The remaining ruins of El Dorado Gardens can still be found today, hidden in small patch of woods along the muddy banks of the Rahway River in Springfield. Concrete bridges arch over stagnant fetid waters, and overgrown, barely visible walkways wind their way past the crumbling remains of communal baths. All that is left to remind us of one of New Jersey’s lost resorts. Continue reading
Photos by Josh Blaine / joshblaine.com It sat abandoned for nearly two decades, a sprawling single-story building surrounded by the sea of an aged asphalt parking lot with grass and tall weeds growing up through its myriad of cracks. Inside … Continue reading
The Ross Island Ruins: Mysterious Stone House at Takanassee Lake, Long Branch By Veronica MacDonald Ditko Long Branch, NJ is full of historical treasures if you know where to look. Take, for instance, the small island house in Ross Lake, the … Continue reading
During its abandoned year, rumors began to spread throughout the area of this isolated asylum at the Hilltop. It was rumored that the out-dated surgical implements, patient records, and medieval looking devices of restraint were still intact inside. Tales were told of the escaped or forgotten lunatics that roamed the grounds and hallways of the derelict buildings, and made their homes in the vast labyrinth of subterranean tunnels which permeated the facility’s foundations. Continue reading
Longtime Weird NJ contributor Phillip Buehler is about to release a book he has written and taken photographs for entitled WOODY GUTHRIE’S WARDY FORTY: Greystone Park State Hospital Revisited. Phil has just established a Kickstarter page to raise fund for the printing of this amazing documentation. Continue reading
A handy reference guide to finding abandoned places that have been featured in Weird NJ. Continue reading
While it is currently a park, Snake Hill has been the site of a variety of different institutions over its history. An almshouse was located here, and several hospitals and a penitentiary. Most famously, Snake Hill was the site of a huge lunatic asylum. Many of those who died while inmates of the asylum still lay in the ground here in unmarked and unidentified graves. Continue reading
It kept a solemn and stoic vigil over the Watchung Mountain range for nearly 70 years, for many of which it lay abandoned in the woods. The turreted castle contained 40 rooms. There was a huge entry hall that had two chandeliers made up of eight Civil War muskets each. Suits of armor, helmets, guns, and trophies adorned every wall. The basement housed a laboratory Moldenke used for scientific studies. There was also a mausoleum with 21 crypts, and even a huge cannon! Continue reading
Of all the abandoned places that Weird NJ has explored over the years none match the awe inspiring architectural magnificence of the Paulinskill Viaduct. The Viaduct, or Hainesburg Trestle, is a long abandoned railroad bridge over the Paulinskill River near Blairstown. Continue reading
By Lou Pane There is a weird site in Jobstown, NJ known as “Trolley Valhalla”. I first saw these moldering veteran s of the streets in 1974, and now, 25 years later, they are slowly returning to the earth in … Continue reading
