Status: Unknown

I remember going to what at the time to us was a “sanitarium” back in 1998. My friends and I were really into Metallica at this time and one of our most popular songs to listen to while cruising through Pequannock and Wayne at night in whomever’s truck we could get our hands on was “Welcome Home (Sanitarium)”. Yes, we were a bunch of metalheads.

My friend Jay told us about an abandoned “sanitarium” and the tales of all the “lunatics” and other crazy types that were once confined to this place. I had never even noticed it before behind years and years worth of growth and shrubbery that had consumed the entire building. Of course, being the curious bunch of kids that we were, we had to go there and have ourselves a look around. This was one of the first “hospital”-like abandoned places I had ever been to, so the experience was chilling and stayed with me for years to come.

And so I found myself back there again five years later.

It was almost the same group that I went with the first time around–the only difference was the change in boyfriends and girlfriends it seemed. We sneaked up to the front of it trying not to look conspicuous since the “sanitarium” is surrounded by houses and we were told that one of them belonged to a cop. When we saw that it was clear, we entered through a broken basement window into a large room cluttered with debris and junk–beds, tables, refrigerators, washing machines, and even barrels of what was probably toxic chemicals. We wandered through the basement and up the stairs to the second and third floors where we found the rooms that belonged to the patients. As we tiptoed through the graffiti covered hallways, we remembered that this place was MUCH bigger than it looked from the outside. I went there not knowing if I had my digital camera with me or not, but when I reached in my bag, low and behold it was there. It was pitch BLACK inside, but I decided to try my luck and snap a shot with the flash anyway. Usually my camera won’t take pictures in that dark extreme, but much to my astonishment, the picture turned out bright as day. I took as many pictures as I could, each time being yelled at by the rest of the group not to take pictures too close to the windows for fear that we would be seen. I kept getting separated from the group as I explored each dark room and let my flash lead the way, hence why a lot of my pictures turned out crooked and just plain bad.

When we went there the first time, we found TONS of x-rays from the patients and I believe my friends even took a few as souvenirs–and it seems that over the years, people did the same thing. The x-rays were nowhere to be found this time. However, the old piano with the ivory keys was still upstairs where we last saw it and we even came across some lists of things needed for the hospital–enema bags, amputation devices, medical equipment, etc. Other documents indicated that it had been abandoned since the 80s. We also found a whole bag of name tags in the front office. And as it turned out, our beloved “sanitarium” was once a nursing home.

Well, our “sanitarium” will always stand out in my mind as one of the creepier places I had been to and both times I’ve been there, I felt as if we were being watched. I couldn’t help but let my imagination run away with itself a few times, like when someone from behind me shined a flashlight ahead of me on to a door and I swear to god, it looked like the door swung open. I nearly screamed! Even after that, I’d definitely go back at night.

- Ember, 2003