Living at Kings Park State Hospital

About me:

This site (via the above links) contains photographs, documents, personal accounts and anecdotes regarding staff residential life at the historic, long defunct Kings Park State (psychiatric) Hospital complex in Long Island, New York, as seen through the lives of Irving Pinsley, the hospital's chief psychiatrist, and his wife Rose Daniels Pinsley, director of the hospital's children's social work unit. Dr. and Mrs. Pinsley lived and worked at the hospital from 1948 to 1972.

The hospital was in operation from 1885 to 1996. Nearly all of its buildings and grounds, including the ones in these photos, have remained abandoned, delapidated and undeveloped since that time.

The creation and theme of this site were prompted by requests from the Kings Park Heritage Museum. The Museum's premise was that the site's contents portray an important dimension of the hospital's history not shown elsewhere. The Museum also features this collection on its website.

To access most of the contents on this site, MySpace registration and an "Add To Friends" request via this profile page is required. (To do the latter, click on that link within the "Contacting Living at Kings Park State Hospital" menu above.)


This page's period music, "Ricercare and Toccata" by composer Gian-Carlo Menotti, is performed by the late concert pianist Rhoda Pinsley Levin, Dr. Pinsley's daughter, from her CD Pieces for Piano (recorded in 1966, released in 2006.)
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