This abandoned asylum is well known for its tragic history of patient abuse. Letchworth Village opened its doors in 1911 in the small, quaint town of Thiells, New York. It was built for physically and mentally disabled persons of all ages, from newborn to the elderly. The campus of Letchworth Village consisted of over 130 different buildings and measured at approximately 2,000 acres, solidifying its name as an actual “village” and giving truth to its one time motto of “an acre for every patient.” It was named after William Pryor Letchworth, who sought reform in the early treatment and care for the insane, epileptic, and poor children. The sprawling complex was originally created as a home for “the segregation of the epileptic and feeble-minded.”
The town of Thiells, New York was chosen specifically because of its location; as it was pretty much a stones throw from the scenic Hudson River, it was only 40 miles north of the populous New York City, and it offered plenty of breathtaking landscape, with rolling hills and vast farm land where the mentally ill could find both peace and serenity while in a beautiful and welcoming atmosphere.
From its opening in 1911 through the heydays of the 1920’s, the able-bodies tended to the farms, they worked in small shops, there was a hospital, several administration buildings, a recreation building, a power plant, and several places of worship where the patients could both work and attend services. Most of the other buildings were patient dormitories that were mostly single-story, designed and subdivided to house up to 70 residents per building.
In 1972, Geraldo took millions of TV viewers inside Letchworth Village as part of his unflinching, award-winning expose "Willowbrook: The Last Great Disgrace” Although the expose largely focused on the conditions inside of Willowbrook State School, another institution with a similar situation, some of the content was also from Letchworth Village.
Letchworth Village was officially closed down in 1996. The remaining patients were moved to more up-to-date modern facilities throughout the state where they could be better cared for. Many people who worked at the Village refuse to speak of their experiences and to the ghastly first hand accounts of what they had witnessed. A interesting fact is that Letchworth Village seemed to follow a trajectory: from “noble-facility-for-healing,” to “abusive-human-rights-horror-show,” to the now “haunting-ruins” that you see today.