Brick-by-brick, Greystone disappearing

PARSIPPANY – If you have waited until now to visit the historic Greystone Park Psychiatric Hospital’s iconic Kirkbridge building, don’t wait any longer.

The southern wing of the massive Kirkbride is gone, all the way up to the grand entrance to the center hall, which still towers over Central Park of Morris County at the end of Central Avenue.

Heavy-equipment operators from Northstar Contracting — executing a $34.4 million contract from New Jersey to demolish and remediate the Kirkbride and other structures on the campus — have turned their attention to the north wing.

Randolph resident and drone pilot Jody Johnson has had a front-row seat to the demolition practically since it began on April 6. Since then, Northstar has had tall cranes in place, slowly chipping away the 673,000-square-foot, 19th-century landmark.

Johnson has flown her DJI Phantom 3 Pro drone outside the fenced-in Greystone site several times since then, documenting on video the deliberate demolition, section by section.

“Of course, it’s upsetting to see the footprint of the building slowly fading away,” said Johnson, whose “GlideBy JJ” drone videos can bee found on You Tube, Instagram and Facebook. “It is all happening so fast.”

Visiting the site several days a week, she is often approached by visitors asking her for updates.

“I’ve never been there when somebody else wasn’t there, taking photos, asking questions,” she said. “They say it’s terrible to see it coming down. Many of them are concerned about the environmental impact.”

Her drone images give her and her video audience an up-close, high-definition view of the demolition, ordered last year by the New Jersey Department of Treasury, which is overseeing the project.

Demolition began even as the nonprofit Preserve Greystone group was staging rallies and mounting another in a series of unsuccessful court challenges, the last of which was dismissed in Superior Court in Morristown on May 13. The group and its pro bono attorney, James Sullivan, have filed one more appeal, but at this point,the most they can hope for is for a temporary halt to demolition in the hopes of convincing the state to preserve the center portion of the Kirkbride.

The Treasury Department, however, is continuing its goal of razing the buildings and other 26 structures on the property, which have fallen into dangerous disrepair. The structures — along with a series of connecting tunnels — also require removal of toxic substances such as lead paint, asbestos and mold before the property is planted over.

Once the project is complete, the remaining 165 acres of Greystone land will be turned over to Morris county to be preserved as open space.

Treasury spokesman Joseph Perone said last month that the state is planning several measures to document and preserve the history of Greystone, which was built in 1876 as part of a national initiative to improve the treatment of the mentally ill in the United states. At its peak, the self-sustaining campus housed more than 5,000 patients. But over the past half-century, the building deteriorated and was eventually replaced with a new Greystone Hospital next door in 2007.

Treasury’s preservation initiatives, Perone said, will include documentation, a website interpreting the history of the property, and on-site interpretive signage. Working with the Morris County Park Commission, the state also is saving physical mementos of the Kirkbride, including part of the stone veneer, two marble columns from the front of the building and two cast-iron light poles.

Those preservation efforts, however, are not enough, according to Preserve Greystone president John Huebner, whose group has criticized the Gov. Chris Christie administration for failing to give adequate consideration to redevelopment proposals and preserve the largest and one of the most significant historic buildings in Morris County.

“All the markers and websites in the world won’t undo what they’ve done,” he said last month. “We’ve worked to preserve the real thing, and see it put it to good use. Tangible objects and physical spaces like buildings make history real for people, literally. It’s like the difference between having a book about old cars on your coffee table or a restored classic car in your driveway.”

Norhstar’s schedule lists a completion date of Dec. 10 for demolition of the Kirkbride. The completion date for the entire project is Feb. 15.

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