A hulking, decades-abandoned building at the former Kings Park Psychiatric Center has been demolished, clearing the way for a leaching field that will help carry treated wastewater from downtown Smithtown's long-delayed Smithtown Main Street sewer project. The structure, known as Building 1, once operated as the Northeast Nassau Building on the sprawling hospital campus before it shut down for good in 1996.
Suffolk County officials said the 17-acre parcel where Building 1 stood will be converted into a leaching field as part of the Smithtown Main Street sewer project, according to News 12 Long Island. Officials said wastewater will be treated before the final product enters the leaching field, where it will then be absorbed into the ground. The county bought the parcel from New York State back in September 2022 for $1.7 million specifically to build the leaching fields, as reported by Newsday.
A Yearlong Build-Out Ahead
According to a Suffolk County Department of Public Works official cited in the same Newsday report, demolishing the old Northeast Nassau Building and constructing the leaching fields is expected to take about a year to complete. The work is one piece of a much larger effort: the overall Smithtown Main Street sewer project carries an estimated cost of $101 million, funded through the county's capital budget, per Newsday's earlier coverage.
The existing Suffolk County Sewer District No. 6 treatment plant in Kings Park currently processes about 306,000 gallons per day against a permitted capacity of 600,000 gallons, according to H2M architects + engineers. The plant is slated for expansion to a total capacity of 1.2 million gallons per day to treat project flow from the sewer district expansion, the firm's account notes.
American Rescue Plan Act funding has also featured in discussions of Sewer District No. 6 improvements.
Ghost Hunters and Vandals Drawn to the Ruins
Building 1 wasn't demolished purely for practical reasons tied to plumbing. The structure and other buildings on the abandoned campus have long been targets of trespassing and vandalism, with that activity described as particularly prevalent during the Halloween season, the outlet reported. New York State park officials previously told News 12 that people are drawn to the site for thrill-seeking because they believe ghosts haunt the facility.
Kings Park Psychiatric Center opened in 1885 as a state hospital for mental health care and operated for over a century before closing in 1996. At its peak, according to Preservation Long Island, the hospital spanned more than 800 acres and housed over 10,000 patients across more than 100 specialized buildings during its 111-year history. It was originally established as the Kings County Asylum, designed as a self-sufficient farm colony meant to relieve overcrowding at Brooklyn's asylums.
From Asylum Grounds to State Park
The waterfront portion of the former campus opened as Nissequogue River State Park in 2000, with another 365 acres added in 2006, according to Preservation Long Island's account of the site's history. The park today mixes recreational trails with the skeletal remains of the old hospital buildings still standing across the property.
Not every structure is destined for the wrecking ball just yet, and not every one is being torn down. Building 93, a 13-story former infirmary built in the late 1930s that once housed long-term bedridden patients and the hospital's central pharmacy, is among the vacant structures still slated for demolition, with state park officials seeking removal bids in 2025, per Newsday. Meanwhile, there are hopes to refurbish York Hall on the same grounds as a theater.
