The central hospital group, of which an idea is given in the cut, now consists of five buildings.  The picture shows three, the center one and two of the flanking cottages on one side.  They are matched on the other side.  The central or administration building is a three story structure of Gouverneur marble, and, like all of the stone used, a native St. Lawrence county stone.  The marble’s bluish gray is relieved by sparkling crystallizations, and its unwrought blocks are handled with an ornamental effect in the piers, lintels, and arches, and well set off by a simple high-pitched slate roof, with terra-cotta hiprolls, crestings, and finials.  The open porches are both ornamental and useful, taking the place of piazzas.  The tower is embellished with a terra-cotta frieze.  All accommodations for an executive staff for the 1,500 patients may be provided in this building.

Behind it on the south is a one story building whose ground plan is the segment of a circle.  It contains sun rooms, medical offices, general library, laboratory and dispensary, and the corridor connecting the reception cottages, one for women, on one side, and one for men on the other, with the administration building.  As this one story structure is 171 feet by 41, the buildings known as cottages of the central group are more than nominally separated.  All the advantages of segregation and congregation are combined.

The reception cottages are of pale red Potsdam sandstone.  Their simple construction is pleasing.  The ground plan is in the form of a cross; the angles of the projections being flanked by heavy piers between which are recessed circular bays carried up to the attic and arched over in the gables.  The cross plan affords abundant light to all the rooms, and as much of the irregular outline as possible is utilized with piazzas.  With still another recourse to the combination corridor plan, the observation cottages are joined to the reception cottages on each side.  The other utilization of the corridor in this case is for conservatories.  The observation cottages are irregular in plan and vary from each other and from the other buildings in the group.  Unwrought native bluestone is the building material.  These cottages contain a preponderance of single rooms, the purpose being to keep patients separate until their classification is decided upon.

The buildings planned but not yet constructed of the central group include two cottages for convalescents and two one-story retreats for noisy and disturbed patients.  In both cases the plans are the most complete and progressive ever made.  In the first the degree of construction is reduced to the minimum.  Convalescents are to have freedom from the irritations of hospital life that often retard recovery.  Great reliance is placed upon that important element in treatment, the rousing of a hopeful feeling in the mind of the patient.