Download or read book Hudson River State Hospital written by Joseph Galante, Lynn Rightmyer, and the Hudson River State Hospital Nurses Alumni Association and published by Arcadia Publishing. This book was released on 2018 with total page 128 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: For 141 years, Hudson River State Hospital was home to tens of thousands of individuals suffering from mental illness. The facility grew from a 208-acre parcel in 1871 with seven patients to 752 acres with five dozen separate buildings containing nearly 6,000 patients in 1954. The main building was constructed on a Kirkbride plan, a treating philosophy centered around an ornate building of equal proportions staffed by employees who integrated dignity and compassion into health care. Famous architects Frederick Clark Withers and Calvert Vaux drafted the main building in 1869. The landscape was penned by Frederick Law Olmstead, perhaps best known for the design of New York City's Central Park.