Portico

i luv this pic!

Very nice. Looks like a peaceful residence.

On Saturdays when my family visited my brother who remained institutionalized from 1952 until his death in 1982, I remember going to that general store in Thiels and reading as many comics as we could get away with before laying our 12 cents down for 1 comic when the owner got annoyed with us. A very patient man really!

Is that a ramp I see.

Very nice,such a waste of a great building.

Motts, these are great photos. I live about 10 minutes away from Letchworth but never got the chance to visit it and take some shots of my own. Keep up the great work! All of your locations and photos are fascinating.

Agreed

The old man who owned the little store was Frank Rose he use to deliver stuff in a big local made basket (it was almost as big as he was) ***But that was before "paper or plastic"**Old man Martin use to make baskets for every reason--many are still around today and still used.

Motts,
I love the play of light and shadow here.
Back in the summer of 06, my best friend and I visited this place. My friend lived in upper Passic county only about a half hr's drive from this place( however he was familiar with the area, his mother having grown up in Haverstraw).
We mostly walked around the grounds and took pics like this one, of the facades of the buildings.( this was an impromptu exploration trip and neither of us were sufficiently clothed for UE). We DID enter a basement in one of the buildings, which house a variety of old beds, chairs ect.
Unfortunately,we didn;t make it back that summer or last.

In 1964, I attended a summer training program at Letchworth Village conducted by Howard Potter, MD a well known and highly respected child psychiatrist. At the time I was in my fourth year of training to be a child psychiatrist at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Dr. Potter’s training program was focused on developmental disabilities including epilepsy and mental retardation addressing the great need these individuals had for professional understanding and help with adapting to life outside of an institution. We interviewed patients and in a clinical case conference discussed each patient’s history, diagnosis, and the impact of institutionalization on their lives and the effects of being separated from family and community. One of the things that impressed me about the experience was how eager these institutionalized patients were to talk with someone who was empathetic and interested in understanding their life experiences. The program had a big effect on the rest of my professional career as a child and adolescent psychiatrist and developmental disabilities became a major focus of my practice over the next forty years.
In 1964 Letchworth Village was a beautiful place with well-kept and maintained buildings and grassy lawns and wooded areas. The food was equal to what I had in college cafeterias and military mess halls. The professional staff there seemed to be competent and caring. In my opinion the harm to patients was a result of being institutionalized and separated from family and community and having limited freedom to make choices about their lives. In the 1960’s and ‘70’s, there was tremendous change in the field of psychiatry and the focus shifted to avoiding institutionalization and keeping individuals with these types of disorders at home and connected with family and loved ones while being treated in community mental health centers close to home. In California where I practiced for thirty-eight years, the state hospitals discharged institutionalized patients sending them back to the community, but unfortunately the legislature did not adequately fund the mental health programs which resulted in a drastic increase of mentally disturbed individuals being homeless. We are still dealing with this large population of homeless individuals in California. I assume a similar phenomena developed in New York after they closed their state hospitals and would be interested in learning what did happen there and would welcome hearing from former patients at Letchworth Village.

Resembles an antebellum mansion.

Oh shit! That was a looooooonnnnngggg explaination! Now, I's gonna read it! x)

I am AMAZED! I am taking a class about policy and etics for my MSN and we were talking about eugenic sterilization. When I was about the ages of 6-12, my family were members of St. Gregory Barbarigo Catholic Church in Stony Point. On Sundays they had mass outside at Letchworth and then we did some arts and crafts with the residents. We bonded very well with 3 specific residents, Catherine, Sadie and Rocco! They came to our home for dinner on many Saturdays and Sundays. My mom and dad asked to see their records one time and without HIPPAA then- were allowed to do so. ALL 3 and MANY THERE- were abandoned with no familt information or contact. I have only the FONDEST memories there. Thanks for these moving photos- I remember the enterences looking like this, but the grounds, back then were absolutely gorgeous. I hope you don't mind, but I have asked the rest of my calss- NURSES working on their MASTER DEGREES FROM ALL OVER TEXAS- to view your site!