KPPC
HISTORY .com
Kings Park Psychiatric Center
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Cottages
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We had 175 patients in building 15 whom we fed in a dinning room in Group 1. They had female service and fed a thousand patients, 500 female 500 male. - Greg Szurnicki
This picture is from the Kings
Park Fire Department's Collection, Ernie, a lifelong KP Firefighter explained
how he was fighting a brush fire in another part of town when he got a call for
the Group 1 fire, "drop everything and get here now!"
I was living on Upper Dock Road,
across from Group Three the Sept 1972 night of the Group One fire! Old Group One
was unoccupied at the time. I remember the embers falling from the sky, and
being glad that the fire had not started in late October or November, when all
the leaves were on the ground! If you look at those pictures they resemble
photo's of England and Germany during the bombings of World War 2! Group One was
constructed of bricks, wood lathe siding and oaken floors. These floors had been
waxed for over 80 years, and were well soaked in that volatile substance. The
basement was a museum of an antiquated belt driven hot air systems, surrounded
by the dust and detritus that come with an old building. When the flame of fire
hit this combination, conflagration was the result! I had worked in Group One,
occasionally, as a young plumber's helper! I was fascinated by this old regal
relic. My mother had come to work in KPSH in 1933, and was assigned to the
dining room in Group One. I'm sure many more of my relatives had worked at some
time or other at this Group! This long, rambling edifice, with its turrets,
arches, connecting hallways and out buildings, was part of the beginning of KPSH!
It went out in style, a blaze of glory, spared the indignity of the wrecking
ball! Word has it many of the leftover bricks made their way to "Group Six", a
place only those of us that worked there understand! I like to think that Group
One still exist today, its bricks nestled carefully in the fire places of
friendly houses!
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Doctors Well House 1 Tennis Courts Field
Relics ______________ NO TRESPASSING |
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