06/11/2026
15 views of the Administration building at the Hudson River State Hospital in Poughkeepsie, New York. Circa 2012-2013.
Located front and center of the Kirkbride, the admin building is perhaps one of the most iconic features of the HRSH campus. The foundation was laid in the fall of 1867, and the building was completed by the time the hospital opened for patients in 1871. The building contained offices for medical staff, as well as living spaces for the superintendent and employees. An emphasis was placed on including comfortable furniture, plants and shrubs to create a pleasant and homelike environment for patients, staff and visitors. One of my personal favorite architectural details was the extensive use of exterior polychromatic finish. Different colored materials were carefully used to highlight corners and create decorative bands and arches on the exterior. It only enhanced the structure’s beauty.
Administration was used for operations up until the final closure of the lower campus in 2003. Following the hospital’s closure, admin remained relatively well sealed and intact until an arson attack in 2018 burned off the roof and consumed the attic. Sadly, despite the installation of new windows on the lower floors and rebuilding of the roof (multiple times), admin was consumed in last Wednesday’s massive fire that destroyed the remainder of the Kirkbride. Its future is now uncertain. That being said, numerous examples exist of Kirkbride buildings being gutted down to the shell and rebuilt from the inside. Danvers State Hospital in Massachusetts has been repurposed successfully into apartments, and the Kirkbride at St. Elizabeth’s Hospital in Washington DC recently reopened as the headquarters for Homeland Security just to name two examples.
There is no reason Hudson cannot have a second chance.
🖤 HRSH
