Time for another addition of Found Things! As always, many of these images and captions are taken directly from my Instagram, so my apologies if you already follow me and some of these are repeats.
This post is all stuff found at Greystone Park State Hospital. I try to avoid themed found lists, but as I stated in this gallery post, I’m pushing Greystone stuff due to its impending demolition.
Letterhead/paper ephemera is one of the lesser-known collecting interests, but there is a whole subculture of people who go totally mental for this stuff. But I understand, because when I was seven, I found a discarded pack of Sanrio stationary with Keroppi on the letterhead, and I was pumped for days about it. I had to work a lot harder to find these ones, but at least I’m continuing my legacy of refusing to pay for (yet reaping the benefits of) someone else’s garbage.
These dumb dolls have been floating around Greystone for years. The one in the top row has been moved, strung up, and splattered in fake blood. Every time I see it, I get embarrassed that it’s a thing I have to deal with while doing my Super Important Historical No-Nonsense Research Exploring Business.
I understand that this was supposed to be an inspirational quote for the Greystone nursing staff regarding the difficult, and often seemingly impossible task of dealing with mental illness, but it doesn’t seem like the smartest idea to hang a poem about men dreaming “things that never were” in a hospital where the vast majority of patients were committed specifically for that reason. Just sayin’.
1914 penny postcard sent to Greystone, known at the time as the New Jersey State Hospital. The sender was wondering if the receiver had found the exact formula for cellulose.
Gonna go get my ovaries removed now, brb
No caption necessary
Check it out- the first mail spam! A letter from the Peru Basket Company, trying to peddle their basket wares to the asylum. The text says, “Do you use baskets? If so, let us tell you about ours. We are manufacturing a basket that is specifically fitted for use in Sanitariums, Hospitals, and Asylums.” They’re just regular old laundry baskets, but what’s amazing is the quality of the company letterhead. The type is printed with raised green ink, which seems awfully lofty for something that’s meant to hold dirty clothes filled with hundreds of farts.
More letterhead stuff. The “State of New Jersey” asylum letterhead was pretty fancy. These letters are from 1902, and the penny postcard from 1906.
A painting of the admin section of the Greystone kirkbride. It used to be rotting away in the attic, but someone snagged it, and if you’re that someone, I’d like to talk to you about buying it, please email me!
Gonna start bundling my trash like this just to fuck with my neighbors. (it was just a rolled up carpet)
I spent FOREVER searching for a blueprint of the Greystone kirkbride but all I came up with was this, and dozens of Curry (the medical building demolished in 2008) prints. I never found one, but perhaps it’s for the best, since last time something like that happened, I was searching for Hudson River Kirkbride blueprints and when I finally found them, they fell apart in my hands.
Patient file for a teenager committed to Greystone for stealing cars, joyriding, and general, age-appropriate mischief. His educational history: “Jeffrey ‘disappeared’ from school on his first day of kindergarten. He said he didn’t like it. He has never changed his mind. He was quite pleased his past year to be expelled and on home study.”
The doctors at Greystone took care to preserve young Jeffrey’s artistic ambitions as proof of his “psychological disturbances,” which, okay yeah the swastika definitely sucks, but the kid who sat next to me in seventh-grade science class drew basically this exact same thing on his binder and he turned out okay and also he’s not a nazi.
Nope, wrong. I’ve seen this on a t-shirt and the correct phrasing is “God don’t make no junk.” Proper grammar has no business being part of this sentiment. Also it’s wrong because I can personally attest to the indisputable fact that God has made hella junk people who are terrible and worthless.
There are a few lesser known structures around the main Greystone campus, and one lovely fall day, I was poking around an old coal house and came across what I assume was a hunter’s stash spot. Please tell me this was a hunter’s stash spot. If this wasn’t a hunter’s stash spot, I’m gonna be retroactively super upset that it wasn’t a hunter’s stash spot. (Update: found out it wasn’t a hunter’s stash spot, it was some kids fucking around and I hate it!!!)
This nursing assistants book jacket….I can’t even handle it. The patient’s crazy eyes, the sexy nurse, the doctor looking at the sexy nurse while his bottom half disappears into a pre-photoshop nightmare…WHAT IS GOING ON?!
That’s it for now, I’ll have another Greystone found post up later, but for now, if you want to see my photos for this place, you can go to the website gallery or the flickr set, which has more than 100 photos not posted on this site.
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