Scouting An Abandoned Mental Asylum

January 25, 2011 2:56 PM

Scouting An Abandoned Mental Asylum
I recently had the opportunity to scout for a film the Rockland Psychiatric Center, a massive 600 acre complex built in the 1920's, with dozens of administration buildings, dorms, and even its own power plant...and nearly all of it completely abandoned. This is part one of the pictures I took.
posted by nycscout (5 comments total)

Wow, amazing! Did you go through the power plant? Any of the power generation equipment still intact?
posted by Reverend John at 3:04 PM on January 25, 2011

Oh my god, it's a pre-made apocalyptic set, fully prepared for use! They even included snow!
posted by The Whelk at 6:56 AM on January 26, 2011 [1 favorite]

Wow, that was hard for me to browse. And I didn't get all the way through. Too much emotional overhead, thinking about all the people there and their stories... :-/ I thought your treatment of it was really well done, though. Thanks for preserving this bit of history for future researchers.
posted by circular at 7:23 PM on January 27, 2011

Hey, is that the Rockland that Ginsberg is talking about in "Howl?" : "I'm with you in Rockland where twentyfivethousand mad comrades all together singing the last stanzas of the Internationale?"
posted by LucretiusJones at 7:29 PM on January 27, 2011

This is amazing! I found the web site for the Rockland Psychiatric Center and it says it's still a functioning mental health facility--is this a different campus?
posted by orrnyereg at 10:01 AM on January 28, 2011