Site

The hospital's name derives from the Creeds, a family that previously farmed the site. The local railroad station on a line that ran from Long Island City to Bethpage took the name Creedmoor, apparently from the phrase "Creed's Moor," describing the local geography which reminded visiting British of their “moorlands” back home when the land was being used as a rifle range. Hence the name creedmoor. ^[2] In the early 1870s, New York State paid easement for the railway for the land from the Creeds later used by the National Guard and by the National Rifle Association of America (NRA) as a firing range. The Creedmoor Rifle Range hosted prestigious international shooting competitions, which became the forerunner of the Palma Trophy competition.^[3] In 1892, as a result of declining public interest and mounting noise complaints from the growing neighborhood, the NRA deeded its land back to the state.^[3]

Hospital

In 1912, the Farm Colony of Brooklyn State Hospital was opened, with 32 patients, at Creedmoor by the Lunacy Commission of New York State, reflecting a trend towards sending the swelling population of urban psychiatric patients to the fresh air of outlying areas. By 1918, Creedmoor's own census had swollen to 150, housed in the abandoned National Guard barracks. By 1959, the hospital housed 7,000 inpatients.^[2] Creedmoor is described as a crowded, understaffed institution in Susan Sheehan's Is There No Place On Earth For Me? (1982), a biography of a patient pseudonymously called Sylvia Frumkin. Dr. Lauretta Bender, child neuropsychiatrist, has been reported as practicing there in the 1950s and 1960s. In the late 1970s, one of its more notorious patients was former NYPD officer Robert Torsney, who was committed there in December 1977 after being found not guilty by reason of insanity in the 1976 murder of then 15-year-old Randolph Evans in Brooklyn and was kept there until July 1979 when reviewers declared him no longer a threat.

The hospital's census had declined by the early 1960s, as the introduction of new psychiatric medications, along with the deinstitutionalization movement for many psychiatric patients, led to declining patient populations. In 1975, the land in Glen Oaks formerly used to raise food for the hospital was opened to the public as the Queens County Farm Museum.^[4] Another part of the campus in Glen Oaks was developed into the Queens Children's Psychiatric Center.^[5] In 2004, the remaining part of Creedmoor land in Glen Oaks was developed into the Glen Oaks public school campus, including The Queens High School of Teaching. By 2006, other parts of the Creedmoor campus had been sold and the inpatient census was down to 470.^[2] A more recent portrayal of life in Creedmoor appears in Katherine Olson's Something More Wrong (2013).^[6]

There are several unused buildings on the property, including the long-abandoned Building 25. Many parts of the building are covered in bird guano, the largest pile being several feet high.^[7] In August 2023, a shelter for migrants opened at Creedmoor Psychiatric Center, amid a sharp increase in the number of asylum seekers traveling to the city.^[8][9]

Patients

• Paul Abraham (1892–1960), composer; committed after a mental breakdown
• Joseph Baldi (1941–2009), serial killer; treated for mental illness^[11]
• "Simone D.", pseudonym; patient who won a court ruling which set aside a 2-year-old court order to give her involuntary electroshock treatment^[12][13]
• Peter Grudzien (1941–2013), country musician; committed with his sister for schizophrenic treatment
• Woody Guthrie (1912–1967), folks musician; was hospitalized at Creedmoor until his death^[14][15]
• George Metesky (1903–1994), serial bomber; committed to Creedmoor in 1973 and released the same year^[16]
• Mary Ellen O'Brien (1888–1964), mother of painter Elaine de Kooning; committed for a year after being reported for neglecting her children^[17]
• Bud Powell (1924–1966), jazz musician; committed for 11 months after a bar fight^[18]
• Robert Tornsey (1945–2009), police officer responsible for the Shooting of Randolph Evans; released in 1978

Staff

• Peter Orlovsky (1933–2010), actor; worked as an orderly
• Arthur M. Sackler (1913–1987), psychiatrist; completed his residency in psychiatry at Creedmoor and was director of research; was a co-founder along with his brothers Raymond and Mortimer

Other

• Joshua Bloch (1890–1957), rabbi; died of a heart attack at Creedmoor while delivering a Rosh Hashanah sermon as a chaplain of the New York State Department of Mental Hygiene that operated the hospital^[19]
• Grace Marilynn James (1923–1989), pediatrician; studied child psychology at Creedmoor^[20]