Newark  New Brunswick/Piscataway  Stratford  Camden

University Libraries Special Collections

SP/6
[MC/15]

New Jersey State Hospital for the Insane (Greystone Park)
Morris Plains, NJ
Scrapbook, 1894 - 1904

In

UMDNJ Libraries - Special Collections Department
University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey
Newark, New Jersey
Revised June 2005

History

The New Jersey State Hospital for the Insane at Morris Plains, NJ was the state's second oldest and largest mental health facility. The hospital was founded in 1875 and opened on August 17, 1878. The imposing building was constructed of a local grey stone resembling granite, called gneiss. Over the years, this "grey stone" became the familiar name for the hospital and is the basis for its formal name today, Greystone Park Psychiatric Hospital.

Through the persistence of Dorothea Lynde Dix (1802-1887), this much-needed hospital was constructed to reduce the serious overcrowding at the state hospital in Trenton. Greystone was designed according to the Kirkbridge plan devised by Thomas Story Kirkbridge (1809-1883), first Physician-in-Chief and Superintendent of the Department for the Insane at the Pennsylvania Hospital of Philadelphia. The Kirkbridge plan called for a central administrative structure from which projected wings to house the patients were constructed in the belief that patients would recuperate in a calm setting. In Morris Plains, Dr. Kirkbridge and a Dr. Brown of the Bloomingdale Asylum of New York consulted on the project. The distinguished architect, Samuel Sloan, ultimately designed the building.

On roughly 450 acres that grew to approximately 830 acres, Greystone was a self-sufficient community for patients and staff. The hospital boasted state of the art facilities and a competent and caring staff who subscribed to the leading mental health treatment theories of the day. Later additions to the institution included a farm, post office, fire department, dormitory housing for staff, and occupational and vocational therapy buildings. The agricultural and manufactured surplus from the various occupational and vocational therapy activities was sold to the public. The sale of these items contributed to Greystone's economic self-sufficiency.

Two hundred and ninety-two patients were transferred from Trenton at the opening of Greystone. In a facility built to house a maximum of 600 patients, it grew by 1952 to house over 7,000. With breakthroughs in medications and the trend toward deinstitutionalization, by 1994, the population was once again reduced to approximately 600. Today, Greystone has many abandoned buildings in ruin as its future is being determined by the state. Plans are moving forward to construct a new, smaller therapeutic facility on the site.

Scope & Content

Scrapbook, dating 1894-1904, contains news clippings and other items documenting the New Jersey State Hospital at Morris Plains, NJ, also known as Greystone Park. The scrapbook includes information on George Richards, president of the Hospital's Board of Managers, and on Dr. Britton D. Evans (1858-1920), the Hospital's medical director.

Provenance: Unknown (possible gift of the Academy of Medicine of New Jersey)

Size of Collection: 1 item. .25 linear feet

For reference service and information contact:

Robert Vietrogoski
Special Collections
vietrora@umdnj.edu
(973) 972-7830
FAX (973) 972-7474

Return to the previous page