{"id":1979,"slug":"kings-park-psychiatric-center-kings-park-new-york","story":[{"heading":null,"paragraphs":["Kings Park Psychiatric Center is the asylum that became a park — the 1885 Kings County farm colony that grew to 9,300 patients, the 13-story Building 93 that was 'the most famous asylum building on Long Island.' It closed in 1996; the grounds are Nissequogue River State Park now, but the buildings are still there.","The asylum was the city's overflow — the farm colony for Brooklyn's mentally ill, the self-sufficient community with the railroad spur and the power plant, the lobotomies and Thorazine that emptied it. Building 93 was the infirmary for the geriatric; it's the landmark that looms over the park.","The site is still there — the abandoned buildings on the bluffs, the state park that opened in 2000, the ruins that are 'a testament to a forgotten era.' The file keeps Kings Park: the 1885 founding, the 9,300 patients, and the asylum that's still standing empty.","Kings Park is the archive's asylum file — the farm colony that became a warehouse, Building 93, and the park that's built on the ruins."]},{"heading":"Why this file matters","paragraphs":["Kings Park is the archive's asylum file — the Long Island farm colony, the 9,300 patients, and the abandoned buildings that are still there.","An asylum that became a park keeps its tower — the file's suggestion being that Kings Park's hold is Building 93: the 13 stories, the geriatric infirmary, and the ruin that's the park's landmark."]}],"name":"Kings Park Psychiatric Center","aliases":[],"type":"FORMER_HOSPITAL","type_label":"Former Hospital","cats":["INSTITUTIONAL_HISTORY","LOCAL_FOLKLORE","FORMER_HOSPITAL"],"groups":["dark-history","institutions","legends"],"desc":"111-year state hospital campus slowly being demolished.","full_desc":"A former hospital in Kings Park, New York, built in 1885, Kings Park Psychiatric Center is filed here for what the record attaches to it. 111-year state hospital campus slowly being demolished. HauntHunt files it with institutional history, former hospitals and local folklore. The dossier holds 1 reported claim and 1 documented fact, with the verified spine filed separately from the lore. The site is gone; what remains is the record and the ground it stood on.","address":null,"city":"Kings Park","county":null,"state":"New York","postal":null,"region":"Northeast","lat":40.886964,"lon":-73.245571,"coord_kind":"CITY","status":"DEMOLISHED","access":"RESTRICTED","access_notes":"State park-adjacent property with posted no-trespassing areas; structures are being demolished.","ownership":null,"website":null,"phone":null,"year_built":1885,"year_opened":1885,"year_closed":1996,"year_demolished":null,"designation":null,"current_use":null,"research_notes":"New record from encyclopedia/official-source pass; VERIFY task auto-queued for primary-source corroboration.","stage":"SOURCE_RESEARCH","quality":{"level":"MEDIUM","score":59.4,"dims":{"location_confidence":0.75,"identity_confidence":0.65,"historical_confidence":0.8,"source_quality":0.3999999999999999,"paranormal_claim_provenance":0.8,"coordinate_confidence":0,"current_access_confidence":0.7,"freshness":0.65}},"claims":[{"id":1177,"type":"REPORTED_ANOMALIES","description":"Trespassers and investigators reported screams, figures and moving objects in the abandoned towers. Kings Park Psychiatric Center in Kings Park, New York carries the report the way old places do — as part of its identity. Digital folklore: the retellings are documented, the original event less so. The anomalies are minor and stubborn — which is exactly why they're still in the record.","evidence":"INTERNET_RUMOR","evidence_label":"Internet rumor","entity":null,"where":null,"first_report":null,"approx_date":null,"confidence":0.8,"conflict_notes":null,"source":{"name":"Kings Park Psychiatric Center","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kings_Park_Psychiatric_Center","publisher":"Wikipedia","type":"ENCYCLOPEDIA","authority":4},"conflicting_source":null,"variants":[]}],"history":[{"description":"Operated 1885–1996; patient census peaked near 9,000 in the 1950s. The site's documented history is the record the rest of the file stands on. The record holds it as fact — documented, not retold. Sources including 'Kings Park Psychiatric Center' carry the record. The entry's timeline holds it; the lore holds the rest.","evidence":"HISTORICALLY_VERIFIED","date_start":"1885","date_end":"1996","confidence":null,"source":{"name":"Kings Park Psychiatric Center","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kings_Park_Psychiatric_Center","publisher":"Wikipedia","type":"ENCYCLOPEDIA","authority":4}}],"legends":[],"entities":[],"events":[],"investigations":[],"encounters":[],"media":[],"persons":[],"visitor":{"tour_availability":"Verify before visiting","notes":"Access is restricted; check with the managing agency or landowner before visiting.","last_verified_at":"2026-09-18 11:32:55","source":{"name":"HauntHunt generic access guidance","url":"https://haunthunt.com/about#access-guidance","publisher":"HauntHunt editorial","type":"DIRECTORY","authority":2}},"sources":[{"name":"Kings Park Psychiatric Center","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kings_Park_Psychiatric_Center","publisher":"Wikipedia","type":"ENCYCLOPEDIA","authority":4}],"conflicts":[],"wiki":{"title":"Kings Park Psychiatric Center","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kings_Park_Psychiatric_Center","desc":"Former psychiatric hospital in New York, United States","extract":"The Kings Park Psychiatric Center, known by Kings Park locals as The Psych Center, is a former state-run psychiatric hospital located in Kings Park, New York. It operated from 1885 until 1996, when the State of New York closed the facility, releasing its few remaining patients or transferring them to the still-operational Pilgrim Psychiatric Center.","img":"https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/3/37/KingsParkPC-Building_93.jpg/330px-KingsParkPC-Building_93.jpg?utm_source=en.wikipedia.org&utm_campaign=api&utm_content=thumbnail","score":108,"lat":40.89388889,"lon":-73.24166667},"counts":{"claims":1,"history":1,"legends":0,"entities":0,"sources":1}}