Manhattan Psychiatric Center

The Manhattan Psychiatric Center is a New York-state run psychiatric hospital on Wards Island in New York City. As of 2009, it was licensed for 509 beds, but held only around 200 patients. The current building is 17-stories tall. The building strongly resembles that of the Creedmoor Psychiatric Center in Queens.The hospital's roots date to 1848 when Wards Island was designated the reception area for immigrants. Some additional structures were originally part of Blackwell's Island Lunatic Asylum, which opened around 1863. The New York City Asylum for the Insane opened in 1863.The building was significantly enlarged in 1871, and a Kirkbride Plan style building was built. After the immigration entry shifted to Ellis Island in 1892, the state took it over from Manhattan in 1899 and expanded it even further, renaming it the Manhattan State Hospital. At the time, it had 4,400 beds and was the largest psychiatric hospital in the world.At the time, it was one of two psychiatric hospitals for residents of Manhattan that had been taken over by the state. The other psychiatric hospital would become the Central Islip Psychiatric Center in Central Islip, New York. Both hospitals were referred to as "Manhattan State Hospital".It later became the Manhattan Psychiatric Center. The facility is run and operated by the New York State Office of Mental Health.