The Chilling History of the Harlem Valley Psychiatric Center

WARNING: Under no circumstances should you enter this property. By doing so, you risk bodily harm and/or prosecution for trespassing on private property.
More than 5,000 mentally ill patients were treated at the Harlem Valley Psychiatric Center in Wingdale, NY, from 1924 to 1994. According to the website theghostinmymachine.com, HVPC was a self-contained community with its own bakery, dairy farm, bowling alley, state-of-the-art operating theatre, dental care unit, and morgue in its prime.

One of the creepiest aspects of this abandoned psychiatric facility was their cemetery, called the Gate of Heaven, located on the grounds where hospital patients were buried. To protect patient anonymity, the graves were marked with numbers instead of names.

According to atlasobscura.com, the Harlem Valley Psychiatric Center was a pioneer in a new type of mental health therapy developed in 1927 called insulin shock therapy or insulin coma therapy. In 1941, HVPC also pioneered the implementation of a new therapy called Electroconvulsive Therapy.

Most of the 80 buildings on HVPC's campus are boarded up and dilapidated, both inside and out. When passing the abandoned hospital while driving on Rt. 22, one can't help thinking about what kind of disturbing activity might have occurred inside the walls of this psychiatric hospital in its heyday in the 1950s.

For the last several years, no one has been allowed on the premises, and various signs posted on the property state that if you're caught, you will be prosecuted to the full extent of the law.

Is there paranormal activity inside these dilapidated buildings? Are there voices crying out for help in HVPC's medical and surgical buildings? The answers are based on what you choose to believe from articles on different sites, hauntedearthghostvideos.blogspot.com.

Jeremy Brown of Hiddenhometown.com was given permission back in August of 2011 to document the ruins of the Harlem Valley Psychiatric Center. At its peak, the facility housed 5,000 patients and 5,000 employees.