The Overbrook Asylum in Memoriam - Decaying Wards Once Home To Thousands

Entering this place it feels less a hospital complex, and more a winding labyrinth of dirty red brick and chipping mortar. The sheer scale of the grounds is difficult to communicate in text or photo. One's imagination suggests the sense of having left the familiar world behind for something altogether separate, and in many ways you have. Serpentine lengths of brick adorned with copper flashing and ornate dormer windows expand outward for what seems to be forever in all directions. Every angle of the corridor reveals another bend, stairwell, or row of doorways, and every room has a story to tell. Overbrook is more than just a discarded shell or outdated facility - It is a testament to the massive strides in healthcare and basic human rights made during recent decades, and a crumbling monument to those who toiled, suffered, and died before they became a reality.

Overbrook opened in 1896 and was built in many ways to be Essex County's local answer to the neighboring Greystone Park Psychiatric Hospital which once stood in Parsippany, New Jersey. Its purpose was to house and care for the mentally, and in some cases physically, handicapped residents of the county. Once completed the campus had over a dozen buildings on its 90 acres, most of them connected via miles of subterranean tunnels running under the grounds.

The hospital operated for over a century, and there was no shortage of hardships faced during that time. One of the most infamous events occurred in the winter of 1917 when the asylum's boiler broke down leaving the inhabitants without heat for twenty days. During that span, twenty-four people lost their lives to the cold, many freezing to death in their beds. Also, like many such institutions of the day, during the great depression large numbers of homeless found refuge here, but overcrowding and heavily rationed food made living conditions very poor. Following World War II there was also a large influx of patients suffering from 'shell shock' and post-traumatic stress, issues which the overburdened facility was hard-pressed to properly treat. Accounts of neglect, starvation, escapes, and suicides were reported. All told, over ten thousand people died while confined within Overbrook's walls.

Full story here - http://bit.ly/OverbrookAsylum

Music - "Lilium" as performed by Myuu

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