Riverside Psychiatric Center
Riverside Psychiatric Center

Riverside Psychiatric Center

Riverside Psychiatric Center

Abandoned psychiatric hospital

Riverside (New York), United States

Riverside Psychiatric Center is a former New York State Psychiatric Hospital which was open from 1873 to the early 2000’s. The hospital was meant to hold 300 patients of either sex. However, the female wing of the hospital was built shorter than the male wing in belief that there would be fewer female than male patients admitted.

As a result, it is one of the few Kirkbridge Hospitals to have been built with asymmetrical wings. Changes in the treatment of mental illness, such as psychotherapy and psychotropic drugs, were making large-scale facilities relics and allowing more patients to lead more normal lives without being committed. As psychiatry moved forward, inpatient treatment became less popular and the decline of the psychiatric hospital proceeded.

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