New York State’s Four National Historic Landmark Psychiatric Centers on National Endangered Properties List

There are two major reasons why the Preservation League of New York State undertook the process of nominating the four landmark psychiatric hospitals to the National Trust’s 11 Most Endangered List.

The first: The undeniable importance of these historic places and

The second: The great potential that New York State has to be a national leader in moving these landmarks from abandonment and peril to preservation and productive use.

America’s highest recognition of architectural and historic significance is the National Historic Landmarks program, which had its beginning in 1935. Since then, only 2,200 properties have met the strict criteria for such designation. Of the 2,200, 10% of these landmarks are in New York State and four are the historic hospitals in Utica, Binghamton, Poughkeepsie and Buffalo.

New York State has special responsibility to these national treasures and inclusion in the Trust’s "11 Most" program helps further underscore their importance.

1. Mohawk Valley Psychiatric Center

The hospital at Utica was built between 1837 and 1843 and is the oldest of the four. When constructed, it was the largest and most modern single-purpose hospital of its kind in the nation. According to one author– "The impressive Greek Revival building was intended to inspire confidence in the patients, attract eminent medical professionals as well as benefactors, and impress the thousands of travelers who passed through Utica on the Erie Canal each year." The grounds were equally impressive, created by landscape designer Andrew Jackson Downing.

2. Binghamton Psychiatric Center

The castle-like building overlooking the Southern Tier’s City of Binghamton is significant as the nation’s first single-purpose hospital founded to treat alcoholism as a disease. Constructed between 1858 and 1866 as the New York State Inebriate Asylum, the facility became part of the state’s mental hospital system in 1879. The limestone Gothic Revival style building was designed by Isaac Perry, one of the state’s most important architects of public buildings. Perry later served as Commissioner of the State Capitol in Albany and was responsible for 40 armories across the state.

3. Hudson River Psychiatric Center

Located on a hilltop overlooking the Hudson River, the Poughkeepsie hospital was begun in 1867 and completed 11 years later. Designed by Frederick C. Withers, renowned for his church architecture, the Poughkeepsie facility is the nation’s earliest example of the use of the High Victorian Gothic style for institutional construction. The extensive grounds were designed by Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux, best known for New York City’s Central Park.

4. Buffalo Psychiatric Center

This monumental building of locally quarried Medina sandstone was designed by Henry Hobson Richardson ans begun in 1870. The national architectural style he popularized– of rough, massive stone with round-arched openings– today bears his name, "Richardsonian Romanesque," and had its early development at the Buffalo hospital. As in Poughkeepsie, the grounds were created by the nation’s leading landscape designers of the day, Olmsted and Vaux.

What these four hospitals have in common is that each one represents enlightened public leadership in the care of some of the New York State’s least fortunate citizens. They are among the masterworks of their architects and landscape designers. And– with the deinstitutionalization of patients– the four have been abandoned in stages, beginning in the 1970s.

The Empire State has always risen to a challenge and shown the way for others. New York State now has an important opportunity to demonstrate how preservation and economic development can work together. We look to our state government to provide a national model for the disposition of these historic properties– one that ensures their stewardship for the public good. How these landmarks are sold and for what purposes will have a profound impact on these historic buildings and grounds and on communities in which they exist.

last revised August 26 1999 plnys by Preserve & Protect