Letchworth Village continues to rank among the most popular deserted locations in the nation. Letchworth Village was chosen in 1911 to be the location of a progressive experiment. It is located in a picturesque setting in the town of Haverstraw in Rockland County. The Letchworth Village was open and honest about its plan to exploit the patients as test subjects for medical experiments.
Letchworth Village, a tranquil tiny village in the Rockland County municipality of Haverstraw, is situated in a picturesque setting and was picked in 1911 to serve as the site of a progressive experiment. In reaction to existing mental health institutions, Letchworth was constructed. Compared to earlier asylums, it attempted to offer more compassionate care. Children between the ages of 5 and 16 who had been left behind by their parents made up the bulk of the inhabitants.
Letchworth Village appeared to be a new beginning. The institution occupied 2,300 acres of land in Rockland County, New York’s undulating hillside. There were areas for children, adults, and the elderly. At its heyday, the community had around 130 structures. The structures were separated into six groups that would eventually create a U-shaped design. Letchworth has a bad reputation for questionable experiments and poor treatment.
History of Letchworth Village
Letchworth Village established in 1908 as the Eastern NY State Custodial Asylum, a facility for New York’s “feeble-minded and epileptics.” Letchworth Village Home for the Feeble Minded and Epileptics was renamed Letchworth Village Home for the Feeble Minded and Epileptics in 1909. It was named after William Pryor Letchworth, a philanthropist and humanitarian who was well-versed in institutional circumstances. The Village employed around 10,000 inhabitants at its heyday. It was one of the area’s largest employers and formerly had a global reputation as one of the most innovative centers of its sort.
Each facility was designed to host no more than 70 patients at a time to reduce overpopulation reduce overpopulation, each facility was designed to host no more than 70 patients at a time. The entire region resembled a community, with bakeries, churches, and dorms. By 1921, the facility housed over 1,200 people; and by the 1950s, it housed approximately 4,000 people. Letchworth Village was innovative because, unlike other asylums, some inmates worked on the property as farmers, looking for animals and crops. Patients unloaded coal and constructed roads in addition to farming.
Letchworth Village achieved its capacity of 3,000 patients in 1935. Newcomers from places such as New York’s Bellevue Hospital swamped the facilities and overwhelmed the personnel. Contrary to its early intentions, overcrowding resulted in insufficient money and personnel difficulties, which, as is frequently the case, boiled over into abuse. Photographer Irving Haberman published images of the hospital in the 1940s, depicting people unclothed, filthy, and trapped in vacant rooms.
By 1950, roughly 4000 people were housed in a building designed for little more than 3000. There was not enough room for Letchworth Village’s expanding population. To accommodate the crowds, mattresses were placed throughout the hallways and communal spaces. As a result of congestion, several of the inmates who needed extra time and attention for feeding got critically sick or malnourished. The attendants could no longer effectively supervise each person, which eventually led to the facility degradation and patient neglect and abuse.
The Letchworth Village was open about its goal to employ the patients as test subjects in clinical research. One of the most important occurrences in the facility was the administration of polio vaccine trials to some of the patients, notably youngsters. The live viral polio vaccine was tested on an eight-year-old child in 1950. Nineteen other patients, most of whom were likely reluctant or unable to consent to the operation, became human test subjects; 17 produced antibodies to the virus, and none had problems. There was no public protest because the tests were judged successful.
Geraldo Rivera, a local ABC News reporter, made a career-making documentary on asylums in 1972. The documentary, Willowbrook: The Last Shame, was mostly focused on Willowbrook State School, a comparable facility on Staten Island. Yet, there was a segment in the video about the overcrowded Letchworth Village and how the patients were living in a disgraceful state of filth and neglect. Despite the appalling circumstances, the institution continued operational until 1996. The state ordered the managers of Letchworth Village to locate all of the names of the deceased in the cemetery and install a plaque at the entrance.
Haverstraw and Stony Point acquired the area and developed it into the Philip J. Rotella and Patriot Hills golf courses. The Fieldstone Secondary School (now Fieldstone Middle School), Willow Grove Middle School, and the Stony Point Justice Court were all housed in some of the buildings. The majority of the decaying houses were scheduled for removal in 2004 to make room for a 450-unit condo complex, but the proposal appears to have been halted. Around the end of 2014, a variety of concepts were offered, ranging from a senior citizens village to a college campus and even a Lego Land Amusement Park. Letchworth Village itself is now part of a public park that is open to the public.
Letchworth Village is still one of the country’s most visited abandoned locations. Temperature variations have been seen by paranormal investigators in particular structures. Several of those who perished here were buried in a Potter’s Field with no names to help them be identified. As a result, urban trespassers are particularly interested in the Nameless Cemetery, which is home to hundreds of unidentified patients. Even in the hereafter, it appears that the spirits of the tormented and abused are unable to find peace.
Stunning Photos of Letchworth Village
