SOON TO COME... THE LETCHWORTH VILLAGE EXPLORATION

eyewand3r (31)in #travel • 7 years ago

This weekend shall be an interesting one.

This weekend my team and i will be exploring Letchworth Village and its abandoned Development center. This abandoned forgotten piece of history is north of New York City, secluded from life and sitting awaiting for life to visit its history.

But...

Before we go, lets examine its history.

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Built as a residential institution for the “physically and mentally disabled,” Letchworth Village opened in 1911, in the hamlet of Thiells in New York’s Rockland County. It sits on a massive 2,362 acre site. Nature has been quick to reclaim its dominion over these unhallowed grounds, shrouding an unpleasant memory in a thick green veil.

The Minnisceongo Creek cuts the grounds in two, designating areas for the male/female which were meant never to interact. Separate living and training houses for children, able-bodied adults, and the infirm (not phyisically of mentally strong) were not to exceed two stories or house over 70 inmates.

The actions took in the laboratory facility would be considered sinister to us today if it were still being done. Unable to give or deny consent, many children became oblivious test subjects- In the 1950, the institution gained such reputation as the site of one of the first human trials of a still-experimental polio vaccine. Brain specimens were harvested from deceased residents and stored in jars.

The well-intentioned plans for Letchworth Village didn’t hold up in practice, and by 1942, the population had increased to twice its intended occupancy. From here, its sadly underfunded facilities fell into a decline. Many of the residents, whose condition required ample time and attention for feeding, became seriously ill or malnourished as a result of overcrowding. At one point, over 500 patients slept on mattresses in hallways and dayrooms of the facility, attended by a completely overwhelmed staff tasked with such the impossible.

What seems probably most disturbing about the facility, was that the majority of the residents were children, ages ranging from 5 to 16 years old, that were abandoned there by their parents. This facility operated during an age where things like epilepsy, bipolar disorder, or other afflictions were still confusing and relatively unknown to society.

With conditions so deteriorating and so horrendous, even staff members began to turn on each other, with many assaults and rapes reported amongst co-workers.

Throughout the mid-1900s, Letchworth saw hundreds of patients die. Like said earlier, Some of the patients had their brains extracted from their skulls and kept on display in the laboratory. Their bodies were then buried in a plot of land a mile from the facility,nameless, with only their patient number on a T-shaped marker, which in some cases was to hide the name for the ashamed families.

While a plaque was erected in 2007 finally paying homage to these anonymous bodies, several of these name-less graves are still unidentified.

Despite the extreme conditions, the facility remained open until 1996. It blows my mind that this place was able to operate for 85 years!

Letchworth Village was finally closed due to asbestos found in the walls and on surfaces used for experiments. AND NOT because of the deplorable conditions that existed for decades…