It seems like a good time to run some Harlem Valley photos because the asylum is currently undergoing renovation by Olivet.* Soon, it will be a college campus subjected to all kinds of dumb horror stories, and curious students will start discovering the underground labyrinth of utility tunnels that explorers and scrappers have been dicking around in for decades. Eventually, enough time will pass, and most people will forget it was ever an asylum, except for the quiet, milky-eyed janitor who’s been there as long as anyone can remember.
Before you’re like “pffft no one will forget what it was,” please see: Columbia University. The college now stands where Bloomingdale Insane Asylum used to be (one structure still remains.) Although the main building was demolished, there are still tunnels that run under the school, and I’m willing to bet (based on having done this) if you ask a random smattering of Columbia students if they know about any of that, most of them will say no.
*Olivet’s renovations were stopped by the city in November 2013, when it was discovered they were doing illegal asbestos abatement. Olivet claimed there was “no such project,” but the city called bullshit, and construction was halted temporarily. In the end, they were charged with a 2.3 million dollar fee, only $700,000 of which they’ll end up having to pay, despite lying to the city, putting their worker’s health and safety in danger, and generally just being shitty little lairs. I saw the illegal abatement happening with my own eyes when I went exploring there shortly after exterior renovation (the only legal access they had) began on the buildings. But inside (which they didn’t have legal access to at the time) they’d haphazardly removed the asbestos tiles, bagged them, and them dumped them in the halls and tunnels where asbestos dust floated freely. I was ready to testify if needed, but in the end, they were fully charged.
Olivet eventually moved forward with plans to open the school. Their website shows future renderings of the campus, along with a horrifying “about” section that’s full of colonialist manifest destiny bullshit. Oliver is attempting to hide the history of Harlem Valley, as it clashes with their Christian ideologies, but that is a grave disservice to not only the workers and patients of the hospital but also to the incredibly important history of mental illness treatment in America, the outcomes of which are still being dealt with today. Also that campus is gonna be haunted as hell.
NOTE TO ALL STUDENTS: If you find out about the history of your school, which you can with just a google search, I’m more than happy to provide you with information to other parts of the asylum campus that Olivet can’t touch, like two patient graveyards on opposite ends of the property.
2017 update: Olivet opened a golf course across the street where the long abandoned Harlem golf course was. One of the two Harlem Valley patient cemeteries lies just beyond the golf course, but I’m sure they’ve tried to hide that as well. This blog has detailed access info to both.
Harlem Valley State Hospital, later known as Harlem Valley Psychiatric Center, began operating as an institution for the mentally ill in 1924. Prior to that, some of the buildings were used as the Wingdale prison. There were many escapes from the facility that upset the residents of Dover, some of whom lived right next to the campus. And I mean right next to it, there’s a residential street that ends just a few feet from where the hospital property starts.
Like all asylums, Harlem Valley saw a sharp decrease in patient numbers in the 50s and 60s due to the discovery of Thorazine and mass deinstitutionalization. The hospital closed in 1994 as a result of its dwindling patient population, the economic turndown, and government budget cuts. It was abandoned until 2013 when Olivet began their bullshit. But as of 2022, the school was not yet open.
Some of these pictures are pretty bad, quality-wise since I only had an old iphone with me on one of my many trips to the asylum. I’m talking iPhone 3 bad.
Storage/Power House
Obligatory hallway shot
Storage/Power House
The skyway between the old medical building and the new one during the day…
And the skyway at night.
The morgue in the new med building, which was attached by the skyway to the old med.
View of the skyway from above.
Utility tunnels that Olivet will most likely seal off, only to be discovered by future college students.
Kitchen floor of solid ice
Injection kits from Dec. 1956
Power house with coal mirrors
I haven’t seen it with my own dumb eyes, but supposedly this theater has been all cleaned up and restored.
View of the powerhouse from Admin.
Of course I hardly have any exterior shots. I also don’t have any of the children’s ward because of course the camera battery died, but it had some pretty good wall paintings, mainly of Sesame Street and the creepiest vacant eyed children, because of course.
The “Gate of Heaven” entry to the asylum graveyard.
There was a cemetery restoration project in 2012, during which the grounds were weeded and grave markers were uncovered, but the field has since grown over again and they’re not visible. Especially not under three feet of snow.
Above, and the following seven photos, are what used to be the old Wingdale prison. The two buildings are really beautiful, with high ceilings and lots of natural light.
One end room has three walls on which shapes are painted and I’m not sure why but I really like them. The color scheme is strange, but oddly pleasing.
Mold and moss have taken over one of the old prison buildings.
I let some kids use this for an album cover, but I never heard from them again, so, it may or may not be out there on someone’s record, who knows.
Art painted directly onto the glass panes of a door
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The view we saw the morning after spending the night at Harlem Valley on the roof of new med. From there you can see the roof of the Wingdale buildings and Admin, and the smoke stack of the power house.
There’s not much left to explore at Harlem since Olivet has taken over, but you can still see the buildings, since the Metro-North stops right between the hospital and the power house at the Harlem Valley-Wingdale station.
For more photos, go to my Harlem Valley Flickr set
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