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The former St. Lawrence State Hospital "for the insane is one of the best and finest in the country," wrote Rt. Rev. P.S. Garand in his 1927 History of Ogdensburg. Wrote Garand: "It is located on Point Airy, formerly Indian Point by the 'voyageurs' in 1673. It occupies a tract of 950 acres. It was started in 1887. The buildings are constructed on what is popularly known as the 'cottage' plan, each not to exceed two stories in height. There are now (in 1926) three completed groups and several detached cottages, with the necessary outbuildings. The outer walls of the buildings are mostly of native blue limestone, laid on broken ashlar, rock faced, backed up with stone and faced on the inside with brick banded in with stone, with a dead air space between the outer and inner walls. The buildings are mostly trimmed with Potsdam red sandstone. The roofs are covered with the best quality of black slate. Roads and walks have been laid out through the native groves.

Psychiatric Center: 1

Administration Building at Psychiatric Center

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The Administration building

The majority of images have been provided by David Martin, a former Psychiatric Center employee, courtesy St. Lawrence County Historical Assoc.

Click for website of asylums across the country, including many in NY State

Rear of building at left, right.

Living Room area on ward.

Open ward in Letchworth Building.

Adult patient area in Letchworth Building.

Letchworth Building open ward.

Operating room in Pritchard Building.

Employee dining room.

Hospital's medical library.

Patients at chair repair class.

Center kitchen, left, behind administration building, right.

Center's kitchen building.

Central building.

Rear of Central building.

Isolation cottae.

Cold storage building.

Education building.

Greenhouse area.

Post Card Images

Cannon visible in image at left;

Views of the hospital grounds

Pagoda and artificial lake at right.

 Flower Building, at left; and chapel, at right.

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Powerhouse, left, and photos of the grounds at right..

Control Building at left, Trolley House at right.

Letchworth Building, and Inwood, right (image right courtesy Chris Como)

Central Building (courtesy Chris Como)

Laundry, left, and Letchworth Building. (courtesy David Martin)

Powerhouse, left, and administration building, right.

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