Hudson River Psych 2012 – Med Building

Published on: May 27th, 2020 | Written by: Bad Guy Joe

---

In 2012, I adventured on up to Hudson Psych with the two goon brothers on a mission to explore as much of the place as we could in a single day.

This adventure took us through the Recreation building and into the Clarence O. Cheney Medical Building. This huge ten floor hospital opened 1952, and was named Dr. Clarence O. Cheney, MD, who was the president of the American Psychiatric Association from 1935-1936, and hospital’s superintendent from the 1920s until 1946. This large brick and steel structure host mostly exam rooms and doctors offices. Patients were kept in some of the other buildings around campus. It’s quite the amazing thing when you think about it from a city resident perspective: to have enough real estate to spread out your offices, exam rooms and housing. You’d be hard pressed to find a facility so large within the confines of overdeveloped NYC. But here, 90 miles to the north, it wasn’t just possible, it was reality.

Getting in here at the time was stupid easy. For years upon years this whole hospital was a bit harder on average to crack. There were security patrols, as well as some rather worthless explorers who took it upon themselves to lock up buildings, patrol and rat out explorers who came to visit. Whatever this one person in particulars selfish intent was, it was soon rendered moot by the persistence of time, and the tenacity of explorers. Ironically, by attempting to keep ‘bad’ explorers away, one could argue access was granted to a guy many feel caused a huge fire on campus (he was actually in the building at the time).

Time and Capitalism are evil bedfellows when it comes to exploring. After years of failed redevelopment schemes, Hudson Psych is being demolished as I type this (in May, 2020). The new owners are keep to build housing on this site. This Medical building, along with the Recreation Center, are goners (Fortunately, sections of the Admin building will be preserved).

It wasn’t that long ago (specifically, at the end of March 2020), that New York State’s Governor (of 12 years) was on TV, giving his daily Covid-19 updates, showing projections of over one hundred thousand patients in need of hospitalization, and wondering aloud how we only have barely half that amount of hospital beds in New York State.

With all due respect Mr. Cuomo, right here is the answer. A massive facility such as Hudson Psych could have provided a huge number of potential hospital beds (let’s put aside the need for better psychological support and housing for those who need treatment for the moment). The reason New York State, and so much of the United States, has no excess hospital capacity is because these facilities have all been sold to the highest bidder. We’ve prioritized private billionaire investor’s wallets over public health. The evidence is right here. It is in every single post in this section of the website.

Capitalism has lead us to this cliff. Many people are dead now. When the next wave or the next pandemic hits, we’ve seen no new policies design to increase hospital capacity permanent. We’ve seen no long term plan to assess the needs of the three thousand or so homeless who live on our subways. Cuomo talks all about coming back stronger, but where are the plans? What are we going to do against this capitalist system run amuck?

Comments

NOTE: It sometimes takes a short while for comments to be approved - unfortunately there's a lot of spam comments that come in. I absolutely love when y'all share personal stories of friends relatives etc who worked in these places. It really helps capture what these places were like before they closed up shop.

If you're feeling salty, argumentative comments completely devoid of facts (supply links to support your argument) will not be published. Got a case to state? come with the details.

One response to “Hudson River Psych 2012 – Med Building”

1. kat says:

   December 9, 2020 at 11:31 AM

   true, all these empty buildings can be used for more hospitalization and many more can be used as housing for the homeless, i don’t get why our government hasn’t figured that out yet, or if they have, they’re just choosing to be ignorant. they’re just not taking up these opportunities because they’ll cost money, and god forbid they spend some money for the publics wellbeing

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.