Letchworth Village

The cemetery has a list of names and nobody knows which grave belongs to which person.

Letchworth Village was a residential institution at Thiells in Rockland County, New York, built for disabled people of every age from newborns to the elderly. It opened in 1911 and at its peak covered over 130 buildings across a very large site. It was named for William Pryor Letchworth, a reformer who argued for better treatment of the insane, of people with epilepsy and of poor children.

By the end of 1911 the first phase was finished on a 2,362-acre site, described in the language of the day as a state institution for the segregation of the epileptic and feeble-minded. The architecture was modelled on Monticello, and the place was praised as a model institution and a humane alternative to high-rise asylums, founded on principles that were considered revolutionary.

It did not work out that way. Reports of inadequate funding and improper care of residents, including children, go back to the 1920s, with accounts of people found unclothed, unbathed and neglected. Abuse was rampant among residents, and staff were also abused by co-workers, including incidents of rape. In 1972 an exposé by Geraldo Rivera brought national attention. The institution closed permanently in 1996, and many of the abandoned buildings have fallen into serious disrepair since.

The part worth travelling for is the cemetery. The Old Letchworth Village Cemetery, in use from 1914 to 1967, was cleaned up by members of the Rotary Club of North Rockland on 14 October 2012 under the theme Those Who Shall Not Be Forgotten, words now inscribed on a bronze plaque set on a large granite memorial. The names of the people buried there are listed neatly on it. Nobody knows exactly where each of them lies. The volunteers cleared the debris so that anyone who wants to can read the names and walk the ground safely.