Doctors Row

As the young son of a hospital administrator in the mid-eighties, I grew up in Overbrook's "Doctor's Row" (Bolton Road in Cedar Grove -address was 5 Bolton Road, but now the house is just referred to as Building 39 and the tiny half-circle street no longer appears on maps). I found your site and have been fascinated by what was, at one time, a thriving hospital community. I'm particularly interested in the pictures of Mr. Pat and demonicdreamz since they show the abandoned rec center (my dad used to take us over after hours to swim, play basketball, and bowl all the time) and the indoors of what was either my former house or my neighbors (all houses on Bolton Road were built the same, with the exception of Number 6 at the beginning of the drive). Is there any way I could get in touch with these photographers so that I could save these pictures to a USB to show family? These would be solely for nostaligic, sentimental value and the photographers would be welcome to label the pictures with their copyright info as they see fit. Regardless of your answer, thank you so much for such an outstanding site- it really brings back memories.

Thanks for the feedback!

Mr. Pat's post above is from feedback I left him upon finding the site. I grew up on #5 Bolton Road (or what is currently called Building 39 of "Doctor's Row"- Bolton Road doesn't seem to appear on any maps anymore). It was the first brick house at the top of the one-way street.

It was called "Doctor's Row", but while one of my next door neighbors was a doctor (psychiatrist), my dad was an administrator and our neighbor in #6 Bolton Road (now called Building #38 and currently in ruins) was an administrator, too. Overbrook was very different in the 80's, not at all the haunted ghost-town you see today; it was actually a fairly idyllic place to grow up. We had a very large side yard and, since Bolton Road was a half-circle street with nothing but green space and trees between the top of the drive and Fairview Avenue, we had a giant "park" of sorts right across the street from our house to play kickball (we used the trees as bases). I played for Cedar Grove Junior Baseball League and used to spend hours practicing my pitching skills against the wall of the storage garage between #38 and #39. My dad used to take us to the Rec Center after hours and we had the run of the place- it was one of the newer buildings anyway, and the gymnasium and swimming pool were both very, very nice and well-kept. Whenever we got in the mood to do a little exploring, we had the woods right behind our house and easy access to Hilltop's abandoned TB Sanitorium (all the buildings were still standing at that time and, unlike today, the cops mostly left you alone).

The inside of our house on Doctor's Row was nice- four bedrooms at the top of the stairs, a study, a huge attic with wooden floor- the only drawback was that the basement was unfinished and infested with spiders. Some of the spiders were sluggish and as big as your fist, and others were "jumping spiders" that would actually leap AT you (not away) if you tried to spray them with Raid. On the far wall of the basement were two open square holes slightly elevated from the ground- they were plenty big enough for an adult to fit through, and even with a flashlight we couldn't see how far back they went. They could have been nothing more than crawl spaces, but I've always wondered if they had any connection at all to the famed Overbrook tunnel system. I was just a little kid and never quite had the nerve to find out on my own- when I asked my dad about them, he just told me that it would be a good idea to stay out of there, and his words coupled with the spider threat were more than enough to cause me to steer clear.

Quick story about the woods behind the houses on Doctor's Row: I was hiking up there once with a friend of mine and found two water towers (not the ancient green ones on Hilltop- these were blue and round from the base all the way to the top). We discovered what seemed to be bullet casings scattered everywhere near the base, as though someone had been taking target practice. My friend wasn't at all phased by this and keep going, I started to turn back, and the next thing I knew, we got separated. I knew I had to find him before going home, so I turned around and started searching. This was towards the end of summer, and the woods at that time was very thick and hard to see past what was right in front of you due to the foliage, and I was becoming slightly panicked about getting lost and not being able to find my friend. At one point I stumbled upon what (at my age) looked like two abandoned houses deep in the woods- there were no cars in sight, no roads that I could see leading to or away from either structure- just eerie silence. It's hard to describe just how creepy finding these "houses" in the middle of the woods seemed to a 4th grader, but with the bullet casing discovery still fresh in my mind, I got out of there pretty quickly and eventually made my way home (where my friend had arrived nearly 15 minutes earlier). Years and years later I found out that the "houses" were just a power station and a sewage pumping station. I still don't know if they were connected to Hilltop's Sanitorium or Overbrook, but they didn't look functional even way back when.

Now that I've found your site, I'll share a few memories about the buildings and patients with you as they come to me. Like I mentioned to Mr. Pat, I doubt that too many of my stories will make Stephen King green with envy anytime soon, but hopefully they'll give you an idea of what the place used to be like back in the day. I do have a couple of stories that, in retrospect, make me think the place had its fair share of ghosts even back then-- both on Hilltop, which was abandoned, and Overbrook, which was still fully operational.

I'm also interested to know if anybody has any exploration experience with Building 39. As far as I know, no one has lived there since we left in 1987, although I visited in 2001 and it appeared that maybe the house had been used as some type of office or storage facility. Any personal experiences with or in Overbrook Buildings would be welcome, too- not that I'm encouraging you to go there now, as I've heard the cops are just ridiculous in trying to keep people away. I'm really glad I found the site- lots of mixed emotions viewing the ruins of what was once home.


My old house- still in good shape in December of 2001 (the last time I was there).


My pitching sanctuary and Bolton Road's version of a storage unit. We left a ton of old furniture when we moved- who knows if they ever bothered to clean it out since the entire block was vacated right around the same time.


My neighbors' (better known as Kathy and Berkley) home- now called Bldg 38. This was actually a two-family unit, and the only house on Bolton Road with a drastically different architecture than the rest of the brick houses. Even back in 2001, it had obviously seen better days.

Overbrook, Thanks ALOT for taking the time to write that.

Wow! Thanks for sharing your story! I never would have known that building 38 was someones home, seeing as how its so diffrent than the others! If anyone would know the answer to my next question, I imagine it must be you, so could you please tell me what building 37, and the other buildings between the firehouse and 37 were used for? I've been wanting to know for a long time, but never could get much info on them...thanks in advance

Riada wrote: Wow! Thanks for sharing your story! I never would have known that building 38 was someones home, seeing as how its so diffrent than the others! If anyone would know the answer to my next question, I imagine it must be you, so could you please tell me what building 37, and the other buildings between the firehouse and 37 were used for? I've been wanting to know for a long time, but never could get much info on them...thanks in advance

i have been wondering the same thing for a long time. they all look like just offices inside, but i really want to know

Hi all-

Thanks for the responses. I don’t know the buildings very well by their new numbers- none of them were labeled with building numbers while I lived there. For example: it feels weird to call my old house “Bldg 39” when it was always just “5 Bolton Road” to me. Could you post pictures of the buildings you’re wondering about?

One of the buildings on the Doctor’s Row side of Fairview was another family house (I recognized it in one of the pictures on the site- couldn’t see the entire bldg number label but it looked like it was maybe 36 or 30)- it was further down Fairview (towards Verona), was relatively near the old Firehouse, and was set back a ways from the road but easily visible if you were driving past. This house was bigger than the houses on Bolton Road and as a kid, the interior seemed like a mansion to me. A buddy of mine named Matthew lived there- I hardly ever saw him (mostly at Halloween parties that his dad threw), but he was a cool kid and the only other kid I knew who lived in Overbrook staff housing. His dad built him a pretty decent clubhouse out in the yard- I’m sure that’s long gone by now even if the house is still standing.

To answer Mr. Pat’s question: yes, I saw the inside of the house posted by Deomicdreamz; the design and layout looked exactly like my house, but judging from the exterior shots, it was actually Bldg 40, the house of my next door neighbor (Bolton Road started to curve down and away after you got past his house, whereas the road in front of my house was a short straightaway). One photo was of the living room (with the shelving); in the background you can see a door that led to a study (at least, that’s what we used that room for in our house) and the dining room off to the right. There was also a great shot of the attic- not a bad place to play and relatively spider free. The photos with tile and boarded up windows were from the kitchen.

My old neighbor was fairly particular about his house; I was only over there a handful of times, but he really put a lot of effort into making the place look nice. I wonder what he would say if he could see what it had come to after all these years.

I’ll post again soon; very glad to be aboard the site.

As you travel down Fairview from Bloomfield ave, the bldgs. in question would be on your left, there was a big house, then the fire house, then a bldg. with a faded sign that I think reads "Gateway", then the one with the pillars, and the one with the collasped porch (34) and then another more modern in appearance(I think I saw a newspaper article from 1950 that said it was a male employee home, but Im not sure if its one and the same) its the last one before "Doctors Row".

My Grandma had mentioned something about my aunt living on the premises of Overbrook. My grandma said she worked in the kitchen as a dietitian or something like that. I will ask her for more info about what she did, when and how long she worked there and the building she lived in. Or maybe I will call my aunt tomorrow and get the info directly from her. Just remind me cause I'm interested about her living arrangements and what it was like living there.

Riada wrote: As you travel down Fairview from Bloomfield ave, the bldgs. in question would be on your left, there was a big house, then the fire house, then a bldg. with a faded sign that I think reads "Gateway", then the one with the pillars, and the one with the collasped porch (34) and then another more modern in appearance(I think I saw a newspaper article from 1950 that said it was a male employee home, but Im not sure if its one and the same) its the last one before "Doctors Row".

The Fairview Buildings Go building 34 or whatever the set back one is then gateway, the one with the pillars is the P.E.E.R. building, the one with a collapsed porch is the female employees home, the empty lot next to it is what used to be an auditorium, the modern building is Rawson Hall, and then all the doctors homes

Yeah..... I am gonna try and get through to my aunt today about her experiences there.

Thanks for the info on those buildings! Would you happen to know what type of service was given at Gateway, P.E.E.R and Rawson Hall?
And, I thought there was an empty lot there, so it was an auditorium! Do you know why that one was demolished while the others were left standing? My guess would be either a fire or it was just in worse shape than all the others(not that they really care about that so much) If you or anyone has even more info, please do share!!

abandonednj wrote: The Fairview Buildings Go.... the empty lot next to it is what used to be an auditorium...

Very cool, I had no idea about an auditorium, any idea of when and why is was demolished?

Vacant_NJ wrote:
Very cool, I had no idea about an auditorium, any idea of when and why is was demolished?

The history book Almostgone gave me says it was razed in 1970.

MisterPat wrote:
The history book Almostgone gave me says it was razed in 1970.

Thanks for the information MisterPat! There wouldn't happen to be any photos in that history book would there?


Here's an old aerial photo I found of the auditorium.

Riada wrote: Thanks for the info on those buildings! Would you happen to know what type of service was given at Gateway, P.E.E.R and Rawson Hall?
And, I thought there was an empty lot there, so it was an auditorium! Do you know why that one was demolished while the others were left standing? My guess would be either a fire or it was just in worse shape than all the others(not that they really care about that so much) If you or anyone has even more info, please do share!!

No problem. and i have absolutely no idea what they were used for. after being inside them they look like just offices. Rawson hall was used after abandonment for SWAT training, as was the firehouse. Thats all i know. also, in the picture vacant_nj posted below, that is another section of Rawson Hall that was razed along with the auditorium. The only reason i know the names is because i have a plot plan reprint from when the facility was first built.

Re: Overbrook

I've never been in any of the houses but I've spent some time walking behind the houses (to avoid being seen by the police that drive by on Fairview Ave.). It was profound, the eeriness that accompanied these houses, knowing that they used to be people homes. You could clearly see where the tiled patios had been, the stone barbeques that were hidden in the undergrowth, the overgrown flower bushes that hadn't been trimmed in decades. It was a feeling that I usually don't encounter in abandoned places, these places had clearly been somones HOME.

They are very well boarded up but I tried to get in through a basement window and sure enough I was attacked by jumping spiders! We found some clay figures in the back of one of the houses, but left them there out of respect for whoever made them and for others to see. I implore any other visitors to this place to do the same.

Anyway, that was my experience at Doctors Row, your commentary has added depth to my experience there, thanks! Instead of knocking down the hospital and building new houses, they need to refurbish these houses and put them on the market, they make a nice little neighborhood.

insanebuslady wrote: We found some clay figures in the back of one of the houses, but left them there out of respect for whoever made them and for others to see. I implore any other visitors to this place to do the same.

Off topic, but I just wanted to point this out.

That is the best advice someone can give. There are pictures on this site from people of a dentist's chair. I'm sure all the explorers on this site know of it. It used to be perfectly set up. Like they just left it. But over the years, Dumb fucks have beaten the living shit out of it.

Before.

http://overbrookhospital.net/modules/gallery2/main.php?g2_view=core.DownloadItem&g2_itemId=34289

Now, or even worse.

http://overbrookhospital.net/modules/gallery2/main.php?g2_view=core.DownloadItem&g2_itemId=34040

Every time I go back, I find more and more stuff broken and thrown around.

Very childish.. :thumbdown:

insanebuslady wrote: Re: Overbrook

I've never been in any of the houses but I've spent some time walking behind the houses (to avoid being seen by the police that drive by on Fairview Ave.). It was profound, the eeriness that accompanied these houses, knowing that they used to be people homes. You could clearly see where the tiled patios had been, the stone barbeques that were hidden in the undergrowth, the overgrown flower bushes that hadn't been trimmed in decades. It was a feeling that I usually don't encounter in abandoned places, these places had clearly been somones HOME.

They are very well boarded up but I tried to get in through a basement window and sure enough I was attacked by jumping spiders! We found some clay figures in the back of one of the houses, but left them there out of respect for whoever made them and for others to see. I implore any other visitors to this place to do the same.

Anyway, that was my experience at Doctors Row, your commentary has added depth to my experience there, thanks! Instead of knocking down the hospital and building new houses, they need to refurbish these houses and put them on the market, they make a nice little neighborhood.

You nailed it- that's exactly how I've felt when exploring an empty house versus a building (of course, it never occurred to me when I was younger that my own house would ever be one that was abandoned and eventually explored by others! ). Do you remember which one of the houses you tried to get into?

Even if you weren't able to get inside, the back of my house had a concrete patio right behind the garage (we used to have a sand table and water table out there), and if you keep going in the back towards the side yard (with my house on your left), you might notice a very weird rectangular in-ground concrete pool behind the house, right at the foot of the slope leading up into the woods. It's not very big- maybe 5 feet long and 2 feet wide- and the top was decorated with stones around the frame. Near the bottom, there was even a rusty water pipe that must have been used to fill the thing; I'm guessing it used to be a goldfish pool or something like that, but I used to dream of turning it into a wading pool and spent more than a few hours over the years trying to excavate the piles of leaves and dirt that would accumulate.

As for the auditorium: I'm not sure what was torn down in 1970 (maybe there were two auditoriums- one on Hilltop as part of the TB Sanatorium, and a different one at Overbrook?), but the auditorium on Fairview Avenue was definitely still there for part of the time that I lived on Doctor's Row and wasn't razed entirely until around 1984. I was inside it a few times, and even then it wasn't being used anymore except for storage, with boxes piled up on the stage and scattered throughout the place. It was one of Overbrook's nicest buildings, IMO- almost majestic if you were looking at it from Fairview and seemingly in good condition. My mom was shocked and royally po'd when we drove home one day coming back from the old Caldor/Pathmark shopping center (in West Orange) and saw that it was pretty much a giant pile of rubble- she knew it was coming, but it was her favorite building on the grounds and she had put a lot of faith into a small but seemingly determined group that had been lobbying to save it. It remains puzzling that they were able to move so quickly to tear down a nice, solid, centrally-located building while Hilltop was left to become its own ghost-town for what turned out to be decades.

Behind the houses on Doctors row deep in the woods are alot of cool old paths, patios and BBQ pits made of stone. They are all overgrown and in states of disrepair. I would often sit back there and wonder about the families that spend time there long ago.

Hey- I haven't been on in awhile, but logged in tonight and was absolutely
blown away by the new pics you've posted of the Doctors' Row houses.
Viewing them brings on the weirdest mix of nostalgia, sadness, and anger at
Essex County for allowing these houses (and in fact, the entire hospital)
to just rot away when almost every single one of those buildings should be
on some historical registry and protected by law.

The Essex County Executive while I lived there was Peter Shapiro. At the
time, I was too young to really know much about him other than the fact
that he was the nice guy who hired my dad, but he was apparently a rising
political star who ruined his own career by foolishly running for governor
in 1985 against a very popular incumbent (Thomas Kean) and losing in a
landslide. By 1986, Shapiro was up for reelection as County Exec against a
guy named Nicholas Amato- Essex County residents, remembering the
gubernatorial debacle and Shapiro's infamous tax hikes, gave Shapiro a
solid vote of no-confidence and overwhelmingly chose the rudderless
leadership of Amato, effectively ending my childhood in Cedar Grove and
ultimately spelling doom for Overbrook.

IMO, Overbrook's fate was sealed with the election of Amato. He took office
shortly after the election, and six months later was cleaning house
(literally)- Bolton Road was being vacated by the summer of 1987 (and like
I mentioned, to the best of my knowledge, no one has lived there since), my
dad and many others lost their jobs, and the death knell unofficially began
for the hospital as jobs were either merged or dissolved without
replacement. Even though the culmination wouldn't come for nearly two more
decades, Overbrook would never recover from Amato's neglect and
mismanagement during his one ill-fated term as County Executive.

Sorry for the history lesson, but seeing what Bolton (Doctor's Row) and
Overbrook has become...it's just a travesty.