7. Pilgrim Psychiatric Center, Brentwood, New York
The Pilgrim State Psychiatric Center opened in 1931 in West Brentwood, Long Island. It was named not for America’s early settlers, but for Dr. Charles W. Pilgrim, the New York Commissioner of Mental Health in the early 1900s. Like Kings Park Psychiatric Center, the facility was built as a solution to desaturate the region’s overcrowded institutions. The facility steadily grew throughout its heyday, essentially becoming its own little town. The institution had its own police department, fire department, court, power plant, and its own Long Island Railroad station, among other features.
The Pilgrim State Psychiatric Center remains operational today, yet drastically smaller than it once was. Much of the land has been sold and converted for other uses, while some of the buildings have remained intact but abandoned.