Rockland State Hospital - Children's Ward/Quarters

Abandoned playroom in the children's ward at Rockland State Hospital, brightly colored toys and daycare equipment scattered across the floor.
Playroom

The children's ward is the most popular section of Rockland and everyone heads straight to this building without fail. It does have its appeal with other explorers. The brightly colored toys, destroyed murals, and daycare equipment were all scattered around the building. Here you can find the modest auditorium where I assume shows for the kids or movies were played. I won't dig deeper into the history since it is well written about by so many historians and urban explorers it would be ad nauseam to write about it again. A great write-up can be found by Will Ellis in his series on Rockland Hospital: Abandoned NYC.

You can check out my Part 1 and Part 2 visit series.

Interior corridor of the children's ward at Rockland State Hospital, paint peeling from the walls and debris across the floor.
Room in the Rockland State Hospital children's ward with a painted mural destroyed by water damage and vandalism.
Abandoned ward room at Rockland State Hospital, small furniture and scattered toys left where they fell.
Daycare equipment and broken fittings in a room of the Rockland State Hospital children's ward.
The modest auditorium in the Rockland State Hospital children's ward, rows of seating facing a small stage.
The Auditorium
Interior of the Rockland State Hospital children's ward auditorium showing the stage and damaged ceiling.
Debris-filled room in the children's ward at Rockland State Hospital, light coming through broken windows.
Remains of a painted wall mural in the children's ward at Rockland State Hospital, the plaster flaking away.
Abandoned hallway in the Rockland State Hospital children's ward, doors standing open along its length.
Scattered toys and furniture in a room of the abandoned children's ward at Rockland State Hospital.
📋 Reader Records
🧸 Were you at Rockland?

Were you a patient in the children's ward, or did you work there as a nurse, aide, teacher or orderly? Staff photographs, ward newsletters, programs from the auditorium, class rosters and school records would all help put names and dates to these rooms. Anything that identifies the artists who painted the murals, or when the ward closed, is especially welcome. Full credit given to all contributors.

⬇️ Keep Reading
🏛️ The rest of Rockland, and other emptied hospitals
Both earlier visits to the campus, plus asylums and hospitals elsewhere in New York.
🏚️ Rockland State Hospital (2016 Visit) Part #1 Sixty acres of the old asylum grounds went to a JPMorgan Chase data center. › 🔥 Rockland State Hospital (2017 Visit) Part #2 I went back knowing someone had torched parts of the children's ward. Here is what was left. › 🏛️ Kings Park Psychiatric Center: The Abandoned Long Island Asylum The basement murals are said to be the work of a former patient, cartoonist Percy Crosby. › 🐟 Inside the Abandoned Neponsit Beach Hospital: Sun, Sand, and Secrets (Queens, NY) Around 300 goldfish were living in the flooded subbasement. Rescuers moved them out. › 🛏️ Greenpoint Nurses' Residence: Inside Brooklyn's Abandoned Quarters Where the nurses slept at 300 Skillman Ave is becoming a 200-bed shelter. › 🏥 St. Mary's Hospital Ongoing Renovation The Brooklyn DA went after the contractor for allegedly shorting workers $100,000. ›
📍 Rockland State Hospital opened in Orangeburg, New York, in 1931 and still operates in part as the Rockland Psychiatric Center. The children's ward sits among the closed buildings on the old campus.

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