teens and vandalized by creeps.

Like alcatraz, i almost wish it was still active would've been so sweet.

Usually the possibility of someone attempting to fake mental illness to avoid responsibility for a crime comes up right away--one of the questions on petitions for mental hygiene evaluations (the precursor of commitment to a psychiatric hospital) is what criminal charges, if any, the patient faces. When doing an intake, social history, or psychiatric evaluation the professional always asks about any involvement the patient has with the police, other government agencies, the military, etc.

Careful evaluation will usually detect the "fakers" relatively quickly (often because they forget that a person who really has a mental illness has it *all* the time, not just when the doctor is thought to be watching). I have found it more difficult to determine how great a role a patient's *known* and long-diagnosed mental illness or developmental disability plays in determining his/her culpability for an act.

I worked with one man whose psychiatrist suggested to him that he (the patient) would benefit from a girlfriend. The patient began asking every woman he knew or saw on the street to be his girlfriend, and persisted in asking even if told "no." At least one woman felt threatened, and there was the possibility of him being labelled a "sex offender." We were able to demonstrate to the court that what he needed was social skills training, not punishment. That was a relatively straightforward case where the patient genuinely intended no harm (he thought he was "following doctor's orders," something he had always been encouraged to do) and did not know that he was violating any social norms. It is much more difficult when violence is involved.

people still work there.
there is a part with animals to.

this building should be preserved and renovated. It really pisses me off watching old buildings set and rot .

I work in building 25 now, started in NOV 2007. It's pretty interesting to know there's so much history involved here.

is it just me.. it feels like someone is like still in the building waiting to be let out. waiting....

It is not how it appears. There are patients living there that think of this as there home, and they do not want to leave.
The smaller building in front is the rehab, its a pretty nice building, has a pool, theatre, bowling alley and more. Patients with privledges can go there. The average length of stay is 2 years, but patients stay tend to be 5 months, although many have been there a few decades.
There is some mistreatment, mostly from the way the place is administered. The patients are treated as children, punished if caught smoking, food choices made for them. There is staff there that is wonderful caring and kind. But trust me, Pilgrim is not anything like it appears. By the way, its weird inside, each wing is a mirror image of another, and each side is a mirror image, and each floor the same. There are these thick glass brick windows that distort the outside world and courtyards on both sides. Look at this building on google earth, its really odd.

oops... just realized thats not the rehab! Oh well.. I guess thiese are abandoned areas? the buildings are all similar, hard to tell the difference in b&w

When I drove past in October, I remember seeing this building and getting the chills. It like someone else said in another post. It's not necessarily eerie or creepy because it's haunted. But because of what happened behind those walls. And on such a large scale. I was fascinated and horrified at the same time. I grew up in North Babylon and always was fascinated with old insane asylums and never knew that the World's largest asylum was only a drive away...

BOTH MY PARENTS WORKED AT PSH .MY GRAND MOTHER WORKED THEIR ALSO.MY STEP FATHER WAS MURDED AT PSH IN THE BUILDING HE LIVED IN.I HAVE A SERVING TRAY WITH PILGRIN STATE HOSPITAL PRINTED ON THE TRAY. ALSO HAVE OTHER STUFF WITH PSH PRINTED ON IT. I WENT THEIR MANY TIMES WITH MY PARENTS TO PICK UP THEIR PAY CHECK.

I was in there, I was probably about 6 and the hospital i had had an operation at gave me a bad injection of something and do to over crowding they sid were sending you to pilgrima nd as on building 25 for about 3 months...i loved it becasue they do care, all those things about patients being torchered are horribly wrong!

I thouught this building was abandoned well anyway wana learn so much more this sight is great....I am also looking for info not sure what the building number is put its the one when you first turn in TALK ABOUT CREEPY just looking at it gave me the most awkward feeling I couldn't help but to be more interested !!!! I will continue my research as well as visit the museum

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.

My ambulance company still responds to calls to this building. The place is creepy is Hell at night, and I normally have all of the flood lights on, especially since half of the remaining buildings are empty or inactive and it's easy to get lost.

its beautiful in a way

Both of my late parents worked at Pilgrim State. Bob and Ellen Travers. I worked at Pilgrim State in 1964 as an assistant cook in Building 25. I forgot which floor it was.

My grandmother was a resident there in the 1980's. She was an elderly black/indian woman named Lucille Williams. She passed away in 1988 or 89 while she was still in the hospital. I am trying to locate any information on her. My father has since passed and did not leave a lot of information on his mother. If anyone who worked there could give me any information please email me at simstm360@yahoo.com. Thanks

my father was in and out of pilgram state hosp. from 1957 to 1965. He was an acholic. does anyone know if the building they kept alcholics are still up. by the way he died there. would like to go visit the place again.

My Mother worked here. When I had to pick her up it scared the crap out of me.