Portal:Featured Article Of The Week
Featured Article Of The Week
Kings Park State Hospital
Prior to establishing this institution in 1885 all of the insane of Kings County were treated in the local institution situated in the suburbs of Brooklyn and known as the Kings County Lunatic Asylum. The county's general population's rapid growth, due largely to unprecedented immigration, produced a disproportionate increase in the number of insane in the county and added enormously to the serious overcrowding in the county asylum.
Although successive superintendents pleaded with the county authorities for additional buildings, no provision for relief was made.
Finally, when conditions became intolerable after patients had been crowded into the basements of the large asylum building and into an old frame building quite unfit for the purpose, public sentiment compelled to action by the county authorities, and in 1885 about 850 acres of land were purchased at St. Johnland, 43 miles to the east, on Long Island, and a branch asylum was established. Click here for more...
