Book excerpt: This book is the definitive history of the Kings Park Psychiatric Center, which at one time was the largest state hospital in New York. Located on Long Island, it occupied nearly 873 acres of land and was in operation from 1885 to 1996. At its prime, it housed up to ten thousand patients. Today, much of its former land belongs to the Nissequogue River State Park, but its many abandoned hospital buildings have become a magnet for urban explorers, ghost hunters, and scavengers.