273 Comments for Essex County Hospital Center (Overbrook)

Imagine - painting AROUND the painting - who would do that kind of paint-job?

Wow. Just stumbled across this site, spent hours perusing. Its cool to see an oldish mental hospital in good repair.
What I want to know after looking thru all these pics is how a place like this is supposed to make people "sane". The tiny rooms, no privacy, heavy locked doors, small windows etc. I have no mental illness, but I think if I was put in this place, it'd cause one.
Theres nothing about this place that says "a safe place to gather your grip on consensual reality". Instead it says "we are going to lock you away and control you...for your own good of course..." Yeesh.

Are those blue doors morgue doors? They're a color of blue I've seen in appliances!

Our facility had magnetic locks that staff had to hold to engage. They also had to keep an eye on the person in the room through a window in the door.

Interesting photo. I have seen seclusion/quiet rooms on a C.S.U. floor and it was all modern with plexi-glass and wire mesh. nice looking wood door in this particular picture.

Steam pipes

Did you figure it out yet Mike?
Follow the conduit at the top above the door in the middle, it drops down to a plug for that AC. You see its an optical illusion, the window it is poking out of is in the same wall that door at the end of the hallway is.

Lights on: always creepy+scary.
No idea what-so-ever how this was used.

The "2333" is probably the internal extension for security or medical. In the (engineering) places I've worked, the internal emergency number was always something like that, following the pattern of "jam down the same key until something happens." The first three digits, being an internal extension, are automatic.

Sorry for the second post....but forgot to add: Bidets usually have water (adjustable temp) that can come from a style of faucet. I've even seen some with a type of hand-held shower. The female stand up urinal had none of these devices attached and just shot water down like in a male urinal.

Nope not bidets. Bidets are lower to the ground and can be used by both male and female. You see them a lot in Europen bathrooms and are used for....cleaning....(use your imagination). . Lived in two places in Italy in the 1990s....every bathroom in both houses had them.

This place is within easy commute of Manhattan, thus re-purposing will take the form of demolition and new housing. Whose to complain that some folks make a ton of money off this public property sure to be sold for a pittance to private developers.

Love this photo, I'm sure many patients felt like they were closed in, going on a scarey journey while traveling on this staircase.

I would hope that no treatment facility would condone having this painted on the wall. What I do think it is though is the artwork of a patient, expressing how he feels about addiction-in thatcontext, it makes sense.

The Arch!