Vanderbilt Cup Races

Adjoining the properties of W.R. Grace, the Peck brothers and the Arbuckles (previously noted in a post as the "Coffee King"), the tract was just south of the Motor Parkway and bordered Crooked Hill Road and Wicks Road.  (Brooklyn Daily Times Jan. 31, 1926)

This 1915 map shows how expansive the tract was and its relation to the Motor Parkway.  (E. Belcher Hyde, 1915)

As announced in April, 1928, the land would be home to New York State's newest home for the insane, possibly to be named the Brentwood State Hospital.  The organization that originally bought the property from the Cooper family and sold it to the state was named the 160 Remsen Street Corporation of Brooklyn.   (Brooklyn Daily Eagle Apr. 15, 1928)

The purchase price that New York State paid the 160 Remsen Corporation was $300,000 - I'll be researching how much the latter actually paid to purchase it from the Cooper family two years earlier.  The hospital was planned to cost $20,000,000!  Today's cost due to inflation:  $382,000,000!  (Sunday News Apr. 15, 1928)

Advantages of the land was its ease of cultivation, location and topograhy - the latter ensuring adequate drainage and an ample supply of water by drilling wells.  However, disadvantages included its lack of accessibility - this would be rectified by the state building a new parkway (the Sagtikos) and the LIRR building a 5,000 foot spur from an existing rail line.   (Sunday News Apr. 15, 1928)

By 1929 the cost estimate rose by $10,000,000 and now totaled $30,000,000 (today $573,000,000).   The reason for the new hospital was to relieve the over crowding of already existing hospitals for the insane in the area.  (The New York Times Mar. 19, 1929)

It was noted in May of 1929 that the hospital would be "the largest in the world for the treatment of mental ailments" having accommodations for 10,000 patients and 1,500 employees.   It was to be named what Long Islanders now know it as - Pilgrim State Hospital, "in honor of Dr. Charles Winfield Pilgrim, famous specialist of mental diseases".  (The New York Times Mar. 19, 1929)

Pilgrim State opened on October 1, 1931 with 100 patients.  By 1954 the patient population rose to 13,875. 

This 1941 map clearly delineates the hospital which also shows the Cooper family still owning a sizeable amount of land just east of Wicks Road.  And of course our favorite roadway to the north.  (Hagstrom, 1941)

The hospital had its own electric and heating plants, sewage system, fire and police departments, courts, church, post office, cemetery, athletic fields and greenhouse.  Some time ago I ventured to the site to see what remains.  The hospital exists today as the Pilgrim Psychiatric Center providing inpatient and outpatient psychiatric services.  Several of the original buildings remain but in disrepair including the railroad station for the spur discussed above.

Yours truely in front of an incinerator.    

Several buildings are able to get into to provide a peek of what the original hospital may have looked like.   However, I would not venture there at night or for too long!  Not so much for ghosts of the past but evils of the present.  

A drawing of the main building in 1929.  Eighty buildings were to be built taking 6 years to complete.   (The New York Times May 26, 1929)

A more recent picture of the main building, taken on my field trip.  

So there's the transformation of a large tract of land just south of the Motor Parkway.   Wonder how many patients, visitors, employees and construction workers of the hospital traveled on the Motor Parkway!