From douglas.paul95 (via
Flickr.com):
"I was stationed at Ft. Drum for almost 3 years, and never knew this
existed. Cool."Jack S. writes "Several years ago the Lewis County
Historical Society took a trip to Lewisburg. The slag from the furnace was like
glass beautiful colors. Several of us picked up pieces of the slag and took them
home. My wife has some in her flower garden."On
4/4/13 Lake Effect writes "I grew up in Harrisville and I've never heard of this
until now and I'm 47."
Scannerman
writes "We're lucky up here; there was a similar furnace--supposedly used to
make cannonballs during the Civil War--near Bucksnort, Tennessee, right by the
road so easy to get to, but filled with rattlesnakes, so..." 
Grant J. writes: "How strange that I check the OABONNY site to show my photos
to my mother, to see these photos next to mine. I am actually writing my
master's thesis on the agency that was responsible for the construction and
restoration of this commemorative piece of infrastructure: the Onondaga County
Emergency Work Bureau. EWBs were formed at the county level as part of
then-Governor FDR's Temporary Emergency Relief Administration, his last major
initiative as governor, and an important program in the history of work relief
in New York State, and the country. In fact, virtually every feature of Onondaga
Lake Park and Parkway was constructed by the men of the OCEWB. The Parkway was
actually laid over the filled in Oswego Canal. The forgotten landscape features
of the Gale Salt Well, Jesuit Well and Danforth Salt Lake, as well as the
"wedding bridge", Salt Museum, Mud Lock, and original "Fort Ste. Marie de
Gannetaha" (later torn down and rebuilt as the current Ste. Marie Among the
Iroquois) were built using TERA funds and EWB labor. I could go on and on, but
will spare readers the boredom. It's an interesting story that the interpretive
signage on-site does not accurately tell, and that you cannot readily find out
without some heavy-duty digging." 
Don A. writes: "The current (Volume 56, Number 14 � September 24, 2009) issue
of the New York Review of Books contains an essay by Oliver Sacks entitled "The
Lost Virtues of the Asylum." which is illustrated with this photo by Ian Ference
of a hallway in an abandoned building at the Ogdensburg State Hospital:
https://assets.nydailynews.com/img/2009/03/03/gal_lost_11.jpg"From
canaltowntraveler (via
Flickr.com): "Great series of photos Marc, I checked out your whole
photostram. I'm always interested in these little bits of NY history." 
Susan P. writes: "I think having the mental patients work on the farm and raise
their own food is a good idea. Seeing things grow is supposed to be therapeutic,
isn't it? I know it is for me. Surely one gains a sense of satisfaction and
worth from growing one's own food. Being outside in the fresh air is healthy.
Exercise is healthy. I am assuming that it wasn't a chain gang and whip sort of
situation, and also that the mental competence of the individual patient to do
this was taken into account. Also, I think there are a number of patients for
whom these long term mental institutions were really a good thing. The ones for
whom the alternative winds up being living on the street, in and out of short
term psych hospitalizations. I had my psych nursing rotation at Willard before
it closed, a similar facility to this one. They gave us rooms in the old student
dorms because it was so far from our college and even farther from where many of
us lived, and we could go over to the ward and see our patients even outside of
classroom hours. There were people there with chronic delusional systems not
touched by psychiatric medications. They obviously had a relationship with the
long term staff there, who understood them and even were fond of them. They had
a place in the world there. They were safe, warm, clean, fed, and had friends
there. Their liberty was restricted, but they did get to go outside and get
taken on carefully selected outings. When they got old, there was a nursing home
type facility among people they had long known. Sure, the first goal should be
returning people to normality and reintegrating them into society. But for those
for whom that just doesn't work, I think these places were a good thing and it
is a shame they were all closed."Angela C. writes "I work at this facility. I wish I had an opportunity to
work in the original buildings. I was hired after they closed. There is a rich
history here, with these building and the people who occupied them. I am
fortunate to work here."
On 9/15/2022 C writes: "The building in this picture is part of the old Letchworth complex. Unfortunately the last time I walked up the once grand wooden staircase of this building I was unable to avoid stepping in raccoon feces. I worked at SLPC for nearly a decade and was fortunate enough to walk through almost every building on grounds . To say the state they in is sad would an understatement. Much like the Seaway decimated most of northern St. Lawrence county and it’s future, the changes in mental health laws and treatments further ruined Ogdensburg and this amazing piece of the map. Once the state turned the heat off to these buildings they signed their death certificate at the same time. This entire complex should be on the state historical registry, not only for the architectural significance but the significance the hospital and it’s founders played in the development of mental health treatment (even though it’s taken a wrong turn backwards since). A key card gets you in the locked facility now through a rotating portal door. Not quite the therapeutic open door policy that broke so much ground in its time. I am no longer a state employee nor a resident of the city of Ogdensburg, but I can say that a city for so long relied on large state facilities that provided a large number of good paying jobs has been broken by their closures."
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OABONNY. All Rights Reserved. Site first online on July
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