Historic Smithtown - Kings Park Psych Center

[@robertconner3754]

At frame 11:22 is a picture of a woman handing a container of popcorn to a patient. That was my dearly loved, departed wife, Gail Conner. Each year at the KP Fireman's Fair, on Saturday morning, several bus loads of patients were hosted at the KPFD in town. They were given rides on the Fireball train, feted with hot dogs, soda, popcorn etc. She would volunteer to staff the popcorn stand. Halcyon days!!!!!

[@jlucasound]

I am sure your wife was an awesome person. God Bless her and you, Sir.

[@ivyedan7183]

Awe, she was beautiful and I'm sure just as kind...she is not gone...she's just preparing a place for you both to spend eternity..

[@jj7958]

That's nice

[@MarkMphonoman]

My first job as a teenager back in the mid 1960’s was at the storehouse (building 44) and for a few years I was a psychiatric aide on a ward for youthful patients. Unlike many ridiculous videos that portray the hospital simply as a playground for ghosts, this one does an excellent job of documenting real life at the hospital and highlights very interesting aspects of KPSH during its heyday. I recognized several people interviewed (including my boss, Gil Harris) and clearly remember Vito, his kite, and his fantastic photos of the hospital grounds. Five thumbs up for the producers of this nicely documented video.👍👍👍👍👍

[@jj7958]

Sounds like it was a pretty nice place for a lot of the people who lived and worked there. They make it sound like it was wonderland in the video. I think they should have talked more about the cruel and torturous practices that went on there. They didn't talk about that part and we didn't hear enough from the patients themselves if any are still alive today. I do not think this is a place that was ethical in their practices and that might depend on what area the employees worked in. They are not telling the whole story in the video. Today, it is better for the mentally ill but not all are treated like they should be. I think a lot end up in prison and that isn't going to help or they end up on the street. We need a center for mentally ill like shown in the video but with much more ethical and human treatments.

[@davidprestigiacomo1574]

I started at KPPC in 1976 at 18 years old. My Mom was an RN in bldg. 7 Ellie Kozlik. I was an MHTA in group 4, Bldg.. 21 and group L. I also was on the 3-11 shift in Bldg. 135 way in the back. I loved working at Kings Park. I lived at Home-T room 206 next to Vito Campanetto who was a good friend of mine....I still miss him very much. I truly miss those days so much. I wish they would re open the place....we need it today. David Prestigiacomo MHTA.

[@jamesgarcia1045]

Thanks for sharing the good memories @ KPPC & profile recognition to Percy Crosby + Vito Caponetto.

[@robertshumaker9308]

I worked here in the early 70's during the anti-psychotic drug era, not long before they began shutting all these hospitals down nationwide. Most of the patients I attended were from Brooklyn and, the Bronx, housed in semi-violent wards. Such a shame to see all these structures go to ruin. In Buffalo they have the Richardson Olmstead Campus, one of the first mental institutions in the country. It was completely restored into a beautiful upscale hotel, The Hotel Henry Urban Resort, $500 bucks a night. Too bad they closed these facilities down we probably wouldn't have as many shootings if they still existed.

[@loveny0711]

I started in 1976, at 19 years old. Started in Bldg 15. Made some good friends and still communicate with them. I thank God for KPPC every month when I get my retirement check...

[@tracut]

I worked in Bld 93 1966-67 it was a very good job for a HS junior. Summers I worked 6-10am .Kings Park was very different then.

[@reeh7393]

Interesting history of hospital and town development with the kppc. I did quarter time food service job, during high school, in the late 70s. I still remember that the patients' hands were always so unlifelike with so little muscle tone... it was a drastic sight. Some had to have their foodtrays carried for them. I was just a kid, and didn't know about atrophy yet, but I used to wonder if they would do better if their hands were like the rest of our hands, and if they had something to do with them besides eat. Medical advancements have made it possible to extinguish congregate care. It was a kind and functional environment, but the current outpatient model seems to be best practice, for the most people. If they can figure out how to safely remove all of the asbestos from the buildings and ground debris, the complex could be developed into something beneficially functional now.

[@inaspringer]

fascinating...as an adult looking back on the town I was raised up in...lol, outside of the hospital. Parents of classmates worked there...no fear had we. The darker, one flew over the cuckoos nest truths of torturous and barbaric care/experiments/actions mirrored that of Britiain, until the 70's when thorazine became tx protocol...fast forward to this place in time, the silver lining of that is where we are at in mental health treatment today.

[@jm1551701]

Most of the patients there where from Brooklyn and NYC, it was called Kings Park because it was first owned by Kings County in Brooklyn, back then Long Island had a lot of land available, and that area was considered the boonies at one time, so then they named the surrounding area Kings Park, as a retired NYPD I have to admit a lot of the EDPs I have arrested would tell me after I would lodge them at KIngs County Psych. that they had either spent time in Pilgrim or Kings Park, after KPPC closed a lot of them where transferred to Pilgrim or Creedmore in Queens, or as I heard just released into the streets, I also heard that a lot of the patients where literally put on buses and transported to Manhattan and released there, because there are more homeless shelters in the city as opposed to Long Island, and then we had to deal with them, I probably dealt more with EDPs in my career then the actual criminal element, that's pretty sad, but that's what happened to a lot of these poor people,

[@loveycat5474]

Many of the early treatments like electric shock therapy and lobotomy were very cruel. They make it all seem like a bed of roses. There were overcrowded, at one time there was 9000. Many of the patients lived I small cubicals. That does not seem like great life.

[@adrevanderwesthuizen7262]

I also noticed that.

[@jlucasound]

Well done. What an interesting and beautiful place.

[@damnjustassignmeone]

Well done. Thanks for posting

[@duane3694]

i used ride my bike thru there on the way to the beach.

[@lawrencejosephjenzen]

WHY IS THE BUILDING IN AUGUST 2020 LEFT TO ROT AND RUIN? MANY BUILDINGS STAND VACANT. SO MANY HOMELESS PEOPLE. CAN THIS BE TORN DOWN AND REDEVELOPED INTO HOUSING?

[@chrisg9602]

Bulding 93

[@cricketandgraham8644]

my familys name is the smith family lol