NEWS

Rally planned as Greystone demolition begins

William Westhoven
@WWesthoven

PARSIPPANY – The end has arrived for Morris County’s largest — and most controversial — historic building.

New Jersey Department of Treasury spokesperson Joseph Perone confirmed that contractors hired to demolish the 675,000-square-foot Kirkbride Building and smaller structures on the campus of Greystone Park Psychiatric Hospital began that work on Monday.

“A section of the roof on the back left side of the building was removed yesterday,” Perone said.

Treasury previously refused to make public a date for the start of the demolition project, which includes remediation of mold, lead paint, asbestos and other hazards in the buildings and connecting tunnels. But John Jay Hoffman, acting attorney general, said in November that he believed the work would begin around April 6.

Tuesday, as members of the media including a documentary film crew gathered in front of the Kirkbride, there was little evidence of demolition work in progress. The day before, a tall excavator could be seen in operation behind the Kirkbride Building, but could not be seen performing actual demolition.

The windows of the southern wing of the building, though, have been removed, leaving only what appears to be a masonry-stone shell, a sign that the wing had been remediated in preparation for demolition.

Members of the nonprofit group Preserve Greystone, which last week lost a second appeal to stay the demolition when a state appeals court refused to hear the case, are still hoping to halt the destruction of the iconic architectural structure, which has stood on a hill overlooking Hanover Avenue since 1876.

“Many people have been to the site and not been able to visibly discern any damage, so it is thought that this removal has started in outer parts of the building that would probably have some material replaced if the building is repurposed and preserved anyway,” said Preserve Greystone trustee Adam McGovern.

McGovern sent an email to the group’s followers encouraging them to attend a meeting of the Morris County Board of Chosen Freeholders 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, where the group plans to present a petition with “hundreds of signatures” of people supporting preservation.

Preserve Greystone also will stage a rally beginning at noon on Sunday outside the front entrance of the Kirkbride at the end of Central Avenue, which bisects the Central Park, built on former Greystone land previously turned over to Morris County.

Once the project is complete, the remaining 165 acres of the Greystone campus will be turned over to Morris County for open-space stewardship, and will be deeded to the county for $1 once the bonds used to pay for the demolition are paid.

NorthStar Contracting Group Inc. was awarded a $34.475 million contract last fall for the project. Tuesday, a pile of discarded appliances and other debris, presumably removed from the buildings, could be seen outside Northstar’s gated construction entrance and office on Old Dover Road.

“We are not allowing any photographers on the site for safety reasons because it is an active demolition zone and some parts of the building are structurally unsound,” Perone said.

Perone added that Treasury’s Division of Property Management and Construction, in consultation with the state's Historic Preservation Office, is making an effort to acknowledge the historic significance of Greystone.

“The division plans to create a web site interpreting the history of Greystone,” Perone said. “The site will feature historic information about the hospital, including special photography, drawings and other research. One member of the team working on this research project previously created an award-winning, interactive web site for Picatinny Arsenal.”

He also said that Treasury will file with the NJHPO an enhanced narrative history of Greystone and additional large-format photography, in accordance with Historic American Building Survey guidelines. Interpretive signs will be placed on the Greystone property to tell the hospital’s story to visitors at the park.

Meanwhile, Preserve Greystone attorney James Sullivan is using the same history to file another appeal after Judge William Nugent denied his emergent motion last week to stay the demolition.

Nugent, Sullivan said, refused to recognize Hoffman’s mention of an April 6 demolition date as basis for an emergent motion.

“We will file a non-emergent appeal as soon as possible so the argument can be heard on its merits,” Sullivan said.

The New Jersey Historic Preservation Office determined that the Greystone complex was eligible for the National Register of Historic Places in 1997. The Kirkbride received its own NJHPO Certification of Eligibility in 2009.Sullivan also will file an appeal with the National Park Service in hopes they, too, may consider intervening.

The New Jersey Division of Mental Health vacated the deteriorated Kirkbride in 2008, when it opened a new hospital on the west end of the campus.

Staff Writer William Westhoven: 973-428-6627; westhoven@dailyrecord.com.