Syracuse State School

The Syracuse State School was a residential facility in Syracuse, New York, for mentally disabled children and adults. Founded in 1851 in Albany, New York, as the New York State Asylum for Idiots, its first director was Hervey B. Wilbur, a student of Edward Seguin (another of Seguin's students was Maria Montessori). In 1855, the facility moved to a new building in Syracuse where it was known as the New York Asylum for Idiots or the State Idiot Asylum.

Over the next hundred years the institution went through several name changes, including the Syracuse State Institution for Feeble-Minded Children, the Syracuse State School for Mental Defectives, and finally the Syracuse State School. One of its managers and trustees was Col. John Wesley Yale, elected by N. Y. Gov. Theodore Roosevelt. In the early 1990s the Syracuse State School enrolment started dwindling, and it was shut down on June 17, 1998, with only six patients and no more being received.