1900-1950
1935
1935: Woodbourne Institute for Defective Delinquents open, the first inmates are transfers from Napanoch, Woodbourne, Sullivan County, NY
1938
1938: New York State begins construction of a new state school on 375 acres of land on Staten Island which will become the Willowbrook State School.
1921
1921: Napanoch opens as Institution for (Male) Defective Delinquents
Development of New York State Institutions 1900 - 1950
New York State has a long history of attempting to care for individuals with disabilities. As New York emerged from the colonial era it needed to provide for the mental health needs of its citizens. In the early 1800s, the New York Hospital was the only option for state care for the "insane." In 1824 the legislature enacted a law requiring counties to establish almshouses that would provide the care for a "dependent population" that included "paupers, lunatics and idiots." The State erected asylums for the blind, the deaf and the insane. Individuals with intellectual disabilities were often mixed in with these populations, housed with the poor, in jails or found themselves without any support or services. Science, medicine, government and social thought converged as New York sought a "cure" for the "idiots and imbeciles" and established the first institution for individuals with developmental disabilities in North America.
1901
1901: The women's reformatory at Bedford Hills opens. Westchester County, NY
1904
1904: The House of Refuge for Women at Hudson Changes its name to the New York State Training School for Girls, an institution for female juvenile delinquents
1909
1909: The Crippled Children's Guild began in 1909 to "maintain a free summer home for crippled children at Erie Beach." It quickly grew to also provide a home in Buffalo for children in need of artificial limbs, crutches, and medical treatment.
1910
1910: Letchworth Village for the "feeble-minded and epileptic" opens in Thiells, Rockland County, NY
1912
1912: The City of Buffalo's Tuberculosis Hospital opens. Located on land in Perrysburg, New York donated by Buffalo Mayor James Nobel Adam, designed in 1909 by the prominent architect John Hopper Coxhead .
1913
1913: "Special Training Class for Mental Defectives" Is started at the NYS Reformatory in Elmira.
1918
1918: Newark changes its name to "Newark State School for Mental Defectives"
1919
1919: Rome changes its name to "Rome State School"
1920
1920: A Division for Mentally Defective Delinquent Women is created at Bedford Hills
1923
1923: Albion changes name to "Albion State training school"
1931
1931: Albion become the "Sister" facility for Napanoch, with a name change to the Institution for Mentally Defective Delinquent Women, the feebleminded inmates at Bedford Hills are transferred to Albion, and Albion's "reformable" inmates go to Bedford Hills.
1927
1927: Newark is placed under the direction of the Department of Mental Hygiene, and adopts the name "Newark State School."
1930
1930: Wassaic State School opens