Stairs

i grew up right next door( i mean right next door ! next to the horse stable located on Turkey Hollow Rd., I went to there daycare) and for evey family gathering we ever had when i was a kid a inmate or two would break free from waht ever it was they were doing and come and try to join our family bbqs. My whole family worked at the facilty starting with my greatgrandma& her son (who stared at the age of 8 takeing care of other boys his age to my mother who didnt start till 1980. i love the idea of the place "The Idea" I love the buildings and that it was a selfsufficent community. i always thought it was a beautfil place when you look past all th horribal things the residents had to face i always dreamed of captureing the views of letcworth i grew up with and never had the abilty to do so. I do beleve that i think more of the place the some other local folk and i am glad to see a few others fell the same. a few of the out here took photo but dont really have the same feels as some othrs i like your photos. L ove letchworth.

My mom use to work there at night and i would stay there to just think that ppl think its haunted it just freaks me out.

Really love this picture. Look kind of "homey".

Every saturday for years starting in 1952 my family came to Letchworth to see and visit with my brother Nick who was institutionalized. I remember the sadness and the dreariness but I also remember walking thru the fall leaves with my sisters and walking on the ice at the lake near the hospital. My mom is surprised that the 3 of us could have pleasant memories as well as the darker memories of Letchworth.

Last comment is mine but I want to add what dredged up memories of Letchworth. Ran into a man named Alvin yesterday who was institutionalized at Letchworth from the age of 7 to age of 22. It's criminal that his youth was spent there. Somehow a man who never should have been institutionalized was and no one did much about it.

I was born in cedar flats,up from Letchworth and there was an inmate named Bruno,who used to walk away from the grounds and walk through town driving with only a steering wheel. He'd go past our buss stop on 210 and wave as he went by. One time he got down to Haverstraw and pulled up to the local gas pump and said filler-up. He was no harm at all. We thaught he was neat.

Hi all,just a quick note to say how much i have enjoyed this site,which i found by accident!
I came across this site because i am from LETCHWORTH,ENGLAND.
THE WORLD'S FIRST GARDEN CITY.

This is directed to Tim Jones. I use to work at letchworth and I personality worked with Bruno. and his one eye. I remember a true story. Now I don`t know if you remember when the State Police had a Barricks in Stony Point. It was where the Spoon River Reality is Now. Bruno called the state police and stated that he had been in an accident. The asked him his Location and it was in front of Kirk Bride hall Well what had happen the state police went there and saw the car and asked him where his car was and he pointed to a steering wheel under a car which had pulled in the spot where his steering wheel was. When I worked with him. I saw the wheel and i asked him why don't you drive any more Bruno his reply was Herb the maintenance Guy took his Keys...LOL

i dont get it....is that english?

know anything about the graveyard?

You bet I do. The grave yard is supposed to be f'en awsome. Filled with a bunch of graves with only numbers on them, except for one grave labled "mikey's grave". Like it came right out of a real horror movie, ya know. Place is even haunted to, or so I hear

The graveyard up on Call Hollow had a rock (called "the crying rock" by the local kids)
It was said that it hummed every so often
due to vibrations from road traffic but we all added on to the story to make it real good

huh im gunna have to check that out

oh my gosh!! this is too creepy!! ok so joe was like "ohh we would visit my bro nick!!" here i'm picturing the jonas brothers without even reading joes name at the top of the comment. then i happened to look and his name was joe. the joe from the jonas brothers has a brothers named nick, kevinm and frankie. wow that was cool

wow that looks a little creepy can you see yourself going in there at night =]

to timothy and E, my mind is blown by your stories about the fellow who "drove around " with a steering wheel and no car. my dad and uncles used to talk about this when i was a kid but i guess i never really quite believed it... until now! the man is apparently a local legend! poor guy, but there's no denying, it's funny.

I already know this gallery is gonna scare this girl shitless. No sleep for me tonight!

Wow! This is a trip! I was just recalling stories of Stony Point, and told of my experiences at Mikey's Grave. I Googled on a whim, and... Wow!
@ Go getta & Call:
The graveyard is indeed haunted:
Many years ago, I lived off Mott Farm Rd. across from the Girl Scout campgrounds. My friends and I would often drive around in our cars endless hours and days, and one of the places we went on occasion was the potter's field in the woods. Forgive me, I can't recall the name of the road, but there's an unpaved access which leads off the roadside into thin trees to a circuit around the graves. They're simply small numbered pegs in the forest floor, askew and forgotten. Mikey's grave, however, stands out and presents the most chilling aspect of this place. It is capped with a cut-out sheetmetal banner in the form of the name "MIKEY", in very jaunty angles. It looks quite disturbing.
Now the backstory I was told was that Mikey was a cretin who had killed someone, hence his institutionalization. Mikey had lived out his years there, and having an 'artistic' streak, and metalworking and mechanical skills, he had made several pieces of this sort of thing, including his own name. After his death, a staffer there who had grown fond of Mikey had saved his name cutout and mounted it over his grave in the potter's field.
Now the legend says that if you drive your car around the path surrounding the graves, sometime after you leave, your car will die. Literally.
A friend of mine did this, and a few weeks later he blew his Camaro's engine. Arguably his fault, or did he tempt fate? Well another friend and I went in his Bronco, and only 5 minutes after we left, the vehicle stalls. No prank, both hands on the wheel, full tank.
After about 10 minutes, the Bronco started again, and ran fine for as long as he had it.
And as the stories I heard went, that's par for the course. Your car fails anywhere from a temporary stall to a fatal malfunction. Anyway, we never did that again. Lesson learned. :)
I now live in PA, and wish I could roll out and visit again, but this is close. Maybe someone near there can get photos to post, or does the graveyard no longer exist?

great story godk

the graves are still there... a couple years ago the town i guess decided to fix it all though... so its not overgrown w. weeds anymore and they replaced the wood markers with metal ones i believe

When I grew up in Haverstraw we were told the story of Mikey's grave and how the doctors experimented on the patients.

speaking of bruno, my grandfather worked at letchworth and would always hide bruno's steering wheel. my grandfather told me about bruno around 4 years ago and i thought it was all a lie but it turns out that my current girlfriend's father would help bruno find his lost wheel after my grandfather had hidden it. oddly the two men did not know of one another.
Bruno has also been quoted saying, "wanna see my new wheels?" reffering to a new steering wheel

Hey Timmothy Jones! I worked there for many years and knew Bruno! He could also sing every Hank Williams song! The poor guy died a few years ago. He was one of the misfortunes whose parents just dumped him there because of how he looked. Bruno was not mentally retarded when he was put there but being there all his life had an impact on him. He sure knew all the dirt on all employees and even the higher ups there! Alot of people were dumped there if they were blind, deaf or had anything wrong with them by their parents.

Grew up riding dirt bikes with friends off of calhollow rd, power lines , and the mountain ,just as someone told a story of cars stalling I had the same experience where I pulled into the cemetery on a dirtbike ,maybe around 1990 or so, bike was full of gas ,it stalled for at least ten minutes as I tried to start it, I was by myself but had the feeling I was held hostage and was being watched, finally it kicked over, I took off like a bat out of hell !!

Grew up riding dirt bikes with friends off of calhollow rd, power lines , and the mountain ,just as someone told a story of cars stalling I had the same experience where I pulled into the cemetery on a dirtbike ,maybe around 1990 or so, bike was full of gas ,it stalled for at least ten minutes as I tried to start it, I was by myself but had the feeling I was held hostage and was being watched, finally it kicked over, I took off like a bat out of hell !!