<P> Willowbrook State School was a state - supported institution for children with intellectual disability located in the Willowbrook neighborhood on Staten Island in New York City from 1947 until 1987 . </P> <P> The school was designed for 4,000, but by 1965 it had a population of 6,000 . At the time, it was the biggest state - run institution for people with mental disabilities in the United States . Conditions and questionable medical practices and experiments prompted Sen. Robert Kennedy to call it a "snake pit". Public outcry led to its closure in 1987, and to federal civil rights legislation protecting people with disabilities . </P> <P> A portion of the grounds and some of the buildings were incorporated into the campus of the College of Staten Island, which moved to Willowbrook in the early 1990s . </P> <P> In 1938, plans were drawn up to build a facility for children who had an intellectual disability on 375 acres (152 ha) in the Willowbrook section of Staten Island . Construction was completed in 1942, but instead of opening for its original purpose, it was converted into a United States Army hospital, and named Halloran General Hospital, after the late Colonel Paul Stacey Halloran . After World War II, proposals were introduced to turn the site over to the Veterans Administration, but in October 1947, the New York State Department of Mental Hygiene opened its facility there as originally planned, and the institution was named Willowbrook State School . </P>

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