updated 4/22/2016 Willard Asylum for the Insane In a nutshell Willard officially opened in 1869. By 1877 Willard, at 475 acres (1500 patients) was the largest asylum in the United States1 . In 1995 Willard Psychiatric Center closed its doors, but a portion of the campus is a New York State Department of Corrections rehabilitation facility for inmates. Obviously,…
Willard NY
Lawrence Mocha to be Memorialized May 16th, 2015
Lawerence Mocha, the Willard Grave Digger will be given a proper memorialization May 16, 2015! After years of work the Willard Cemetery Memorial Committee, with the help of John Allen of the Office of Mental Health, has made contact with a relative of Lawrence Mocha and the family has given their consent to proceed with a…
Lawrence Mocha: The Willard Grave Digger
When a reader recently emailed me suggesting I update my Willard posts to correct the name of the Willard grave-digger and patient from “Lawrence Marek” to his actual given name Lawrence Mocha. I was happy to make that correction, even happier to learn that Lawrence Mocha will most likely be properly memorialized in the cemetery to…
Willard Tour: Grandview building
This post is part of a series. To see all the buildings I visited on the Willard Tour click the links below. Morning at the Asylum by the Lake Grandview (You are here!) Hadley Hall The Morgue Elliot Hall Brookside The Bleak House The Cemetery The first stop on the tour was the Grandview…
Willard Tour: Elliot Hall
Elliot Hall was built in 1931 and was used as the institution’s on site hospital and admitting offices. Elliot Hall was used right up until the early 80’s as the medical center for Willard. Doctors were brought in from neighboring communities to perform medical procedures and surgeries. One of the people on the tour said…
Willard Tour: Brookside
This post is part of a series. To see all the buildings I visited on the Willard Tour click the links below. Morning at the Asylum by the Lake Grandview Hadley Hall The Morgue Elliot Hall Brookside (you are here) The Bleak House The Cemetery The Brookside house served as the home to the medical directors…
Willard Tour: The Morgue
This post is part of a series. To see all the buildings I visited on the Willard Tour click the links below. Morning at the Asylum by the Lake Grandview Hadley Hall The Morgue ( you are here) Elliot Hall Brookside The Bleak House The Cemetery Possibly the eeriest stop on the Willard tour was the…
Morning at the Asylum by the Lake in Willard NY
This post is part of a series. To see all the buildings, I visited on the Willard Tour click the links below. Morning at the Asylum by the Lake (You are here!) Grandview Hadley Hall The Morgue Elliot Hall Brookside The Bleak House The Cemetery Saturday morning my mother and I took the rare…
Willard Tour: Gilbert House/ Bleak House
This post is part of a series. To see all the buildings I visited on the Willard Tour click the links below. Morning at the Asylum by the Lake Grandview Hadley Hall The Morgue Elliot Hall Brookside The Bleak House (You are here!) The Cemetery Our tour guide told us that the Bleak house was given…
Willard Asylum: Hadley Hall
This post is part of a series. To see all the buildings I visited on the Willard Tour click the links below. Morning at the Asylum by the Lake Grandview Hadley Hall ( You are here!) The Morgue Elliot Hall Brookside The Bleak House The Cemetery Hadley Hall had to be my favorite building on the…
Willard Tour: The Cemetery
This post is part of a series. To see all the buildings I visited on the Willard Tour click the links below. Morning at the Asylum by the Lake Grandview Hadley Hall The Morgue Elliot Hall Brookside The Bleak House The Cemetery (you are here) The final stop on our tour was the Cemetery where 5,776 Willard…
May 17th 2014 Willard Tour Update
@cpclemens tweeted me this updated article from Finger Lakes Daily News with a few more details of the Upcoming Willard Tour. I have listed a few of the highlights below, but check out the full article, there is a little background on Elliot Hall, one of the buildings visited during the tour. The three-hour tours of the former…
