Apr 152014
 

FYI: “Gallery” posts mean mostly photos instead of my usual half photos/half writing posts. I do gallery posts when I’m saving the history write ups for a later date. 

Update, August 2014: Demolition of Greystone started in the spring and progressed with unprecedented speed, despite multiple lawsuits and appeals to stop the process and save the building. RIP Greystone. Fuck you, Chris Christie. 

Greystone Park State Hospital, Greystone Park Psychiatric Center

I’ve been hoarding my Greystone photos for a couple of years now, with plans to do a longer post since, but New Jersey recently announced plans to tear it down, so it can use all the PR possible. There are a few organizations trying to save it, mainly preservegreystone.org, and a number of Greystone projects were recently released, including Phillip Buehler’s book about Woody Guthrie’s years at Greystone, two urban explorers have put together a documentary that they’ll discuss this Thursday, April 17th, at Preserve Greystone’s annual meeting, and the Daily Mail ran a bunch of my photos. In case you were wondering how old I am, the article helpfully provides that information not once, not twice, but five times. The text in the article is not mine, only the photos.

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Before we get to the photos, here’s the briefest outline of Greystone’s history: The main building is a Kirkbride, a type of asylum architecture I discuss in some detail here. The hospital opened in 1876 and quickly went the route that most state asylums did- increasing population leading to overcrowding and the mistreatment of patients, dubious medical treatments, the invention of Thorazine, and budget cuts all leading to mass deinstitutionalization. Greystone went through a tiered closing throughout the ’70s, ’80s, and ’90s. Greystone Park Psychiatric Hospital still operates in a newer facility adjacent to the abandoned Kirkbride.

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Greystone Park State Hospital, Greystone Park Psychiatric Center

For way too many more photos, visit my Greystone Flickr Set.

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