Is Greystone Haunted ?

Well here I am trying to think of where to begin, because my mind is full of so many thoughts. I would like to try and tell this story in an orderly fashion without jumping all over the place & sounding garbled.                                                                            It’s going to be a long one,so make yourself comfortable.
Well let’s try the Beginning ……..
      A week or so ago I sat thinking about what kind of a post could I do for Halloween …. Looked on YouTube , let’s see….. Haunted,  Haunted what ….. Cemetery???                                                                  Then it hit me ….      Greystone !
         What is  Greystone.
Greystone was (is) the local Psychiatric Hospital to put it nicely.Up until 1924 it was known as New Jersey State Lunatic Asylum at Morristown.                                 When I was growing up I heard about Greystone, and it Definitely was a place you didn’t want to visit or wind up in!                                                                               It’s only  a 10 to 12 minute drive away.                                     
My closest experience till this point in time was ( back in the 60’s) , when I was about 13, I had a girlfriend who was a little older than I was, and was Murdered by a man who (I can’t remember) either escaped or was released from Greystone. That point really is irrelevant because, right back he went!! (I will not go into detail about that tragic event at this point in time ,because  it’s not the main topic,as Horrible & Sad as it is!) But this was probably when I first became Really  Aware of Greystone ……..
     I remember hearing awhile back it was being closed (1988 ?) and sold for the sum of $1.00 ! And a New  Greystone had been built  (2007). Well Curiosity getting the better of me ….                                                     Hubby & I took a Road Trip to you guessed it, Greystone. I figured it could possibly be a good photo op. I’ve seen some of the videos kids have done on YouTube, not sure about a nighttime visit. So we opted for a daytrip. Kidding around I said to Hubby, this would probably be Better if it were Dark & Dreary with maybe a little Fog just for Effect …… lol , and he said “Don’t forget to take your i.d.” and So we were off , not knowing what to expect, from all the things that you hear about this place being Haunted !                
    But before I get too far ahead of myself,  here’s a little History:

The Kirkbride building (above) at the original Greystone Park Psychiatric Hospital began construction in 1871, and began admitting patients in 1876, after officially being christened by United States President Ulysses S. Grant. The building was constructed in a design championed by Philadelphia psychiatrist Thomas Story Kirkbride, a reformer who sought to create a system in which patients with mental illness were treated with dignity and respect, as opposed to being stowed away in basements and county jails. With the advocacy of mental health activist Dorothea Dix, Greystone Park was built in northern New Jersey to alleviate overcrowding at the New Jersey State Hospital in Trenton New Jersey, the first facility in the nation built under the Kirkbride Plan in 1847.The original Second Empire Victorian style building was 62,589 m² (673,706 total square feet). At the base of this massive building was the alleged largest continuous foundation in the United States from the time it was built until it was surpassed by the Pentagon when it was constructed in 1943.                                                     LINKS ;
To read more : Visit Wikipedia                
For more on the Darker side of: Greystone and New Jersey Exploration                     
To see what Greystone looked like back in the day and to see how Massive this place is visit this: Slideshow       
Also;  a link to a Video documentary of Greystone by Weird US on the History Channel.
Just think, they started to build this place only 6 years after (1871)the Civil War (1865) ! That’s rather impressive to me because in this country anything gets to be 40/ 50 years old it gets torn down and replaced. We really don’t have much in the way of Ancient sites like Europe. Boy are there a lot of places I would love to visit there!!! lol
  So now that you have a little history about the place, …… Let’s see it’s about 134 yrs.old , A place conceived to hold mental illness / insanity. Incidents of suicide  (tortured souls and in some cases great Sadness ).                         
Who knows how these people were really treated.
Here are more links to; 2 of the Treatments which were used at this facility;                                          
Electroconvulsive Therapy         
Insulin Shock Therapy                                                                                                 (the later,in my opinion,I found to be absolutely Barbaric! ) ………………………….                          
     Are there Ghosts ?                     
    Who knows what this place holds ???                                     
Are you ready?                            
            Here we go ……..
This is the most recognizable view, the one most everyone sees as they drive up to the place ~


Now we’re going to get up close and personal.

My understanding is; This part of Greystone (above) was closed 1988. There were ancillary buildings (see below) which housed patients until 2008.                                                       
 Below is the Marcus Curry building which held the last of the patients till they were transferred to the New Greystone facility,at which point the building below was demolished as well as surrounding vacant buildings(2008). 
 Below; From here on ,what you are about to see is the Main building which closed 1988.

Above: Would you believe there’s lights on ….. Second fl. Middle & left windows.We started walking all along the left side of this building.


I made a point of looking in just about every window (around this whole place) to see if there was anyone looking back ~  Hey ya never know ! , I was open for anything ……. lol   Now it would be really creepy if I were to go back at night and find that all the lights that are on,  are now Off ~

As we begin to work our way along the left front , notice the light middle window 2nd fl.

 





Would you believe we are still walking along the front. This place is Huge!  At this point we have been walking & taking pictures for @least an hour.

What was about to come made things just a bit more interesting(actually in hindsight,more so than realized @ the time ~)

I walk up to this door and with the glass missing was able to take peek inside.As I put my face close to the opening I felt as though the place was still Breathing. Slow, Deep Dying Breaths ,….. and when it exhaled,it’s breath was Dark, Dusky,Dank,Mildewy & COLD! It actually took me aback, it almost took my breath away! I backed up pretty Damn Quick!! I did manage 2 shots…… Somehow it caught me off guard. It was about 75 outside, the air that blew against my face from inside, felt like opening the freezer door.             
All I could say to Hubby was ; “WOW! It’s Cold in there!”, and I was overcome with a Strange Overwhelming  Feeling I couldn’t describe  ~, and in saying that , I remembered what “They” say about “Cold Spots” …..                                      
Below: inside little window , stairs??

Below; lower right looks like a doorway

It wasn’t a matter of seeing anything, It was an Overwhelming Heavy Feeling~                     
(later, after reviewing this post,I did notice something, a bunch of little round circles in the picture.   O M G Could it be ??? Orbs??        It was dark in there, all I did was stick the camera in the hole and press the shutter. It was dark and I wasn’t going to put my face close to that hole again. So whatever we got we got. In order to see what was on the picture I had to lighten it and add some contrast. Look in that hole and you can see how dark it looks.

So there was no sun to create sunspots, plus they are too erratic, they are all over the picture  …… So what ARE those round things …. Orbs??
  This is the way the original photos looked, and you can still see them  (although faintly )…….

 

Definitely time to move along!! After this, I don’t think I would want to be anywhere near this place at night!!!!  Which brought to mind….                                   
Back in the 1870’s even with gas lighting,this Massive place still must have been creepy dark ~     Back then this place was in the middle of Nowhere ,nothing around, Only this Colossal Place. ……………………………
We have Finally made it to the side of this Mammoth structure!



Below; At this point I started to feel a Sadness about the place, something to do with that top window….?                                   
I have no idea what is where in this place,I really didn’t do a thorough reading on this place till After we had been here and was getting ready to do this post.                                                
I wanted to form my own impressions and experience it for myself.


Below; Looks like this was a recreation yard , there’s a basketball hoop way in the background ….

Below; Gate was open & we found our way in …….



 
Looking at where the bricks were crumbling, looked to be an addition after the place was originally built.They tried to match the stone work , but it was slightly different.It also looked as if that is where they housed the “More Excitable Patients” I believe was the terminology I read somewhere along the way, after the fact.   Because all the windows along the top floor of the entire building had wire over them.


Below; Finally !, we had made our way to the back. The sides if this Massive place were a much shorter distance than along the Front & Back.



Below; You can see how this Massive place was built.Evidently Greystone had its own gas and water utilities and gneiss quarry which was the source of the Greystone building materials.




Interesting point; The whole time spent walking thru this place,we did not hear one bird or did we see one squirrel. Nothing but Silence ~ Odd …..

It looks like in the Back ,were the mechanics to make this Massive place run …….

Below; Here’s something I found a bit interesting …. These look like some type of refrigeration units. Well they look pretty damn Shiny for being exposed to the elements since 1988 when this place was shut down ! …….. Looks like someone’s job was to take care of those units, and “He’s”still doing it! …. Just sayin 

Curious side note; while walking around back here I felt like I was back in the 40’s …….. , what was coming to my mind was WW2 , Germany - Camps …… ??  These were just impressions, feelings that I was getting ……




I have no idea what these pictures are of ……..

The rumor is , there are tunnels and rails underneath this place. 



Well, not too long after taking this picture I heard Hubby say “We’ve got company ……”, I looked up and said  “OH! SH—!!”                 It was the kind that asks you for your i.d & then runs a check on you! Then informs you that you are Trespassing!, Didn’t You See The Signs!! How long have you been here!, what are you doing here !, Mam,You’re going to have to delete those pictures, Now!                       ( Now I'm thinking hell No!! there’s @least 200 pictures , think fast …., how do we make it seem like we’re deleting….. Turn the camera on ,make it beep a few times , look upset! Talk …..and change the subject …. )     WHEW!! ….. Thankfully he didn’t check the camera !!…..       as you can see.  They (2 officers) ran a license check on both of us , gave a stern lecture and told us to Leave and not to come back! We Thanked them for not Hauling us off to jail & Left!
        This is us leaving.                          It’s a good thing that by the time we were stopped we were already on the way out and not at the beginning or half way thru our little excursion.                                             
I am pretty sure at some point ,all you have seen will be knocked down with possibly the Exception of the Main Building as you drive up.

Below; This is the Right side of the facility as you drive by on the road.(in our case walk by, to get to the truck …..)


This is on the road to Greystone and back to the truck. Oh ,you’re allowed to be here. Part of this property has been made into a Park.You’re just not suppose to be close to the buildings.

Below; Right side of Main building
 

Below; Same picture as above only enlarged , After the fact I noticed something……. look up ,by the 4th floor by the fire escape…… A streak of Red and to the left of that, is a streak of Green…

Click on the below link to see a picture some-one else took, click on the picture to enlarge and notice the Green “Orbs” (Energy) on each side of the top of this building …..   Check This Out! seems to be something that hangs around this area……..

 

Well here we are.Our Ride Home is waiting for us … Smiles ... : )    We had ourselves quite a Day! and alot of Walking too!!

Here we are on our way out.                                    
“Good Bye Greystone” ~

Or so I thought ………,             On the way home we discussed what an interesting day it was ,our thoughts about the place,            and when we got home Hubby was going to mow, I had a Roast to start.                                           
As we were home and going about our chores I was aware that I still felt the heavy presence of Greystone. It was like I was still there, still see it right in front of me as plain as day.      I figured  it would pass ….             Hours later still the same,I mentioned it to Hubby and asked did he feel it too. He said “No”.      I thought this was rather strange to feel this continuous overpowering Presence.I certainly didn’t want to go to sleep with this place on my mind…….
but that night I went to sleep and I dreamed , a strange Dream;
      I found my way into a place that looked like a cross between  a Boutique and a Tea Room. Filled with  women busily  setting about fixing and decorating with all manner of pretty things that they could find, lace & ribbons and bows and  Pretty wrapped packages.I turned and in the doorway stood a pretty woman with long strawberry blond hair and light freckles.(she reminded me of the woman that played the Mother on “Six Feet Under”) She had on a White cotton Dressing gown.She walked right up to me (I was not aware they could see me ,as I thought I was only an Observer) She smiled,as she handed me a small party favor bag and said ,“I’m so glad that you came”……  and I found myself saying, “Thank You, but I really must go now” …… and I woke up.      Whoa !! That was Strange!           
It was as if that woman knew me, and was expecting me. And when I woke up,  I Still ! felt the presence of Greystone.That feeling lasted a good day after the fact.At this point I felt as if somehow this place was “Haunting”me, not in the sense of Ghosts &  Boo!
I can Honestly say, There is Something about that place!    
   Even in the cold ,hard light of Day!                                             
So many souls with such strong Emotions in such a place, over many years,created the Energy that Is Still within those Decaying walls.                                        
Still Slowly,Deeply Breathing……Dying breaths……. holding its Secrets still ,Close inside.                 
  And if you stand close enough  you will Feel its Breath & if you stand still long enough It will start to permeate you and touch your Soul ,                         
and you will Feel That too …….
      A couple of Days have passed ,and so has the Feeling.   Just a lingering thought of Sadness about the Place remains as I think about it ~                                        
      
           Is Greystone Haunted ?

              Happy Halloween ~
                                         Angel

P.S. Will I go back ?      Probably, though not for awhile & not so extensively.                                              
Will I go there at Night ?     Unlikely !

Is Greystone Haunted ?

Inside Greystone