St Marys Hospital

Source

The first St Mary's hospital in Passiac originally began operations in 1895 in the old St. Nicholas Church rectory. It wasn't until three years later that their first standalone building opened along Pennington Ave. It was around this same time that the Passaic General Hospital was founded a few blocks away on Boulevard. 

The Forgotten Past Historic Postcard Archive

Within a few decades the hospital was already faced with a need to expand. The NYC hospital architecture firm of Crowell, Lewis, and Wick was hired to design the new structure. C, L & W had already gained notoriety in the region, having designed buildings at other nearby hospitals like Orange Memorial. The most notable feature of the new wing of St. Marys was definitely the beautiful chapel tucked behind main elevation on Pennington Ave. 

In the 1950s another new wing was added to the hospital along Aycrigg Ave. The newest section was joined to the left side of the original building. The structure matched the elevation of the existing portions, but grew much larger along Aycrigg to keep up with the slope of the street.  

Around this same time a new nurses building was built across the street. The walls were made of the same red brick, with matching limestone details. By 1966 several homes at the corner of Pennington and Randolph were demolished to make room for another new wing.

In the 1970's St. Mary's underwent a major construction project which totally changed the the campus. The boiler house and adjascent staff dormitory were replaced with yet another large new wing with a new emergency room entrance along Randolph Ave. The original hospital building, which up until this point had maintained a great deal of historic integrity, was also mostly demolished. The front section along Pennington was gutted to bare brick and the decorative roofline was flattened to match the wings on either side.

The hospital continued to provide critical care to the neighborhood it was growing alongside. Unfortately it wasn't long before the same problems that plagued many other hospitals in the state began to affect the three healthcare facilities in Passaic. St Mary's was in the best financial position of the three, so they actually bought out the other two struggling hospitals. The Beth Israel hospital along Parker Avenue was shuttered and quickly demolished. The Pennington Avenue campus officially closed shortly after the merger in 2007. The psych unit stayed open for two more years, but also eventually shut down as well. St Mary's moved their operations to the old Passaic General campus, leaving their original campus totally vacant.

 

Several television shows used the hospital for filming after operations moved to Passaic General. Most notably was the show Mercy, which filmed there in 2008. The show was also used for something relating to Batman, as an interior door displayed the name "Wayne Enterprises".

The first time I visited the hospital was back in 2010. I had heard about the place through a friend I was exploring in Newark with. We decided to take the ride up Route 21 and saw what was going on with St Mary's. I left my bag in the car, not expecting we were going to be able to get inside. Suprisingly we actually found a door pretty quickly. I was annoyed that I didn't have my camera with me, and back then phone cameras were really not capable of shooting in low light. We spent a good amount of time inside wandering the place top to bottom. I was really excited to return with my gear to document it properly. I was too young to drive myself though, so I wasn't able to get back very quickly.

Shortly afterwards my friends returned, only to be met inside by several police officers. Unbeknownst to anyone the caretaker had been living inside the hospital. The ordeal they went to scared me off for several years. I did keep coming back though, checking all the possible ways inside. Every time I was sure the caretaker was gone, he would end up suprising me. One time I was in the chapel courtyard and he rolled up on me and told me to get lost. A few times he would bang on windows when he would see me snooping, and at one point he even had a flashlight and a megaphone which he used to scare me off. I was finally able to return around a decade later, and by then a lot had changed. 

The entire inside of the building had been completely gutted. The only room that really managed to survive was the old chapel. We were really glad though, since the room was quite pretty. Unfortunately all the of the murals had been removed, and the two stained glass windows from behind the altar space had been moved over to the new St Mary's. Construction progressed slowly, with most of the areas having been renovated. Unfortunately in 2021 the last surviving piece of the original 1897 building was demolished. This separated the the Crowell, Lewis, & Wick wing from the 1950s addition. All Catholic imagery was stripped from the facade, owing to the heavy orthodox Jewish population in the neighborhood. 

So many New Jersey hospitals closed and were demolished in the last two decades. It's refreshing to see one find a productive new use instead of meeting that same fate. While this certainly won't be the last chapter of the hospitals story, as they continue to operate Passaic General as St. Mary's. Hopefully this will allow the memory of the Pennington Avenue campus to survive for many years to come.

Woodbridge State School

The middle part of the 20th century was tough on the mental health care landscape of New Jersey. The existing hospitals and state schools were bursting at the seams and constantly expanding. 

Source

It was determined that a new State School was needed in the northern part of the state to alleviate overcrowding at other nearby facilities

Construction began in 1963 for the new Woodbridge State School. The new buildings were to be built on 68 acres of farmland near the East Jersey State Prison in Avanel. By 1965 the facility was open and accepting new residents.

The buildings themselves were an architecturally unremarkable cluster of hexagon shaped dormitories. The infirmary building was slightly different. It was asymmetrical with 3 sides longer than the other. The building also had a nice central courtyard which allowed natural light to fill the entire structure. 

Woodbridge operated without much notoriety throughout the years. In my research I couldn't find much about the day to day operations of the center. There were never any major new construction projects or improvements. At some point in the 1970s the facility changed its name from Woodbridge State School to Woodbridge Developmental Center. I imagine this was done as a result of the 1972 release of Giraldo Rivera's exposé on the horrid conditions of the Willowbrook State School. Willowbrook was on Staten Island, just a few miles away from Woodbridge.

A 2012 report recommended closing the facility as well as the North Jersey Developmental Center over the course of the next 5 years. This created outrage with the employees, the nurses unions and the families of the residents. They were all again horrified when then- governor Chris Christie announced that the plan was going to be accelerated. All residents were to be relocated within the next two years.

A Courier Post article from June of 2014 describes the chaos families were thrown into trying to make arrangements for their family members. It was bad enough that the facility was closing in a few months. The North Jersey Developmental Center closing first just added insult to injury. This created a huge void in local beds for the displaced residents of WDC.

Despite the outrage the center finally closed on December 11th, 2014. Roughly 150 patients were moved and over 600 employees were laid off. The displaced residents were moved down to either the Vineland or Woodbine Developmental Center down in the Pinelands. The two closer facilities were already at capacity, likely due to the June closure of NJDC. 

The campus sat dormant for several years before the wheels started to move on redevelopment. 54 acres of land was purchased by the town of Avanel in 2018 for $5 Million. That was about 80% of the parcel's total square footage. Shortly afterwards Morris Industrial won the bid to redevelop the property. They announced plans for a large warehouse and distribution center on the grounds and a neighboring parcel, with all existing structures being demolished.

Demolition took place in two stages. The western half of the campus was wiped out in 2020. It took another two years for the work to completely wrap up at the east side of the facility. 

It probably won't be too long before lots of folks have forgotten about the center. It was so hidden from view and operated so quietly that I imagine a good amount of people in town never even knew it was there in the first place. I'm very glad I was able to document what I did of the grounds and buildings so those who seek out the story of the Woodbridge State School can see and read about what once was.