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The Overbrook Forsythia

April 25, 2008 11:23 PM ET | Eric Levin | Permanent Link

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Forsythia are in bloom. A stubborn plant, it heralds spring in its brassy garish way, flourishing where people want it, where they never wanted it, where no one remembers it even exists.

Pitted against neglect and decay, as here, it mocks our indifference to what we have left behind.

This is one of the roughly 40 buildings that remain standing on the 100 acres of the former Essex County Hospital Center in Verona and Cedar Grove.

Known as Overbrook, the hospital complex housed mental patients for more than a century. K. Hovanian has bought other portions of the land and has plans to acquire this sprawling, sloping site as well, tearing down the abandoned 1890s buildings and putting up new residences.

Abandoned buildings have a certain pathos. The bigger and grander they were, the more their purposes were removed from everyday life--whether to serve the very wealthy or hide the very afflicted--the more a ghostly poignance descends on their remains.

And this is to say nothing of the most forbidding sites of all, where the monstrosity of past suffering imposes a stunned silence made of dread, pity, outrage, gratitude, guilt, and awe.Photography's limits are exposed not only in these but in milder moments, if we expect it to explain what it can only abstract in its deceptively literal way.

 

 

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Tags: photography | Verona | Cedar Grove | forsythia | Essex County Hospital Center



Comments
Overbrook

Such a sad picture. I grew up from age 14 on, just around the corner from Overbrook. I was hoping the county would consider saving at least some of the buildings and perhaps doing adaptive reuse to condos or something, but no such luck. There are a number of lovely brick buildings on the grounds and it is sad to see them fall into such disrepair.

Posted by: Mauigirl, None | Apr 28, 2008 14:26:30 PM |

Overbrook & Greystone

Any info. about how to find records of patients at either of these two facilities, esp. Overbrook, would be appreciated. I know one ancestor was at Overbrook, suspect another and one might have been at Greystone. Thanks.

Posted by: Maryalyce, Encino, CA | Aug 17, 2009 16:56:11 PM |

School memories

I did my Psychiatric training here about 1968. I loved it and went on to specialize in Psychiatry. It was a great place and I’m sorry it is being demolished. I loved the tunnels and the various wards. The staff was very patient and helpful to all of us during our rotation. I wish I could have visited before is demolition. I don’t believe all the stupid haunted history that has been reported. I would have no problem visiting any of the buildings without any fear.

Posted by: Mary, Verona, NJ | Nov 01, 2009 00:40:39 AM |

Overbrook

Our mother was committed to Overbrook in the 70’s when Blue Cross insurance hit the limit, and she could not go to the Psychiatric dept of Clara Maas Hospital any longer. I can honestly say that the only thing I saw was a lot of over medicated people walking around in a daze. I don’t think she recieved one iota of "treatment" and I think they were just housed, not helped. It was gloomy and cold, the bathroom stalls had no doors at all, and not one doctor ever spoke to us about her case. The dosages of psych meds they gave back then would knock a horse out cold.

Posted by: Lisa, Maplewood | Jan 30, 2010 21:31:26 PM |

Overbrook

I am very interested in trying to find patient records on two of my wife’s ancestors that were patients at Overbrook and Hilltop Hospitals from the 1950s through 1970s. Any lead would be appreciated. Their last name was Van Winkle, husband and wife.
Thank you

Posted by: Nigel Vaughan-Williams, Jacksonville, Fl | Sep 04, 2010 15:22:39 PM |

Rosana Nocke Records

I was told as a child that my grandfather put my grandmother in Overbrook when she was going thru her changes (nice guy) and she died 6 months later of a broken heart. The years must be between 1930 and 1936. Anyone know where to get the recods of when she died.

Posted by: Florence Federico, Buckeye | Oct 14, 2010 04:24:04 AM |