Old Marcy Insane Asylum

[John Morrison]

im watching my home town die a tarrable death.
the big shots try to tall us it's raining. when they are P-----G on us. you know what i mean. resently
we just got a brand new bus transfer hub. but with
it we also got a massed up bus schedule that S---S
the strached the schedule so the bus's run ferther
apart in time. so there is less bus's running now.
so now they are more crawded. sometimes standing room only. thats to uncivilised and
unnerving. it's almost midevile . and they may be
rising the fair soon. that relly stinks

[A friend]

You Liar wrote:

<quoted text>
You didn't break into it as it is a State Prison. You Moron may Jesus Christ cast his condemnation of sickness and poverty amongst you and you family

He might be talking about the old building down the road that is part of the old asylum. I've been there.

[frankcor]

Please clarify. Was Crane Hill located in the old abandoned building on the south side of River Road? Or was it part of the current grounds of the State Prison on the north side of River Road?

[AletaE]

John Morrison wrote:

i also worked at the hotel syracuse for a short
wile. after i quit. it wasnt long before they closed it
down too. to this day it sets abandan and dead.
it was syracuse's last grand hotel. it tares me up to
see stuff that was here in this town for in some
case's a hounderd years gone !!. it seems every
thing is disposable if it doesnt make a high profit
anymore. even marcy had it's place. yes it wasn't
a place anyone wanted to be. but it could have been a better place that it was. besides we all
know the real reasons why they closed them places down. it wasnt to make life better for us.
it was to save money. you can see the results in our city streets today

I know what you mean, John. That how my sons and I wound up in NJ. After I obtained an Associates Degree from OCC, I couldn't find work because central NY was in a recession by then. I became very depressed after this. My church wasn't supportive. I evenually changed churches, made some new friends, one who helped me get a job in NJ. It was a struggle and a big adjustment, but I've done well since. As I've mentioned before, I too have health problems, and trying to get on disability. This recession hasn't helped.

[Edward]

I loved the winter carnivals. specialy the rope that brought you back up the ski hill. And the fire hose they used to freeze the skating ring. Instead of a movie, you could do a documentary. The life of a child at Crane Hill School.

[John Morrison]

to francar. crane hill is one of the current buildings of the state prison . if you go past the
marcy tavern. it sets on top of the hill near the
crestwood gulfcorse clubhouse. if go up to the
crestwood club house you can see the front door
it has a fancy cornish over the double doors. the
building has a fire escape at the end of the building. i beleave it is now known as building 27
of medstate correctional. you can see it also from
the marcy community church. there is the 2 story
S BLOCK (SHU) behind it. it was one of the first of
4 buildings to be taken from marcy state hospital

[John Morrison]

crane hill and inwood and edgwood and D building plus an inplament garage was the first of
4 buildings to be converted to medstate correctional facility . crane hill is a 2 story colonia
styl building. you can see thrue the prison fance from behind the crestwood gulfcouse clubhouse.
you can see the end of the building with the
fire escape. from across the road from the marcy
community church. the newer S BLOCK (SHU) is a little down the hill from it. just behind it

[John Morrison]

to get to the crestwood gulf corse go past the marcy tavern. you will see an acess road going up
the hill along the prison fance. at the top you will
see the club house. you can't miss it crane hill was
close to the club house. i used to walk from crane
hill to caddy the gulf corse. the galf corse was part of marcy state hospital. but now i beleave it is
privietly owned. but im not sure

[John Morrison]

agine. about the old building on river rd. it was not a seperate institution. it was part of marcy state hospital. it was there farm colony.
it was also known as J building. i do beleave that
this building is older then any of the campus buildings. because it started as the utica state
hospital farm colony. before marcy was built. it was probuly built in the erly 1900s. the marcy
campus was built in apx 1923. the building was
closed in the late 60s or erly 70s . it has been
abandin ever cince

[John Morrison]

i wish i had the money to buy it. it would make a graet bed and breckfest. im talking about the old
marcy farm colony building on river road

[John Morrison]

when i was in crane hill. there was talk about moving crane hill school into the building on
river rd. but that never happend. crane hill school
moved to mohawk psyhatrice center and renamed. pinefield childrens unit. ware it remanes
to this day. pinefield operates a little differantly
then crane hill did. it is for more severly ill children. and as short of a stay as posible.
it can be conpaired to a childrens psyhatrice
ICU .in outher words to stablise and return to the
community as soon as posible

[frankcor]

John Morrison wrote:

to francar. crane hill is one of the current buildings of the state prison . if you go past the
marcy tavern. it sets on top of the hill near the
crestwood gulfcorse clubhouse. if go up to the
crestwood club house you can see the front door
it has a fancy cornish over the double doors. the
building has a fire escape at the end of the building. i beleave it is now known as building 27
of medstate correctional. you can see it also from
the marcy community church. there is the 2 story
S BLOCK (SHU) behind it. it was one of the first of
4 buildings to be taken from marcy state hospital

Thanks for the description. I found it on Google maps.

[dawn thomas]

John remember the hills we would make to go over on the slends, that dan fence at the end i was told to jump off the slend before i got to the frence. i had foregot and hit that fence head first. i was unabl at the age of 7 to bend and tie me shoes i was hurt really badly, and can teen that was fun we got real good hambergers and sode and candie

[John Morrison]

yea. i remember we overloaded the tobbogen to
see how meny kids we could pile on it like cordwood. then when we would go over the bumps. we would hear it crack. and half way down
the hill we would make it flip and every body would fall off all over the hill. boy we did have some fun. yea winter time was awsemo. in syracuse years later i went down wescott resivore
on a tobbogan. i would remind me of winter at
crane hill. i also remember the snow ball fights
that we had. they were cool. so when they say a snowball in hall. i would say i saw plenty of snowballs in hell. and you know most kids rise hell
but with us. it was the outher way around. cause
hell rised us !!. yea. i like to make fun of that place

[John Morrison]

years later at the marcy farm colony building on
river road. remember when they found poeple who broke in to use it as satanic woship site. and
thay sprayed on the walls in the basement.
THE HOUSE OF THE CHILDREN OF THE DEVIL. in
spanish. when i realised ware they were talking
about. i laffed my bitt off. what could be fitting for
souch an act. then an old ASYLUM BUILDING.
it was in the syracuse news papers and on our
local tv stations. yes i thout of crane hill

[Edward]

John, you could walk to golf course from crane hill school. they use to use us crane hill kids as caddys when they had tornaments. i caddied one time.

[AletaE]

John Morrison wrote:

yea. i remember we overloaded the tobbogen to
see how meny kids we could pile on it like cordwood. then when we would go over the bumps. we would hear it crack. and half way down
the hill we would make it flip and every body would fall off all over the hill. boy we did have some fun. yea winter time was awsemo. in syracuse years later i went down wescott resivore
on a tobbogan. i would remind me of winter at
crane hill. i also remember the snow ball fights
that we had. they were cool. so when they say a snowball in hall. i would say i saw plenty of snowballs in hell. and you know most kids rise hell
but with us. it was the outher way around. cause
hell rised us !!. yea. i like to make fun of that place

Does anyone remember the blizzard of '66? It snowed so much that the staff was stranded there for 3 days. We couldn't go outside until the 3rd day. The snow was almost up to my chest. The kitchen was running out of supplies. They gave us hot chocolate for supper instead of milk.

[dawn thomas]

John i do remember that i had just got there that winter, i put my tung on the swing set and got it stuck than we would see who would put there toung on the metal and beable to gt off, ouch that hurt if u left it on to long, LOL

[Edward]

whatever happened to the medical records of the children there? id like a copy of my records.

[dave]

Contact Mohawk valley psychiatric. That is where I found my mothers records. She was a patient there twice. I can get more specifics if you need.

Edward wrote:

whatever happened to the medical records of the children there? id like a copy of my records.