Essex County Hospital Center (Overbrook)

Originally opened in the 1800s as a general hospital, Overbrook became a psychiatric center in the 1920s with 34 buildings. The facility was built to address overcrowding at Newark's asylum and housed thousands of patients until demolition in 2018.

The Essex County Hospital Center, known locally as "The Bin" or "The Hilltop," opened in 1896 as the Essex County Asylum for the Insane on 325 acres of remote hilltop land in what is now Cedar Grove, New Jersey. Named "Overbrook" for its location just beyond the Peckman River, the facility grew into a self-contained city with over a dozen buildings connected by miles of underground tunnels, its own railroad stop on the Erie Railroad, a bakery, firehouse, and even a semi-professional baseball team. At its peak in the 1930s and 1940s, the asylum housed over 3,000 patients at once, many subjected to the era's brutal psychiatric treatments: hydrotherapy, electroshock therapy, and prefrontal lobotomies.

The asylum's darkest chapter came during the winter of 1917. On December 1st, the heating and lighting plant failed during a severe cold wave. Over the following twenty days, 24 patients froze to death in their beds, with another 32 suffering severe frostbite. Conditions became so dire that the asylum's director wrote to families, urging them to remove their loved ones until repairs could be made. The 1,800 patients remaining had no heat in their sleeping quarters for weeks. Following World War II, overcrowding reached critical levels as veterans suffering from shell shock flooded in—during this period, 150 patients simply disappeared without explanation. In total, an estimated 10,000 people died within Overbrook's walls during its operation.

Paranormal activity at Overbrook was reported for decades before its closure in 2007. The most frequently witnessed apparition was a gray-haired nurse in a starched white cap and uniform who appeared in the underground tunnels and long corridors, disappearing into dead-end rooms when followed. During filming of Chuck Palahniuk's "Choke" in 2008, one Teamster refused to leave his truck after repeatedly seeing her. A crew member in Building Five reportedly witnessed something so disturbing he refuses to speak of it to this day. Author Palahniuk himself wrote of interns discovering Satanic altars and rotting animal sacrifices throughout the abandoned wards.

Urban explorers reported a large, dark shadow figure with a long torso and visible spine that darted in and out of patient rooms before vanishing. Videographer Christina Mathews described filming alone with an infrared camera when she spotted "a shadow...hunched over with a giant back" that ran down the hallway. Disembodied voices and unexplained footsteps were common, with many hearing desperate whispers of "Help me" and "Get out."

Ghost Adventures investigated Overbrook in 2008, capturing shadow figures, floating orbs, and EVP recordings of voices pleading for help. They noted strange Satanic markings on the walls throughout the complex. For a generation of North Jersey teenagers, visiting "The Asylum" was a rite of passage—a test of courage that cemented Overbrook as one of New Jersey's most legendary haunted locations.

The entire complex was demolished in 2018 and replaced with parks and townhomes. However, paranormal investigators claim the land itself remains haunted, with the suffering of thousands of tormented souls still lingering over the former grounds of Essex County's most infamous institution.