Urban Exploring in the News
- EsseXploreR
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- NJE
12 years 9 months ago #1
by EsseXploreR
"It's better to regret something you did, then something you didn't do"
abandonednjurbex.blogspot.com/
Urban Exploring in the News was created by EsseXploreR
www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2008/10/jersey...t_sites_are_a_h.html
Not really a new article, but i have this clipped from the newspaper in my room, and i just tthought it was a good one.
Not really a new article, but i have this clipped from the newspaper in my room, and i just tthought it was a good one.
"It's better to regret something you did, then something you didn't do"
abandonednjurbex.blogspot.com/
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12 years 9 months ago #2
by misterpat
Replied by misterpat on topic Urban Exploring in the News
Jersey's decrepit sites are a hot spot for urban explorers
Vicki Hyman/The Star-Ledger By Vicki Hyman/The Star-Ledger
Wearing steel-tipped boots and armed with a respirator, a flashlight and a digital camera, Becky Aspell had traveled more than 200 miles to spend some quality time at one of New Jersey's least likely garden spots, the imposing, now-shuttered asylum known as Greystone Park Psychiatric Hospital in Parsippany.
"It was like walking back in time with all the old furniture, the old architecture, the peeling paint, medical equipment and beds," Aspell, of Lexington, Mass., said of the August road trip. "Then there are the tunnels. I love tunnels."
Aspell said there's a name for what she does - urban exploration, the recreational reconnaissance of urban sites off limits to the public. The internet has helped turn local curiosities and provincial oddities into regional, even national hot spots, with websites and YouTube travelogues devoted to moldering mansions, abandoned prisons, forsaken factories, forgotten infrastructure and industrial detritus - and the creepier, the better.
But police have a few other names for it, as Aspell soon discovered. Trespassing. Criminal mischief. Burglary.
Certainly not everyone who ventures into these old piles are card-carrying members of the National Trust for Historic Preservation, but Aspell and her fellow explorers insist they're true history buffs who respect, even revere old structures, and don't condone vandalism. There's a motto among her compatriots: "Take only pictures, leave only footprints."
But someone exploring Greystone over the summer left more than footprints. A spokeswoman for the state Department of Human Services, which oversees the old building, said vandals broke into the old administration building and defecated on an architectural model of the hospital that has replaced the old asylum.
Two men were charged with burglary and criminal mischief for causing $15,000 in damage, including wrecking furniture and doors and tampering with the phone system.
Aspell and another man allegedly joined them in entering the facility but went off on their own; they were charged only with burglary.
Ellen Lovejoy, the department spokeswoman said the suspects, none of whom is from New Jersey, read about the old hospital on a website.
"It's a liability issue," she said. Lovejoy added that hospital security has had to shoo away curiosity-seekers at least 30 times in the last few years.
In Cedar Grove, the Essex County Sheriff's Office instituted patrols of the old Essex County Hospital Center (also known as Overbrook) over the summer, arresting more than 30 young adults and juveniles, one from Florida.
The once-magnificent Essex Mountain Sanitarium in nearby North Caldwell also attracted unwanted attention until its last buildings were demolished in 2002. The ruins of the former Essex County Jail, built in the 1800s and the site of hangings until 1902, still gets visitors, if Flickr.com is any indication.
THE DANGER INSIDE
Essex Sheriff Armando Fontoura listed the potential for problems with such expeditions: A fire lit to keep warm could rage out of control. Someone could fall through a rotting floor or get cut on broken glass or jagged metal. There's possible asbestos exposure. Kids seeking a place to partake of some mild refreshments might come across vandals intent on something more sinister.
"I don't see where the thrill comes in," Fontoura said. "I can think of a better way to get spooked. Join the Army. Join the Marine Corps. You want to get spooked? Go to Iraq."
Fontoura said the website of Weird NJ, the fanzine-turned-publishing-powerhouse that chronicles the secrets, legends and landmarks of the Garden State and beyond, encourages these incursions. Co-founder Mark Sceurman agreed to post a warning on the website, even though he believes the old Essex County Hospital Center has gotten renewed attention because of some recent filming there.
He also said his website and publications include disclaimers saying their work is not intended as a guide to trespassing.
"The magazine doesn't turn people into zombies who break the law," he said. "We hope."
Heather Shade, a former Garden State resident who now lives in El Paso, Texas, still archives her explorations through New Jersey, as well as Texas, New Mexico and California, at her website Lost Destinations.Shade, who is the co-author of "Weird Texas," said her family used to go on unorthodox field trips, investigating abandoned houses, roaming through graveyards, exploring caves.
"I had weird parents," she said.
She didn't realize there was a subculture devoted to exploring the debris of civilization until she moved to New Jersey. That's when she started organizing trips with friends, documenting their visits with cameras and posting them on the web.
Her favorite Garden State destination is the old Lambertville High School, built in the 1800s, remodeled in the 1920s and abandoned so long ago it's almost entirely overgrown. It's also reportedly haunted, adding to its allure, and there are a number of YouTube videos devoted to the building.
"The fact that a three-story old high school could be sitting here so long that trees could go through it, it's beautiful and sad at the same time," Shade says. "And a little bit creepy. Which is all the things I like."
Both Sceurman and Shade said they seek permission from property owners before attempting a visit to a site, although Shade admits she has ignored "No Trespassing" signs on occasion. On one memorable occasion, she came face-to-face with a neighbor with a shotgun. Once she explained what she was doing, he took her on a tour himself.
"I'm not one of those people who go in taking things out of houses," she said. "That really makes me mad. I'm more about promoting appreciation for the history of the place where you live, and who was there before you, and those lives that were in there before you. It's important for people to respect that. It's an old building that had a life and a history. It's a structure that meant something at one time."
Vicki Hyman/The Star-Ledger By Vicki Hyman/The Star-Ledger
Wearing steel-tipped boots and armed with a respirator, a flashlight and a digital camera, Becky Aspell had traveled more than 200 miles to spend some quality time at one of New Jersey's least likely garden spots, the imposing, now-shuttered asylum known as Greystone Park Psychiatric Hospital in Parsippany.
"It was like walking back in time with all the old furniture, the old architecture, the peeling paint, medical equipment and beds," Aspell, of Lexington, Mass., said of the August road trip. "Then there are the tunnels. I love tunnels."
Aspell said there's a name for what she does - urban exploration, the recreational reconnaissance of urban sites off limits to the public. The internet has helped turn local curiosities and provincial oddities into regional, even national hot spots, with websites and YouTube travelogues devoted to moldering mansions, abandoned prisons, forsaken factories, forgotten infrastructure and industrial detritus - and the creepier, the better.
But police have a few other names for it, as Aspell soon discovered. Trespassing. Criminal mischief. Burglary.
Certainly not everyone who ventures into these old piles are card-carrying members of the National Trust for Historic Preservation, but Aspell and her fellow explorers insist they're true history buffs who respect, even revere old structures, and don't condone vandalism. There's a motto among her compatriots: "Take only pictures, leave only footprints."
But someone exploring Greystone over the summer left more than footprints. A spokeswoman for the state Department of Human Services, which oversees the old building, said vandals broke into the old administration building and defecated on an architectural model of the hospital that has replaced the old asylum.
Two men were charged with burglary and criminal mischief for causing $15,000 in damage, including wrecking furniture and doors and tampering with the phone system.
Aspell and another man allegedly joined them in entering the facility but went off on their own; they were charged only with burglary.
Ellen Lovejoy, the department spokeswoman said the suspects, none of whom is from New Jersey, read about the old hospital on a website.
"It's a liability issue," she said. Lovejoy added that hospital security has had to shoo away curiosity-seekers at least 30 times in the last few years.
In Cedar Grove, the Essex County Sheriff's Office instituted patrols of the old Essex County Hospital Center (also known as Overbrook) over the summer, arresting more than 30 young adults and juveniles, one from Florida.
The once-magnificent Essex Mountain Sanitarium in nearby North Caldwell also attracted unwanted attention until its last buildings were demolished in 2002. The ruins of the former Essex County Jail, built in the 1800s and the site of hangings until 1902, still gets visitors, if Flickr.com is any indication.
THE DANGER INSIDE
Essex Sheriff Armando Fontoura listed the potential for problems with such expeditions: A fire lit to keep warm could rage out of control. Someone could fall through a rotting floor or get cut on broken glass or jagged metal. There's possible asbestos exposure. Kids seeking a place to partake of some mild refreshments might come across vandals intent on something more sinister.
"I don't see where the thrill comes in," Fontoura said. "I can think of a better way to get spooked. Join the Army. Join the Marine Corps. You want to get spooked? Go to Iraq."
Fontoura said the website of Weird NJ, the fanzine-turned-publishing-powerhouse that chronicles the secrets, legends and landmarks of the Garden State and beyond, encourages these incursions. Co-founder Mark Sceurman agreed to post a warning on the website, even though he believes the old Essex County Hospital Center has gotten renewed attention because of some recent filming there.
He also said his website and publications include disclaimers saying their work is not intended as a guide to trespassing.
"The magazine doesn't turn people into zombies who break the law," he said. "We hope."
Heather Shade, a former Garden State resident who now lives in El Paso, Texas, still archives her explorations through New Jersey, as well as Texas, New Mexico and California, at her website Lost Destinations.Shade, who is the co-author of "Weird Texas," said her family used to go on unorthodox field trips, investigating abandoned houses, roaming through graveyards, exploring caves.
"I had weird parents," she said.
She didn't realize there was a subculture devoted to exploring the debris of civilization until she moved to New Jersey. That's when she started organizing trips with friends, documenting their visits with cameras and posting them on the web.
Her favorite Garden State destination is the old Lambertville High School, built in the 1800s, remodeled in the 1920s and abandoned so long ago it's almost entirely overgrown. It's also reportedly haunted, adding to its allure, and there are a number of YouTube videos devoted to the building.
"The fact that a three-story old high school could be sitting here so long that trees could go through it, it's beautiful and sad at the same time," Shade says. "And a little bit creepy. Which is all the things I like."
Both Sceurman and Shade said they seek permission from property owners before attempting a visit to a site, although Shade admits she has ignored "No Trespassing" signs on occasion. On one memorable occasion, she came face-to-face with a neighbor with a shotgun. Once she explained what she was doing, he took her on a tour himself.
"I'm not one of those people who go in taking things out of houses," she said. "That really makes me mad. I'm more about promoting appreciation for the history of the place where you live, and who was there before you, and those lives that were in there before you. It's important for people to respect that. It's an old building that had a life and a history. It's a structure that meant something at one time."
Please Log in or Create an account to join the conversation.