Demolition on Greystone Park Psychiatric Hospital has been underway for a few months now and yesterday, video was posted showing the demolition has reached the Administration section of the Kirkbride, which means this corridor is gone.
In a few months, she will be nothing more than a memory and that is very tragic. History is vanishing right before our eyes and once it is gone, it will be too late to ever get it back…
I wish the outcome had been different. Seeing this beautiful building vanish has broken my faith in politicians and has given me very little hope that many structures like this will be saved in the future years to come. Many Kirkbride structures are already gone and now the Greystone Psychiatric Hospital will be added to the list.
Once the largest contiguous building in the United States, this structure opened in 1876 and was designed to house a few hundred mentally ill patients of New Jersey and the surrounding areas.
Sadly, in a few months, this asylum will be nothing more than dust. Abatement has already begin inside this massive Kirkbride building.
Within four years of this facility opening in the late 1800′s, the hospital was already accommodating 800 patients, though it was only designed to care for 600. At the hospital’s peak, in 1953, Greystone housed over 7,000 patients, many soldiers suffering from PTSD post World War.
Over the past year, the state of New Jersey has accepted multiple bids, upwards of $150 million for the restoration of Greystone Park Psychiatric Hospital, but today they made the incredibly tragic decision to demolish the building at a cost of $34 million.
Not only is this facility historic in a medical sense, but architecturally it's significant as well. Prior to the Pentagon being constructed, it was the largest contiguous stone building in the United States. It's a beautiful Kirkbride building, with open spaces full of light, beautiful architecture and a lot of life. I wish nothing more than to see buildings like these being constructed today, but tragically, we're about to tear one down. This is a terrible decision New Jersey. You'll realize this someday, but sadly it will be too late...
News story: http://www.dailyrecord.com/story/news/local/2014/08/14/greystone-demolition-bid-awarded-m/14071177/
In July 2008 Greystone Park Psychiatric closed and the remaining patients and Administration Offices relocated to the new facility less than a mile away.
Since then, the state of New Jersey has been deliberating over the best course of action for the decaying hospital. In the last few years, a group known as Preserve Greystone formed and has been advocating for the preservation of the massive Kirkbride building, along with hundreds of historians, preservationists and nearby residents.
Sadly, the state has not even entertained contracts of up to $100 million to restore the facility, but instead have chosen to demolish the building using $50 million of taxpayer money. Sometime later this year, the building will be demolished and over one hundred years of history, stories and medicine will be nothing more than a memory.
