The Notorious King's Park Psych Ward

Its eerie remains still stand in a largely abandoned property, one of the four large state hospitals that were creepily built very close to one another. The King's Park Psychiatric Center, as it was originally known, stood near the Central Islip Psychiatric Center, the Edgewood State Hospital, and the hospital it would eventually be absorbed into, the Pilgrim State Psychiatric Center.

Each of these properties had their own fire and police stations, warehouses, power plants, farms, and even employee housing, since they were part of the revolutionary Farm Colony asylum movement.

Originally an extension of Brooklyn's Flatbush Avenue asylum, the site determined ideal for its rural, countrified feel, the King's Park center was constructed next to the St. Johnland orphanage in Suffolk County's North Shore. Farm buildings were used to house patients, and as the state hospital grew, staff came to live on the grounds. When the state of New York took over the crowded asylum in 1895, the employees were actually living in the same buildings as the patients, which was later corrected by the state.

Either way, rapid growth of the patient population caused an 11-floor building to be erected on the grounds, which is the haunting building that still stands on the deserted land today.

The rumored haunting part of the building that is now urban legend comes from the practices that took place in the 1950s, after WWII's research on psychotropic medication. Lobotomies and electroshock therapy was widely used at the King's Park Psych Ward, but Thorazine use was also widespread, allowing patients to be released. Former practices of farm therapy were discontinued as it was no longer profitable for the patients to grow their own food, leaving them not much to do but be subjected to heavy doses of medication that would stupefy them or worse.

1996 finally saw the end of the asylum as population dwindled in light of deinstitutionalization as discharged patients wandered homeless in the streets of Long Island, and the King's Park Psych Ward was merged with the Pilgrim State Psychiatric Center. The buildings on the Kings Park campus have lain empty for years, but rumor has it that the abandoned buildings are not so abandoned at night, and the unbalanced who were discharged before they were ready find their way back there, along with drug addicts, homeless folks, and other unsavory characters, as well as the occasional teen seeking excitement. Other say the screams of patients can still be heard late at night from the empty and broken windows.

Entrance into the building is forbidden by law and dangerous -- this is a historical site best seen from afar. However, the waterfront part of the campus is part of the protected Nissequogue River State Park, and the rail spur was converted in 2003 as a hike-bike trail.

Spine-chilling photos of the haunted, vandalized remains of infamous Building 93 and its grounds can be found on http://www.lioddities.com.