Post-14059...

This post is an example of how I get obsessed over something. (And now, in my explanation of it.) I was reading a magazine article referencing this place and was inspired to Google-search for pictures like the one in the article, which was very tiny. Alas, I couldn't find that exact picture but did find a few from the early years of the building. There were many later pix of the place and one of the things I noticed right away was that the tops of the turrets were different. That inspired me to see if I could find out what happened. Unfortunately, the only mention was some of the facade falling off in 1993. Below is a synopsis of what I found.

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Designed by New York architect Isaac Perry in 1858 and completed in 1864 as the New York State Inebriate Asylum, this was the first institution in America to house and treat alcoholics under the experimental theory that alcoholism, like insanity, was a disease that required institutionalization. Due to its lack of success, in 1879 it became the Binghamton Asylum for the Chronic Insane (later renamed Binghamton State Hospital) to house mentally ill patients in an entirely self-sufficient community, away from society. It housed around 3,500 patients in the 1950s and ended patient care in the 1970s. After some facade fell from the exterior in 1993, the offices that were in the former asylum moved and the building was shuttered.

This last picture is a 1957 aerial view of the campus which shows how it was able to be self-sufficient.