The Most Haunted Place in New Jersey

The+Most+Haunted+Place+in+New+Jersey

Shyann Cordero, Art and Features Editor

Tiptoeing through the eerie streets of Morris Plains, New Jersey a group of teens felt a shiver go up their spine as they reached the decaying building. A broken sign creaked with the wind as they stood in front of the gates. Chipped paint and faded lines greeted them as the “Welcome to Greystone Park Psychiatric Hospital” sign was barely legible. As if on cue the sign fell off its rusted hinge and with the clang of it hitting the floor, a woman’s scream echoed everywhere around them from the building ahead. 

Greystone Park Psychiatric Hospital is considered to be one of the most haunted places in New Jersey. It is said that it is home to hundreds of souls who either passed away as a patient or due to the actions of a patient.

Formerly known as the State Asylum for the Insane, the facility held upwards of 7,000 of America’s most mentally ill people. It was originally built to house 350 patients at most, but with extensions of the building and state funding, which grew as the need for space grew, they were able to become one of the most well known psychiatric hospitals in the country. 

Home to dangerous people, the hospital was often overcrowded and understaffed which allowed for escapes, injuries, and the spreading of illnesses. Many patients died in the hospital from an outbreak of typhoid fever in 1895. This was just the start of the asylum’s decline.

In 2008, the facility was forced to shut down due to overcrowding and underfunding. The building’s deterioration had already started by then causing evacuation to be more needed than ever. The patients dispersed into other facilities, but the people whose lives ended there remain, wandering aimlessly. 

People who are brave enough to visit have reported a feeling like something was off. They have shown pictures of abandoned restraints and mysterious liquids on the floor that appear as though they were fresh. The decay of the building allows for a chill even on the warmest day, though people are not so sure that’s why it is a little colder inside. 

Are you brave enough to visit the Greystone Park Psychiatric Hospital? Will you be the explorer who catches one of the lost souls on camera? Hurry, the ghosts are waiting for you.