New York State Office of Mental Health Map and Architectural Drawings of the Hudson River State Hospital for the Insane

Numerical by roll number.

The series consists of one site map and a set of 11 architectural drawings of details of the Hudson River ("H.R.") State Hospital for the Insane at Poughkeepsie, New York. The facility is currently known as the Hudson River Psychiatric Center. The Office of Mental Health has professional jurisdiction, supervision, and control of psychiatric centers and is responsible for controlling the quality of services given to the mentally ill.

The plans were produced by the architectural firm of Vaux Withers & Co. of New York City. They were apparently drawn by the renowned 19th century architect Frederick Clarke Withers. Most sheets date from the early 1870s, but one has an 1888 date stamp. The drawings include full scale details of windows, including finials, caps to the building entrance, window heads, and cut stone work. They are apparently working drawings. They are done in pencil and range in size from 20" x 48" to 35" x 90" (some are on roughly cut paper). There is also one unidentified floor plan in the set.

The map is a contour map of the hospital building site. It measures 40.5" x 60" and is done to a scale of 32 feet to one inch. It is signed by Samual D. Backus and dated May 15, 1867. Each section of 100 feet square is designated by the number of the intersection at its upper left (northeast) corner. The map is drawn on paper and backed with cloth.

Item list is available at the repository.

These estrayed documents from holdings of the Office of Mental Health were returned to State Archives custody on September 12, 1994 by J. Winthrop Aldrich, Deputy Commissioner for Historic Preservation, N.Y.S. Office of Parks, Recreation, and Historic Preservation, on behalf of the board of Hudson River Heritage, Inc. The prior custodians, Dutchess County Landmarks, Inc. received them as part of the research collection of local architect Richard Crowley, who had found them abandoned in a attic of the old hospital ca. 1975. Following Mr. Crowley's death in 1992 the collection passed to Hudson River Heritage, which he had headed.

Items may not be reproduced through scanning or copying.

Closed to research due to fragility pending completion of conservation treatment.