Overbrook Asylum

This place is on private property. Listing for informational purposes only. Please do not visit without express permission from the land owner. Opened in 1896, and abandoned in 2007, Overbrook insane asylum is frequently patrolled by police cars and plainclothes officers. However, this doesn't stop many bored teenagers and adventure seekers from exploring the abandoned buildings. Recently, the state of NJ has planned to convert the historic site into 90 acres of parkland. While much of it has been torn down by now, several buildings still stand, grim and ominous monuments of the last century. Overbrook Asylum, or the Essex County Hospital Center, is a defunct psychiatric hospital that is located in the Township of Cedar Grove, New Jersey. The hospital was used as a normal hospital then converted to house mentally ill patients that were in need of care. Located at the edge of the Hilltop Reservation and designated a Conservation Easement in 2001 by the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection, the site now is part of the Essex County park system.. In 1896, a large portion of land was purchased by the City of Newark, New Jersey; the land was bought to build a new hospital to relieve pressure in the overcrowded Newark Hospital. During the late 1800s and early 1900s, many buildings were built that housed patients and other facilities, such as a power house, laundromat, and theater. According to Weird New Jersey, in the winter of 1917, the hospital suffered a catastrophe with the failure of the hospital's boilers and 24 patients freezing to death in their beds. In the mid-1920s, the tri-state mental correction board bought the land and converted Overbrook into a mental institution. The Overbrook asylum ran on, adding several add-ons and new wards until its abrupt close in the winter of 1975. The hospital was a major filming location for the 2008 film Choke, as well as a location on the reality shows Ghost Adventures and Ghost Hunters. Both shows claim to have discovered evidence of paranormal activity.