What’s now a sprawling campus for higher learning, once stood a private hospital for the mentally ill. The Bloomingdale Insane Asylum opened in Morningside Heights in 1821 across 38-acres of the land Columbia University now sits atop.
It was founded by a committee of the New York Hospital and looked after patients between the ages of 14 to 83, who either paid for their care or has costs subsidized by the state.
Professor of historic preservation at the Graduate School of Architecture, Planning, and Preservation, Andrew Dolkart, and his book, Morningside Heights: A History of Its Architecture and Development noted that “the hospital governors and staff…were among the first medical professionals in America to seek the ‘humane’ treatment of those impacted by mental illness,” though historical patient anecdotes may disagree.
The only other operating psych ward in the state at this time was the New York State Lunatic Asylum.
According to sources, separate wings housed the loud and violent patients by gender. Part of the asylum was sold to the Leake and Watts Orphan Asylum in 1834, and “pauper patients” a few years later were moved to what is now known as Randall’s Island. The Bloomingdale Insane Asylum serviced patients for nearly 70 years before being relocated to White Plains, New York.
Columbia University bought most of the asylum property in 1892. Today, only one building from the asylum remains: Macy Villa, now considered Buell Hall by Columbia students and staff.
Beneath this building lies the tunnels that were once a part of the asylum. Rumors say that the underground tunnels, intended for the transportation of cables and such, used to house misbehaving patients as punishment.
You can read more about the tunnels beneath Columbia, that aren’t all related to the former asylum, on Columbia Daily Spectator, the university’s student-run newspaper.