Harlem Valley State Hospital, south of the hamlet of
Wingdale in the town of
Dover
Dover () is a town and major ferry port in Kent, South East England. It faces France across the Strait of Dover, the narrowest part of the English Channel at from Cap Gris Nez in France. It lies south-east of Canterbury and east of Maidstone ...
, was a
New York State
New York, officially the State of New York, is a state in the Northeastern United States. It is often called New York State to distinguish it from its largest city, New York City. With a total area of , New York is the 27th-largest U.S. stat ...
psychiatric hospital
Psychiatric hospitals, also known as mental health hospitals, behavioral health hospitals, are hospitals or wards specializing in the treatment of severe mental disorders, such as schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, eating disorders, dissociative ...
that operated from 1924 to 1994.
History
The grounds were originally slated to be a correctional facility, Wingdale Prison, but complaints by the local population caused a re-purposing of the buildings (under construction) into a
state hospital
The State Hospital (also known as Carstairs Hospital, or simply Carstairs) is a psychiatric hospital near the village of Carstairs Junction, in South Lanarkshire, Scotland. It provides care and treatment in conditions of high security for arou ...
. It is located on
NY 22/
55 opposite the
Harlem Valley–Wingdale station
Harlem Valley–Wingdale station (formerly State Hospital station) on the Metro-North Railroad's Harlem Line, located in the Wingdale section of Dover, New York. It is adjacent to the site of the former Harlem Valley State Hospital. Trains leave ...
on the
Metro-North
Metro-North Railroad , trading as MTA Metro-North Railroad, is a suburban commuter rail service run by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA), a public authority of the U.S. state of New York and under contract with the Connecticut D ...
Harlem Line
The Metro-North Railroad Harlem Line, originally chartered as the New York and Harlem Railroad, is an commuter rail line running north from New York City to Wassaic, in eastern Dutchess County. The lower from Grand Central Terminal to Southea ...
.
The hospital was closed in 1994 due to budget cuts and was sold to a Long Island-based housing developer, the Benjamin Companies. However, the Benjamin Companies gave up on its plans to pursue the Dover Knolls project - comprising development of a golf-course housing community surrounded by commercial, office, and retail development - when the
Great Recession
The Great Recession was a period of marked general decline, i.e. a recession, observed in national economies globally that occurred from late 2007 into 2009. The scale and timing of the recession varied from country to country (see map). At ...
hit and just before the housing market collapsed.
Current ownership
In August 2013, Olivet Management LLC, a newly formed real estate development and management company, bought from the Long Island developer the Benjamin Companies 503 acres on the east side
(approximately half the property) for $20 million, to be used as an upstate campus for
Olivet University.
Opinions on Olivet's purchase of the property were mixed: on one hand, ''
Business Insider
''Insider'', previously named ''Business Insider'' (''BI''), is an American financial and business news website founded in 2007. Since 2015, a majority stake in ''Business Insider''s parent company Insider Inc. has been owned by the German publ ...
'' reported in 2014, "Wingdale residents are actually excited about the arrival of Olivet," expectant that "the college will draw new jobs and commerce to the town." On the other, David Allee, a photographer and former urban planner who captured pictures of the "massive campus with dozens of decayed buildings"
before Olivet University refurbished the property, thought Olivet's plan to use the existing structures was a bad idea. He observed: "It's become a hazardous waste site. The buildings were so full of asbestos and mold that I'm shocked anybody thinks they could rehab them." In fact, in response to a complaint levied on October 23, 2013, OSHA fined Olivet Management $2.3 million for knowingly exposing workers to asbestos and lead during the renovation of the property and ultimately placed Olivet in OSHA's Severe Violator Enforcement Program. Additionally, multiple news outlets have cited several controversies about the school and its founder, David Jang.
On October 27, 2015, Olivet University obtained from the
New York State Education Department
The New York State Education Department (NYSED) is the department of the New York state government responsible for the supervision for all public schools in New York and all standardized testing, as well as the production and administration o ...
the right to open and operate an academic institution in Dover and in 2016 began offering courses at the new campus, dubbed "Olivet Center".
The Metro-North station adjacent to the campus, formerly called "Harlem Valley-State Hospital", has been renamed "
Harlem Valley-Wingdale".
References
External links
Asylum Projects info- A comprehensive history and photo gallery
{{authority control
Hospital buildings completed in 1924
Buildings and structures in Dutchess County, New York
Psychiatric hospitals in New York (state)