This page is for discussion about the now defunct Overbrook Insane Asylum. In the early half of the twentieth century, Overbrook was at full capacity. I was near to her side of the house. As a member of the board of trustees of the National Alliance on Mental Illness (N.A.M.I. Don’t go where you are not supposed to, my friends. It closed in 2007. As the president myself of a local historical society in nearby Verona, I hope to meet with other historians and conservationists to discuss the planned changes to the site, along the lines of collaborative efforts to identify and hopefully conserve parts of this very historic property. It is also extensively patrolled by Essex County Sheriff’s Department deputies twenty-four seven. For a generation of North Jersey teens, a visit to the Overbrook site was a rite of passage – going to “The Asylum,” “The Bin,” or “The Hilltop”, as it was called by various gangs of teens, was a surefire way to test your mettle and impress your friends. Hopefully, our efforts will be successful and we should be able to secure and preserve buildings or sites of historical importance and interest. “Treatments” such as lobotomies, submerging a patient in ice cold water, and even electroshock therapy were practiced in asylums across the US. New Jersey's Local Legends and Best Kept Secrets Latest Issue! The guards that came tell him not to worry, then go and open the door and call into the tunnel ‘hey Frank.’ A minute later a small meek voice says ‘Yea.’ They say ‘We got a job for you.”  After a minute of silence they say, ‘A real important job.” Another minute passes and then this little guy maybe, five feet tall comes out and says ‘OK, I’m ready.’ The friend always made sure the door was blocked first thing when he got to work after that.”. The site was selected due to its remote, high altitude location, which, it was believed, could provide a healthy, peaceful setting for patients to rehabilitate in. On April 27, 2013, we went to see Julie take questions at the Chicago Comic & Entertainment Expo at McCormick Place, in Chicago. In the late 19th century, the Essex County Hospital for the Insane in Newark, New Jersey was becoming alarmingly overcrowded, and funds were allocated to purchase ninety acres of rural land upstate for a new hospital. Electroshock therapy at the Overbrook Asylum. The asylum became extremely overcrowded and staff was hard-pressed to manage the needs of so many patients. Please consider making a donation to our site. Our eighth grade had graduation exercises at Overbrook in 1944 before the new school, and before Cedar Grove had a high school. During the twenty days since the first of December there have been twenty-four deaths in the institution, as against eight for the entire month last year. As of now, pieces of the hospital and its tunnels still remain, like fossils embedded in stone. The buildings are all connected by tunnels that carried steam for heat and their own generated electricity. Overbrook even had its own semi-professional baseball team that competed with teams from neighboring towns! Unfortunately, the site chosen for this madcap plan was in a rather depressed neighborhood that would not have provided a safe and therapeutic atmosphere for the Center’s few hundred remaining patients. To make a very long story short, our N.A.M.I. and is planning a breach of contract lawsuit against the County of Essex. Crime does not pay, even when exploring broken down and often dangerous old structures. Cedar Grove, New Jersey: One of Essex County's largest abandoned complexes is no more. The facility was so large that it had its own train stop on the Caldwell Branch of the Erie Railroad, used to transport the massive amounts of coal and fuel needed to run the hospital complex. 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