Abandoned and Now Demolished, Rockland State Hospital. It began as one of the most well planned and constructed hospitals in the world, but quickly took a turn for the worse. Initially, the hospital treated around 5000 patients with qualified doctors - it was a state of the art facility. But as the hospital lost employees to the draft in World War II, less qualified and untrained staff took over. Soon the hospital became over-crowded, capping it's patients around 9000 (nearly double), and they began to treat patients with neglect, hydrotherapy, lobotomies and insulin shock treatment. Thankfully by the 70's, came the rise of proper medications and deinstitutionalization, which allowed many patients to integrate fully into society and only return to the hospital as out-patients. As a result, many of the buildings on campus were left abandoned and then eventually demolished in 2018.