New York State Office of Mental Health

Variant names
Dates:
Active 1842
Active 1847

Biographical notes:

Previously known as the Buffalo State Hospital, the facility became Buffalo Psychiatric Center according to Chapter 558 of the Laws of 1974.

From the description of Buffalo Psychiatric Center patient case files, 1920-1975. (New York State Archives). WorldCat record id: 82286416

The original cemetery was started at Willard Asylum for the Insane (as the facility was then called) in 1870. Included in the original cemetery grounds was a Civil War cemetery for patients who were veterans. Patients were accorded burial according to religious denomination. A Jewish cemetery was started on January 15, 1932 and a separated Catholic cemetery was started on February 3, 1959. Approximately 5757 patients are buried in the cemetery. The registers usually indicate graves where disinterment occurred when a family member requested that a body be moved to another cemetery of their choosing. During 1989 staff at the Willard Psychiatric Center initiated a project where graves were remarked and the entire cemetery remapped.

After the Willard Psychiatric Center closed in 1995 the cemetery was still used and maintained on the grounds of the facility. Some patients who were at Willard at the time of the closure requested that they be buried in the hospital cemetery. The cemetery is administered with respect to these patients' wishes; as these patients die they are interred in the Cemetery.

From the description of Willard Psychiatric Center burial and interment records, 1876-2000 (bulk 1876-1929). (New York State Archives). WorldCat record id: 122618383

Prior to 1978, the Department of Mental Hygiene was responsible for various services to both the mentally disabled and the mentally ill, and for treatment oversight. In the furtherance of its mandated responsibilities, it received patient admission lists from public and private treatment facilities throughout New York State.

When the department split into the Office of Mental Health (OMH) and the Office of Mental Retardation and Developmental Disabilities (OMRDD), staff separated the admission lists into two groups: those from facilities under OMRDD jurisdiction (including facilities that were of a type that would have come under OMRDD jurisdiction had it existed prior to 1978); and those that were, or would have been, under the jurisdiction of OMH.

From the description of Patient admission lists, 1908-1974. (New York State Archives). WorldCat record id: 86164651

Links to collections

Comparison

This is only a preview comparison of Constellations. It will only exist until this window is closed.

  • Added or updated
  • Deleted or outdated

Information

Permalink:
SNAC ID:

Subjects:

  • Cemeteries
  • Census
  • Homeopathy
  • Psychiatric hospitals
  • Psychiatric hospitals
  • Psychiatric hospitals
  • Psychiatric hospitals
  • Inmates of institutions
  • Mental health facilities
  • Mental illness
  • Mentally ill
  • Mentally ill
  • Mentally ill
  • Mentally ill Care
  • Mental retardation facilities patients
  • People with mental disabilities
  • Psychiatric hospital patients

Occupations:

not available for this record

Places:

  • Suffolk County (N.Y.) (as recorded)
  • New York (State) (as recorded)
  • Ogdensburg (N.Y.) (as recorded)
  • United States (as recorded)
  • New York (State) (as recorded)
  • Middletown (N.Y.) (as recorded)
  • New York (State) (as recorded)
  • Seneca County (N.Y.) (as recorded)
  • Queens County (N.Y.) (as recorded)
  • Erie County (N.Y.) (as recorded)
  • Orange County (N.Y.) (as recorded)
  • Orange County (N.Y.) (as recorded)
  • Oneida County (N.Y.) (as recorded)
  • Ovid (N.Y.) (as recorded)
  • Utica (N.Y.) (as recorded)
  • New York (State) (as recorded)
  • New York (State) (as recorded)
  • Kings County (N.Y.) (as recorded)
  • Queens County (N.Y.) (as recorded)
  • New York (State) (as recorded)
  • Utica (N.Y.) (as recorded)
  • Erie County (N.Y.) (as recorded)
  • Buffalo (N.Y.) (as recorded)
  • New York (State) (as recorded)
  • Oneida County (N.Y.) (as recorded)
  • Brooklyn (New York, N.Y.) (as recorded)
  • Suffolk County (N.Y.) (as recorded)
  • New York (State) (as recorded)
  • Kings Park (N.Y.) (as recorded)
  • Willard (N.Y.) (as recorded)
  • Buffalo (N.Y.) (as recorded)
  • Kings County (N.Y.) (as recorded)
  • New York (State) (as recorded)
  • New York (State) (as recorded)
  • Buffalo (N.Y.) (as recorded)
  • New York (State) (as recorded)
  • New York (State) (as recorded)
  • Middletown (N.Y.) (as recorded)
  • Seneca County (N.Y.) (as recorded)
  • New York (State) (as recorded)
  • Seneca County (N.Y.) (as recorded)
  • Brooklyn (New York, N.Y.) (as recorded)
  • Poughkeepsie (N.Y.) (as recorded)
  • Middletown (N.Y.) (as recorded)
  • Kings County (N.Y.) (as recorded)
  • Willard (N.Y.) (as recorded)
  • Willard (N.Y.) (as recorded)
  • Erie County (N.Y.) (as recorded)
  • Orange County (N.Y.) (as recorded)
  • New York (State) (as recorded)

SNAC Cooperative Logo

Social Networks and Archival Context

SNAC is a discovery service for persons, families, and organizations found within archival collections at cultural heritage institutions.

Sponsors

The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation
Institute of Museum and Library Services
National Endowment for the Humanities

Hosts

University of Virginia Library
National Archives and Records Administration