In the midst of New York’s Ramapo Mountains amongst the rolling hills of Rockland County, lies the bucolic hamlet of Thiells. It was the perfect spot for the president of the New York State Board of Charities William Pryor Letchworth to conceive of his new model of progressive care: a self-sufficient village of working farm cottages that would give mentally disabled patients a more humane lifestyle. This “community within a community” was a departure from the high-rise asylums and overcrowded almshouses which had become the standard of care for the mentally ill at the time. In 1907, New York State approved Letchworth’s plan and acquired 2,300 acres in Thiells. Construction was completed in 1911. Modeled after Monticello, Letchworth Village’s neoclassical fieldstone buildings afforded abundant sunlight to help aid the treatment of the developmentally disabled.
At the time of its opening, patients were categorized into one of three categories of feeblemindedness: idiot, imbecile, and moron. Based on their functionalities, patients helped farm, cook, sew, and care for livestock. Under the direction of superintendent Dr. Charles Sherman Little, research was conducted into the cause of mental retardation. The Village also became the testing site for the first polio vaccine. After trying it on himself, immunologist Hilary Koprowski administered the vaccine to 20 child patients, 17 of which developed antibodies to the disease.
By the 1940s, Letchworth Village nearly doubled its 3,000-patient threshold, yet new arrivals kept coming in from New York City, overwhelming the staff. It was the same time when a photojournalist named Irving Haberman released photographs of naked patients sleeping on floor mattresses. Many of them appeared to be malnourished. It became clear that the well-intentioned vision of Letchworth Village had taken a dramatic turn. In 1972, Geraldo Rivera’s ABC News exposé, Willowbrook: The Last Great Disgrace, shined a light on the decrepit conditions due to underfunding at Willowbrook State School and Letchworth Village. In the wake of the Rivera report, hospitals all around the country began the long, slow process of deinstitutionalization. Letchworth would move its residents to group homes while cutting down admissions before closing for good in 1996.
Today, many of the buildings still sit abandoned on the hospital grounds. A few miles away, Old Letchworth Village Cemetery serves as a stark reminder of what went wrong. T-shaped markers with only serial numbers, mark the resting place of those who lost their lives at the hospital. State agencies funded the installation of a permanent plaque inscribed with the names of the patients along with a resounding epitaph: “To Those Who Shall Not Be Forgotten.”
Sources
Almazan, S. (2018, June 14). From Shining Utopia to Terrifying Asylum: The Chilling Story Behind New York’s Letchworth Village. The Lineup Online.
https://the-line-up.com/letchworth-village
Ellis, W. (2012, August 5). Legend Tripping in Letchworth Village. AbandonedNYC Online
https://abandonednyc.com/2012/08/05/legend-tripping-in-letchworth-village/
Levine, D. The Real History of Letchworth Village. Hudson Valley Magazine Online.
https://hvmag.com/life-style/history/the-real-history-of-letchworth-village/