Interpines sanitarium

Interpines Sanitarium
Goshen Sanitarium Company
Interpines Sanitarium, Goshen, NY. The main building, the Berdell mansion, with an addition on the north side.
Geography
Location	Goshen, New York, United States
Organization
Care system	Private
Funding	For-profit hospital
Hospital type	Specialist
Services
Beds	70
Speciality	Disorders of the nervous system
Helipad	No
History
Founded	1890
Closed	1959
Demolished	1964
Links
Lists	Hospitals in New York

Interpines was a private hospital located in Goshen, New York, a village of three thousand inhabitants (in 1940). Interpines was founded in 1890 by F. W. Seward Sr. and subsequently directed by his son until closing in 1959. The core of the sanitarium was a Victorian mansion, which together with surrounding gardens provided a unique environment for the residing patients.

Robert Berdell was a man of many successful business and financial enterprises who in 1864 became president of the Erie Railroad. For his home, he purchased the site of the General George Wickham house, which was built in 1774 on Main Street in Goshen. Berdell's house, very expensive and ornate in mid-Victorian style, was completed in 1867. Berdell's occupation of the house terminated in 1876 following an altercation with two brothers of the Murray family; one was shot and killed by Berdell. Berdell then sold his holdings in Goshen, and the house was vacant, except for a caretaker, for eight years.

The next owner was the Goshen Sanitarium Company in 1889. A year later, Seward added a north wing to the house and established the Interpines Sanitarium, first known as "Dr. Seward's Home for Invalids".

Although intended as a general health care home, it soon developed into a hospital specializing in "Disorders of the Nervous System". Following Seward's death in 1925, his son, Frederick W. Seward Jr., further enlarged the hospital by adding a second building in 1926. The sanitarium could accommodate up to seventy patients and gave employment to an equal number of people, many of whom were from local families. It was one of the larger businesses of Goshen. It provided care and treatment with homelike surroundings. People came to Interpines mostly from the metropolitan areas of New York City and northern New Jersey. The extensive grounds and gardens with the large parlors of the main building were used by local groups for meetings and functions.

The institution is gone now, out of business in 1959 due to changing times and deterioration. The buildings were razed and the site scraped clean in 1964 for development of the Orange County Government Center and a jail.

The institution comprised four buildings on a 19-acre (7.7 ha) square plot within the village of Goshen. The original mansion formed the core of the main building which housed female patients. A separate building for male patients, the Cory Building, was added in 1926. A third structure contained a six-car garage, a laundry, and a residence for nurses. A separate boiler house supplied steam heat and water to the other buildings. There were also small structures left from the original estate: a greenhouse, a pigeon coop, an aviary, and two summer pavilions. All were set in the landscaped center of the property with lawn, ponds, flower gardens, and gravel paths.