EDGEWOOD STATION: TWO STOREY WOODEN DEPOT BUILT BY LAND DEVELOPER. OPENED: 6/1892 AS SIGNAL STOP.  NO TRAINS STOPPED THEREAFTER ETT #61, EFF. JUNE/1911. LAST APPEARS ON ETT #72, EFF: 10/21/1913.  ABANDONED.  USED BY LOCALS AS A SOURCE FOR SCRAP LUMBER (Geo. G. Ayling first-hand data). BURNED: 1920 Research: Dave Keller

Edgewood State Hospital and three buildings from Pilgrim State Hospital , in addition to numerous temporary buildings, was named in honor of Brigadier General Charles Field Mason, who had served in the Army Medical Corps.

The hospital was built in the early 1940s, believed to be a Works Progress Administration funded project. It consisted only of ten buildings (including its massive, prominent 13-story main building), making it the smallest of the four as well (although it was planned to be a larger complex, those plans never made it past paper). The facility was commandeered by the War Department after the United States entered World War II. The War Department completed its construction for use as a psychiatric facility for battle-traumatized soldiers. Its entire campus (in addition to three buildings from nearby Pilgrim State Hospital and numerous temporary structures) was used as "Mason General Hospital" (left) by the department. When the war ended, the hospital was transferred back to New York State, where it essentially operated as the tubercular division of Pilgrim for a few years.

The hospital operated between 1944 and 1946, and was used for treating the psychological casualties of the battlefield as well as for other related uses. During the hospital's brief operation, in 1946 film director John Huston was assigned by the US government to film a documentary film about recovering soldiers in the hospital for propaganda purposes, the film was called "Let There Be Light". The film showed the steps that shell-shocked soldiers took in their rehabilitation towards a normal life after discharge. However, the film was deemed so potentially controversial that the government kept it hidden from the public until 1981.

After 1946, the War Department handed control of Mason General back to New York State, where Edgewood Hospital was managed by Pilgrim, and the three buildings at Pilgrim that partially comprised Mason, 81, 82, and 83, reverted to their parent complex. Edgewood ceased operation in 1971 and was demolished in 1989 following years of extensive vandalism and neglect. Buildings 81-83 at Pilgrim, the last surviving remnants of Mason General Hospital , are still in use by Pilgrim today. Advancements in medicine throughout the 1950s and 1960s that offered alternatives to institutionalization led to decentralization, and the hospital closed in 1971. From that point on it was left to the mercy of vandals, arsonists and time. Its main building and a handful of other structures were demolished in stages throughout 1989. The final remaining structures were disposed of around 1990–91.

Today, the site sits as an open, state-protected oak-brush plains preserve under the NYS DEC department. One can still find remnants of the former hospital, such as the old rail spur, fire hydrants, etc., scattered about.  Info: Wikipedia

Edgewood Hospital - view NE 11/09/1987 Photo: Edward Hand

Coal dock at the Kings Park Hospital  Photo: John Volpi  - The Kings Park Psychiatric Center was established in 1885 by Kings County in nearby Suffolk County. The official name of the hospital in its first 10 years was the Kings County Asylum, taken from the name of the county that Brooklyn occupied. The hospital was revolutionary at the time in the sense that it was a departure from the asylums of folklore, which were overcrowded places where gross human rights abuses often occurred. The asylum, built by Brooklyn to alleviate overcrowding in its own asylums, was a "farm colony" asylum, where patients worked in a variety of farm-related activities, such as feeding livestock and growing food, as this was considered to be a form of therapy.

After World War II, patient populations at Kings Park and the other Long Island asylums increased markedly. In 1954, the patient census at Kings Park topped 9,303, but would begin a steady decline afterward. By the time Kings Park reached its peak patient population, the old "rest and relaxation" philosophy surrounding farming had been succeeded by more invasive techniques of pre-frontal lobotomies and electroshock therapy. However, those methods were soon abandoned after 1955, following the introduction of Thorazine, the first widely used drug in the treatment of mental illness. As medication made it possible for patients to live normal lives outside of a mental institution, the need for large facilities such as Kings Park diminished, and the patient population began to decrease. In addition, activists worked in legal suits through the 1970s to reduce the patient population in major institutions, arguing that people could better be supported in smaller community centers.

By the early 1990s, the Kings Park Psychiatric Center, as it came to be known, was much reduced. Many of the buildings were shut down or reduced in usage. This included the massive Building 93. By the early 1990s, only the first few floors of the building were in use. While many patients were de-institutionalized and large facilities were closed, there was a shortage of small community centers, which were never developed in the number needed. This resulted in many more mentally ill people being caught up and retained in jails and prisons because of difficulties in dealing with the world. Many of the homeless in urban areas are mentally ill, people with chronic illnesses who have difficulty keeping up with medication regimes or resist them.
In response to the declining patient population, the New York State Office of Mental Health developed plans to close Kings Park as well as another Long Island asylum, the Central Islip Psychiatric Center, in the early 1990s. The plans called for Kings Park and Central Islip to close, and the remaining patients from both facilities to be transferred to the still-operational Pilgrim Psychiatric Center, or be discharged. In the fall of 1996, the plans were implemented. The few remaining patients from Kings Park and Central Islip were transferred to Pilgrim, ending Kings Park's 111-year run. Source: Wiki
 

LIRR #113 H10s 2-8-0 crossing Main St./25A, Kings Park c.1950 Photo: Ernie Lanzer Archive: Kings Park Heritage Museum

LIRR #113 freight bound for Kings Park State Hospital c.1950  Photo: Ernie Lanzer Archive: Kings Park Heritage Museum

MP43-44 Kings Park Emery Map 9/1957
Archive: Dave Keller

LIRR 1966 Kings Park Track Map #58

Kings Park Hospital 2/1968
Archive: Malcolm Harding

Kings Park State Hospital Emery map Old Dock Rd. 9/1957 Archive: SUNY Stony Brook

        

Pilgrim State to Central Islip Hospital sidings map c.1950. The Central Islip Hospital siding to the east was to the new power house and NY State Warehouse. Other sidings were removed in the early 1950's. Map: Henry Raudenbush  Info/Archive: Art Huneke

PRR leased E6s #1564 4-4-2 Sunday Hospital Train
Pilgrim State Hospital Station View W 10/13/1946 (R. Dirkes -Dave Keller)

Looking northwest, G5s #23 is shown here pulling the first run of hospital train #4228 eastbound into the new Pilgrim State Hospital station at Brentwood, NY on June 24, 1934.  The return trip west became train #4225.  Over the years, the numbers of the hospital trains have changed.  Note that this train is indicated on the Emery map following.  (Dave Keller
 and Art Huneke data, Dave Keller archive)

 
 A "special excursion" ticket for the three (3) State Hospitals and not a regular issue.  Normal fares for the train to Pilgrim State Hospital station were issued as "Brentwood" printed ticket stock. Archive: Richard Makse
 

PILGRIM STATE HOSPITAL:  Spur off Main Line constructed in 1930 for coal delivery to the institution.  Per ETT #1, effective 6/24/34, station with covered shelter in service, and first passenger train to hospital scheduled.  Discontinued as station stop effective 5/21/78.  Spur truncated: 19__?  and tracks removed from upper portion of spur.  Lower portion of spur left intact and used by LIRR as storage track.  As of 2013, covered shelter and platform still in place but heavily overgrown.  (Dave Keller's "Long Island Rail Road Station History" listing)

Here are the eastbound and westbound train listings for service to Pilgrim State Hospital as they appeared in LIRR Employee Timetable #2, effective 5/20/74.  The yellow pages indicate Saturdays and Sundays only, with additional notes indicating the hospital trains run Sundays only.

The eastbound train, #4228, makes a morning stop at Pinelawn to drop off visitors to the cemetery and a note in the column states that it arrives at Pilgrim switch at 10:55 am, and at the hospital at 11:10.  The note continues to state that the train leaves the hospital at 12:20 pm, running light to the timetable-listed Pilgrim switch at 12:40 pm, then continuing to run light, passing SG cabin at 12:45, Central Islip at 12:50 and reaching Ronkonkoma at 12:57 pm where the engine will be run around the train and then laid up for the return trip.  If a push-pull train, then there will be no need to run the engine around the train, but it will lay up in the yard nonetheless.

The westbound train, #4253, leaves at 2:15 pm from Ronkonkoma where it's been laying up since arriving there at 12:57 pm.  It runs light westbound passing Central Islip at 2:22 pm and SG cabin at 2:27 pm.  Notes in the column indicate arrival at Pilgrim switch at 2:34 pm.   It doesn't give an arrival time at the hospital but states that it leaves the station there at 3:05 pm.  The timetable listing shows the westbound run arriving at Pilgrim switch at 3:16 pm then heading to Jamaica, making an afternoon return stop at Pinelawn to pick up visitors returning from the cemetery.  (You'll notice that most of the morning and afternoon trains make a Pinelawn station stop for cemetery visitors.)

Note that while the eastbound train was numbered #4228 in 1974, it had changed to #4236 by the last day of service on May 21, 1978. 
 The westbound train number, however, remained the same.  (Dave Keller data and archive)

Pilgrim State Hospital Station 1/29/1946 view E (F. W. Weber photo, Dave Keller archive and data) Compare this view with the earlier view of the first train to arrive in 1934 (photo, top right). Note that by this time, the bumper that had been installed at the very end of the station platform has been removed, and the track extended further east into the dirt hill beyond, to allow the locomotive to clear the station platform and allow space at the short concrete platform for an additional passenger car to be spotted there. Also note that the concrete platform only extends to the edge of the covered shelter. In later years, an asphalt extension to the concrete platform was added on the west end. (Dave Keller data)

The Last Passenger Train Service to Pilgrim State Hospital

The last passenger train service to Pilgrim State Hospital in Brentwood, NY was on May 21, 1978.  It consisted of eastbound, Sunday-only train #4236 and westbound Sunday-only train #4253.

Until recent years when the LIRR renumbered many trains, #200-series trains were Ronkonkoma / Main Line trains (i.e. #204/#211 were the eastbound and westbound daily run to Greenport and back).  The number "4" preceding the train number designated the train as a Saturday / Sunday / Holiday (or all three) train. The Pinelawn Cemetery trains were Saturday-Sunday trains but the Pilgrim State Hospital train was Sunday-only, making the additional stop at Pinelawn in each direction.

There was no means to turn the train at Pilgrim nor was there a run-around track, so the train would nose into the platform, unload the passengers, then, running light, back out onto the Main in a westbound direction, clear Pilgrim switch, reverse direction and head east to Ronkonkoma where the train entered the yard, the locomotive would be cut off, run around the train either via the wye or a siding track and coupled onto the west end.

When it was time to head back west in the afternoon to pick up the returning riders who visited patients at the hospital, the train would again clear the Pilgrim switch, reverse direction, back eastbound into the spur up to the station, load the passengers, then head west.

They got smart when they began to use push-pull service there, because it eliminated that need to turn the train.  There was NOTHING at Pilgrim station or at nearby Pine Aire at the time, that could occupy hours of layover.  (Dave Keller data)

LIRR Employee timetable #4, eff. May, 1977 NO longer shows the light runs to and from Ronkonkoma.  With the use of push-pull trains to the hospital, the need to run the train out to Ronkonkoma to turn the engine or run it around the train and lay up until the return trip was no longer necessary.  I gather the LIRR deemed it more cost-effective to let the train layup either at the hospital platform or on the Pine Aire siding, north of the Main, until departure time.  (Jeff Erlitz archive, Dave Keller data)

MP15ac #154 and GP38-2 #276 Train #4253 LAST RUN westbound 
from Pilgrim State Hospital on Spur view SE 5/21/78 (Madden-Keller)

MP15ac #154 and GP38-2 #276  Last day passenger service Train #4253 westbound 
 to Pilgrim State Hospital at junction with FA1 #616 Train #4203 
westbound at Pine Aire 5/21/1978 (Madden-Keller)

"Train to Pilgrim State Makes Its Last Run" 
Newsday May 22, 1978 Page 16 by Steve Wick

Here's the procedure used on the runs up the spur in the last years as well as on the last day of passenger service:

The hospital train eastbound, #4236, would head onto the spur and into the station with the locomotive(s) on the east end.  After the passengers had left, the train was backed westbound out onto the Main Line, a reverse move made, and then headed eastbound to Ronkonkoma where the locomotive(s) was (were) run around the train on the wye and all laid up in the yard for the return trip to the hospital as westbound train #4253.  At the junction, the train was BACKED into the hospital spur in preparation for the scheduled westbound return train with the locomotive(s) on the west end.  Why there were TWO locomotives on this last run is a mystery, unless one of the engines was giving trouble or was expected to possibly give trouble and the LIRR was playing it safe. Info: Dave Keller 

Pine Aire - Pilgrim State Spur photo locations

Pilgrim State Hospital Spur photo locations

1. Pilgrim Switch showing the double-tracked, electrified Main Line at the left, the Pine Aire siding in the center foreground and the hospital spur in the right foreground. 3/25/2006

In addition to LIRR personnel, a small army of firemen from neighboring communities responded to the emergency remaining through the night until all passengers and injured had been removed from the wreckage. 

There was one fatality: ticket collector Donald J. Wheeler of North Babylon. LIRR police joined with Suffolk County authorities to pinpoint the cause of the derailment. Verdict: Unknown youths deliberately reversed the switch which caused the train to leave the tracks at the Pilgrim State Hospital spur. 

"Sabotage causes young trainman's death" 01/24/1971 Collection: Al Castelli

Referring to Emery's map, you'll note the location of the Pilgrim switch and the hospital spur leading directly off the single-tracked Main Line. As a result of a deadly, vandal-related derailment that occurred at this location on January 24, 1971, the old, stone, overgrade crossing of the former private road just to the west of here was solidly filled in and Pine Aire siding was installed.  Access to the Pilgrim switch was moved from its former, direct, Main Line location to a point along the new siding, to prevent this sort of tragedy from happening again.  (Dave Keller data)

5. Pilgrim State Hospital powerhouse coal trestle - view W 3/25/2006

6. Pilgrim State Hospital coal trestle track level - view E 3/25/2006