Wassaic State School, Amenia, New York

 

Not quite in Appalachia but important to my family research: Wassaic State School

Sometimes the Ancestry Road of our past includes dark and unexpected locations. When starting a brand new quest that feels full of possibilities, many are not prepared for a turn down a dark side road. Even today, as a Professional Genealogist for over 20 years, a client’s dark side road can trouble me to my core. There are places that I never expected to find and conditions of locations so troubling that it troubles your soul. But, it is also a great privilege to find those forgotten places and people to finally bring light to an Ancestor’s dark life.

This brings me to Wassaic State School. What started in 1931, was an idea to help those that could not help themselves in society. To house and work with individuals who were “mentally challenged” and “developmentally disabled” find a way to become productive in society. This was one of five facilities in the State of New York. Sadly, most of the individuals were what, today, we would consider warehoused.

Personally, I had never heard of Wassaic State School or had reason to. One day, my Sister-in-Law mentioned that she would love to have a photo of her Grandmother, Lillian, since she had never met her. Instantly, I replied that I could help her! After all, I am a Professional Genealogist and researching and finding data and photos for others is my job. It didn’t take long for me to discover that not only would this task be challenging but it also introduced me to the Wassaic State School.

The Wassaic State School and the matching four State Institutions were started as a way to handle those individuals that needed extra help, disabled orphans, mentally challenged individuals that were turned over by family members and eventually to house inmates. To be clear, these institutions were created because there was nowhere else for these individuals to go. All States were needing to step up to take care of those that could not take care of themselves because many were overcrowded hospitals. In New York City, specifically, a tremendous amount of immigrant children were put in these institutions.

So many places of birth in the 1940 Census list places outside of America. The many immigrants that came to NY clearly show in the 1940 Census for Wassaic State School.

Wassaic State School, when opened in 1931, was on two large rolling farms. A picture perfect upper New York State setting with farms and apple orchards surrounding the School. A mere 85 miles North of NYC and easily accessible by the growing new highway systems being built. From the outside driveway, which is lined with cedar and maple trees, the picture of a large stone building with green manicured grass appears before you as you exit the vehicle with your loved one. Smiling admins and nurses to greet and welcome you. All in all, it was a great idea. Someone needed to care for the disadvantaged, orphaned and abused. What could be better than fresh country air and a dedicated professional team of doctors and nurses?

Wassaic State School was designed to fit into the community by offering many activities that locals were interested in. The 1300 acre campus included baseball diamonds, an outdoor swimming pool, a tiny bowling alley and parks with benches and playgrounds. All scenes and activities you would see in your own community. It is easy to see how many parents and guardians thought that Wassaic would be a great place to put their children into.  According to the Wassaic records, to be placed in Wassaic State School, you needed to be classified as a “mental defective,” with an IQ under 60.

That is where the idyllic part of this story ends. Let’s not change the true narrative: Wassaic like other institutions were built for need…. and commerce. The local area around the Wassaic State School employed dozens upon dozens of citizens. A school of this size, starting at 1500 students and ending with 5000 residents, needed a large support system of administrative, maintenance, cooks, nurses and labor. There is nothing wrong with locals obtaining jobs. There is nothing wrong with a State creating an institution where the needy or disadvantaged are served. In my opinion, where this all went wrong was when the State of New York decided to move residents/inmates from other overcrowded institutions and jails into Wassaic.

There are 856 nurse’s, practical nurses and attendants. 17 medical officers. There are 90 vacancies.

NY Times Article dated Sept 26, 1964. https://www.nytimes.com/1964/09/26/archives/how-state-treats-disturbed-youths-after-arrest.html

I do not have a mentally challenged individual in my family but I have had family members that would have “qualified: for institutions like Wassaic: Divorced Wives, PTSD from Coal Mine Disasters, Strain of Depression, Alcoholics, ADD, ADHD, Spectrum, etc. It didn’t take much to “qualify” a person for an asylum in the early 1900’s. My husband has a stepsister that is mentally challenged since birth. A miracle baby that was not expected to live but is now able to thrive, on her own, with awesome services, agencies and caretakers. All of these “patients”/”students” could have easily found themselves in a similar institution like Wassaic. So, just take a moment and think of those in your own family that could be placed in Wassaic. Through no fault of their own, they need a little extra help or assistance. Their stay might be temporary or permanent. I’ll wait while you take that moment because I want you to think about your Ancestors, your loved ones, your friends that had or have the very slightest difference from what was considered “normal people” in the early 1900’s..

Now, picture your Ancestor or relative or friend being in an idyllic place like Wassaic bowling, doing arts and crafts, meeting with the cows in the farm, being in a like community environment, and most of all, feeling safe. Again, I’ll wait while you picture this.

This should not shock you but there was not idyllic lifestyle at Wassaic. The truth about Wassaic State School is this: It was not a “school.” There were no teachers, professors or even classes except for sewing and art.  If you were a child, you were not taught any subject that children were taught in Public Schools. Wassaic State “School” was operated by the New York State Department of Mental Hygiene and directed by a medical doctor. It provided no services to its students, um wait, not students but patients. In those days, this was warehousing and keeping the patients (what they truly were) busy so no real experiences, skills or learning was needed. 

Textbook Warehousing.

Sometime in the late 1940’s, Wassaic State School started receiving “inmates” specifically from Blackwell’s Island (aka Roosevelt Island). If an individual committed a crime that was “deemed” mentally disturbing, they were usually committed to Blackwell’s Island to serve their sentence. But, with the population of New York City increasing, so were the local jails, prisons and asylums. This biggest misnomer about asylums is that truly crazy people were the only ones institutionalized. Nope. Many husband’s claimed their wives were crazy over affairs or simply not keeping the house clean, mother’s claimed their children were crazy if they didn’t do chores/behave or had sex outside of marriage and then you had legitimate medical reasons like epilepsy. In no society does an epileptic person need to be in a prison just because they have epilepsy! I have an Ancestor that wanted to marry another woman, his current wife would not divorce him, so he had his wife declared mentally insane. He promptly divorced her and …. married her niece.

Blackwell’s Island, now known as Roosevelt Island, has a deep connection to disability and incarceration. For much of the early 1900s, New Yorkers nicknamed the island Welfare Island after the asylums, prisons, and almshouses that were built there.
https://www.nps.gov/places/blackwell-s-island-new-york-city.htm

When the overcrowding happened at other State Institutions/Jails, Wassaic became the obvious choice to send inmates to. What was supposed to be a 1500 bed institution quickly had to find room for 5000. Wassaic was not a reform school for inmates, as it was set up to be, but it quickly became one of seven schools operated by the State Department of Mental Hygiene to provide room for inmates that were truly classified as mentally retarded as well as those that were not. So rapists, arsonists, murders and thieves just became a part of this idyllic community. They were integrated with the current residents. What a stupid decision by the State of New York. Mind blowingly stupid.

Wassaic State School closed in 2013. Many are buried in the School’s Cemetery and unmarked. The Journey and the Destination to those dark locations can be troubling but it is time to bring light to them. Free our Ancestors from the archaic treatments of the past. Free the Disabled of the Past and hear their stories.

In the next few weeks, I hope to share the Journey of Lillian who was placed in Wassaic and living there in 1940. Records are bare and hard to find on those that were mentally challenged but I really want her story to be told so history doesn’t repeat itself. In the meantime, I’ve included a few Case Studies below to give you an idea on what life was truly like for someone at Wassaic.

To Find Updates on Lillian Oddo, Visit her Profile at WikiTree: https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Oddo-51