Sunrise Mountain House Hotel/Hilltop Care Center

Hilltop Care Center will always hold a special place in my heart. Despite being a total dump, ir was one of the first places I ever traveled by car to visit. I grew up with both the Overbrook Hospital and Essex County Jail Annex practically in my backyard, so it took me a while to branch out. I ended up visiting the place many times over the years, but it was only recently I was able to piece together the buildings long history.

Source

What came to be known as the Hilltop Care Center was originally built as a hotel. The Konners, said to be the first Jewish Family in Montville, bought the old Vreeland Farm and opened the the Sunrise Mountain House Hotel in the early 1900s. Business was good through the decades, so by the 1930s the Konners built a large 100 room structure complete with a ballroom and indoor pool. The new building was prominently perched on the ridge of their property. It could even be seen while traveling down Bloomfield Avenue in Caldwell. 

After the Konners sold the building the name was changed to the Pine Brook Hotel. In 1944 the structure was sold to the well known spiritual leader Father Divine. Divine was a controversial figure at the time, having been jailed in the 1930s for encouraging racial harmony with his religious views. He eventually ended up purchasing a number of iconic hotels, including the "Divine Loraine" in Philadelphia and the "Divine Riviera" in Newark. 

Father Divine passed away in 1965. Shortly afterwards the bulding was converted to nursing home. This is where the more familiar "Hilltop Care Center" name was coined. 

The care center operated without much notoriety for a few decades, but was eventually closed in 1996. The existing patients were absorbed by St. Clare's health network. The facility were described at the time as "deteriorating", so it didn't stand much of a chance of re-use. Two years after the center closed it was pitched as a location for a new, similar sized nursing home. However the would-be operators decided they wouldn't make enough money to justify the project. 

Thrill seekers eventually started venturing to the shuttered nursing home, and eventually scrappers and vandals found the place too. This came to a head on August 24th 2006 when a massive fire engulfed the building. An anonymous tip led to the arrest of three people who told investigators they intentionally set a couch on fire. All three ended up going to jail for their actions. 

I visited the place for the first time around 2009. Even though it had been torched prior I still thought it was a pretty awesome place to explore. It was probably within the first dozen sites I ever visited. At the time this article is being written, I've visited roughly 1300 unique locations in 30 states. I have such fond and nostalgic memories of my multiple visits to the center, even all these years later.

The Hilltop Care Center was demolished at the tail end of 2012, and as of 2024 the property off Hook Mountain Road is still undeveloped. I still remember the first time I drove down Bloomfield Avenue and saw the empty patch of ground on the mountain where the building once stood. 

It's kind of wild how much the historic landscape of the state, and the hobby of "Urban Exploring" have come in that time. Hopefully these photos serve the same nostalgic purpose to others who didn't get a chance to take photos of their visits.