Essex County Hospital Demo

It was more fun than most press conferences, with County Essex Joe DiVincenzo donning a hard hat and actually taking over the controls of the big yellow excavator. It took a while, but DiVincenzo eventually took a nice hunk out of the Essex County Hospital, aka Overbrook Asylum, which is being demolished to become passive parkland. The former psychiatric hospital, in ruins, has been a popular destination for teenagers, photographers and ghost hunters -- although the Essex County Sheriff has cracked down on trespassing recently. Better parkland than new condos or another strip mall, but still it's kind of sad to see it go.

CEDAR GROVE -- In the fresh ruins of "BLDG 24" were the twisted remains of steel lockers, smashed bicycle wheels, discarded family snapshots and even a 1988 baseball card featuring Detroit Tiger power hitter Matt Nokes before he donned Yankee pinstripes.

The contents of the old laundry house of the abandoned Essex County Hospital Center lay in piles for all to see today as Essex County Executive Joseph DiVincenzo Jr. detailed the second phase of a demolition intended to turn the 90-acre maze of brick structures into parkland.

The massive copper cupolas atop the old hospital wards have been recycled. The piles of red brick are being ground up for use as landfill. The century old campus will no longer be a magnet for thrill-seeking teens who read about it in "Weird New Jersey," a magazine highlighting "haunted" places and legends, or heard it was used as an eerie film set, as it was in 2007 for scenes of "Choke" starring Anjelica Huston.

"This land was occupied by a mental hospital," William Payne, DiVincenzo's deputy chief of staff, said at today's press conference. "What I think this does is contribute again to mental health ... passive open space to relieve stress. This is more or less preventive."

In early 2007, Essex County moved the last of the patients out of the sprawling, 16-building complex in Cedar Grove to a new $83 million psychiatric hospital less than a mile away. By January 2008, DiVincenzo announced that the county opted not to follow through on a $20 million deal to sell the land to Red Bank-based homebuilder K. Hovnanian.

Hovnanian, which nearby created luxury homes dubbed "The Manors at Hilltop," and The Estates at Hilltop, this time, had floated various development proposals before Cedar Grove only to be rebuffed each time, leading to "stagnant" talks, officials said.

With the prospect of policing the abandoned complex for some time, DiVincenzo, backed by the Essex County Board of Freeholders, instead opted to clear the land for a 90-acre passive park.

"This is going to be the footprint of open space in Cedar Grove," said incoming Mayor Joseph Chiusolo.

Today, a huge excavator, at one point manned by DiVincenzo himself, poked its grabble, or claw, into the side of Building 24, the one-time laundry and maintenance center. "This is history here," DiVincenzo said.

Just beyond a row of trees stood Building 13, the other brick fortress to be taken down in the $750,000 Phase II. There, asbestos abatement workers were busy in the one-time occupational therapy building, where signs read "Tailor Shop" and "Sewing Room." In May, teenagers were arrested there after a break-in that led to a quickly extinguished fire, police said.

In a $2 million Phase I, financed via the county's capital budget, demolition crews took down five buildings, including a one-time drug rehabilitation center, a bakery and a greenhouse.

Once the campus is cleared in steps, DiVincenzo said, the state is to appraise the property as a prelude to purchase the acreage via the Green Acres acquisition program, leasing it back to the county for $1 to use solely as parkland sometime in 2011.


There was, however, one issue to be resolved: a Hovnanian lawsuit.

Essex County prevailed in state Superior Court, but Hovnanian has appealed. Today, DiVincenzo said he expected the county to win in that arena as well, but Hovnanian spokesman Doug Fenichel wasn't ready to concede.

"The contract that we have with the county calls for us to do the demolition," Fenichel said, "so I'm not sure why he's spending taxpayer money to do a job that we are ready, willing and able to do, and we hope will be doing soon when the court rules in our favor."

In the end, a Fairview Avenue firehouse will remain, as will a 1960s-era community house and its nearby open-air pavilion, destined for renovation and a means to bring in rental revenue to county coffers, officials said.

Just down the hill from BLDG 24, the old powerhouse will remain as well, fenced off but still used to generate electricity. It too has been frozen in time. Its parking lot contains several abandoned cars, including a rusted maroon Plymouth Acclaim seized in a criminal investigation. Its tires have long since gone flat; the cracks in its door jambs serve as entry points for yellow-jackets, an aggressive species of wasps.

By the main door to the powerhouse is a free-standing "New Jersey Bell" booth, its phone long gone but a 1989 edition of the yellow pages still at the ready.

Here are some pics from Rattlehead.

www.overbrookhospital.net/gallery/rattle...overbrook-demolition

nice pics rathead... its a shame these are being torn down before being documented

i got some demo pics on sunday when i was walking around

almostgone wrote: i got some demo pics on sunday when i was walking around

Good deal! Check Your PM's

This is truly sad. We need lots of pics before we cant take them!

almostgone wrote: This is truly sad. We need lots of pics before we cant take them!

Your right!


Check out AlmostGone's demo pics.

www.overbrookhospital.net/gallery/almost...overbrook-demolition

Nice pics AG!, I spoke with a laborer who said they were not gonna work on friday due to the holiday weekend or whatever, so I assume not much changed when you were there other then more of that structure demoed.

Wow what a dumbass. I was going to go in that building the day before demo because the door was open. It would really suck for our county if there was somebody inside during demo...