The magazine Dwell is sponsoring a contest to save historic buildings and the Inebriate Asylum or Castle on the Hill has been nominated by PAST. Please, Please, Please, vote for this project!
at this link: http://new.dwell.com/contests/rethinking-preservation/submissions/new-york-state-inebriate-asylum
New York State Inebriate Asylum
The New York State Inebriate Asylum, built in 1858, was the very first facility in this country for the medical treatment of alcoholism. It was founded by J. Edward Turner and designed in the Castellated Gothic style by architect Isaac Gale Perry, who would go on to become one of New York State’s leading architects. Fifteen years after admitting its first patients, the Inebriate Asylum closed and the facility was converted into an “Asylum for the Chronic Insane.” As a mental institution it continued as the central building of an expanding, self-sufficient mental health campus that at its peak housed 4,000 patients. In 1993 part of the façade collapsed, the building was evacuated and it has remained vacant ever since. In 2008 its 150th anniversary was celebrated. This building should be preserved because of its historical pioneering significance in the treatment of alcoholism, its strikingly unique style of architecture, and its service as a mental health institution for well over a century. Known locally as the “Castle on the Hill,” the building is listed on the National Register of Historic Places, it is a National Historic Landmark, it is abandoned and deteriorating.