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Marlboro Psychiatric Hospital - Marlboro NJ Real Haunted Places

   
  • Marlboro State Hospital Road
  • Marlboro, NJ
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  (28 reviews)
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Marlboro Psychiatric Hospital opened its doors in 1931 and remained active for nearly 70 years by the State of New Jersey. Between its cottages and building, it accommodated about 800 patients of all ages. By 1978, the hospital only treated adults and adolescents. Many patients died while at the hospital, prompting the designation of a cemetery on campus grounds for bodies that went unclaimed by family; 924 marked graves are still open for visitation from the public.

In the 1970s, there were patients who suffered from food poisoning, causing some deaths. Investigations in the 1980s and ‘90s exposed rampant patient abuse, much of which was responsible for some of the patient deaths. Other troubling tales of the hospital's history included patients going missing, patients choked to death, and patients dying from untreated ailments, according to reporting from Gothamist. Finally, in 1998 the hospital was officially closed.

Prior to closing, the hospital was staffed with more than 1,400 employees, serving over 700 patients per day, according to reporting from NJ.com. Many of the patients moved to other state psychiatric hospitals or group homes, while some went on to live on their own with a stipend and professional help to keep them healthy and safe without having to rely on living in an institution for the mentally ill, according to reporting from the New York Times.

As for future plans for the property, the New Jersey Economic Commission initially put up the hospital for sale only to later hand it off to the Monmouth County Park System to turn it into an open space for recreational use. Before the park system could do anything with the property, it required massive demolishing and clean up massing from what was originally planned for as an estimated $27 million project, according to State of NJ, Governor Chris Christie’s Office, to a $75 million project.

Marlboro Psychiatric Hospital wasn't something that could be turned around into the open recreational land quickly, so after closing the hospital became the stuff of local legend. An abandoned slaughterhouse is said to have been host to a murderous farmer who would lure victims down “death row” and kill them. Shadow people were often reported around the slaughterhouse before it was razed as well.

Given the history as well as mysteries around Marlboro Psychiatric Hospital, ghost hunters and other individuals daring enough would step onto the grounds and discover experiences for themselves even though signage clearly indicated 'No Trespassing' and that the grounds were filled with asbestos and wild animals. With the rising problems surrounding the void space demolition of some of its buildings were started in 2014. Even the hospital was demolished and all demolition officially completed in early 2015, but that does not mean its spirits don't continue to exists there!
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  • atrocious

    a couple of my boys went there to explore, still crazy amount of fenses, barb wire, and security but the place has been demolished, explored the area for hours and couldn't find it, don't waste your time.

    Posted 2/13/24

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  • 2007 visit

    me and my friends wanted to see if it was really haunted and sheesh were we in for a treat. we all walked in from a side road and instantly saw weird stuff. there was flashing little lights by our feet and my friend got pushed into me so hard (im 6 ft3 and he was 5ft 7 maybe), it felt like someone my size ran into me at full speed. then we saw a line of what seemed to be probably 15 people lined up walking in uniform down one of the roads all wearing all white. Security use to patrol back then and we ran from them multiple times hiding in the buildings when they would drive by and heard some weird stuff in a couple of the building while hiding from security. Got back to our car and cops were sittin by it. Luckily no tickets but was a crazy experience.

    Posted 9/12/23

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    1 out of 1 found this review helpful

  • Marlboro State Hospital Grave site

    Went to the Grave yard across the road from where the Hospital stood very sad to see all the tiny Head stones only with numbers on them but there is a stone feature there with all the names of the he people and their number.

    Posted 5/5/23

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    2 out of 2 found this review helpful

  • i was an employee 1970-1971

    I lived in the employee quaters above mens receiving my room was at the front. I never felt or saw a ghost. I worked in the laundry truck picking dirty laundry and delivering fresh laundry. I worked with George the driver and Mr Banks they were cool people,will always stop at the Jigger Shop for coffe. The main kitchen had the best food. I worked together with some inmates from across the road never had a problem inmate alled Smally always told me to who to watch for. Learned a lot about people not every thing is as it appears. Yes,I was there when a patient killed an employee.

    Posted 10/6/22

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    3 out of 4 found this review helpful

  • Basement at Marlboro Psychiatric Hospital

    n the late 70's , My late friends mother, sadly had to go there to recover from depression and alcohol addiction. A group of about 6 of us around 15 or 16 yrs old went with my friend to see her mother. She was in a large room with many other people. After our visit, we being young were curious and wandered around the property and buildings. There wasn't any supervision or guards that I remember. So eventually somehow we all made our way into a basement of cement tunnels with water puddles. Creepy rooms off the path with those little scary windows , chains. There was electricity, lights on the ceiling, just light bulbs hanging, water dripping. We spent some time just being afraid, yet wanting to venture through this maze of bizarre pathways and rooms. It was not right, it was not a good place. I feel bad to anyone that had to be in that sad abandoned hollow ,damp place. Haunted for sure.

    Posted 7/11/22

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    3 out of 3 found this review helpful

  • Patient screams in Marlboro

    While investigating the campus I placed a static video camera in one of the patient dorms. After review one could hear a man screaming as if he was in pain in the distance. What a awesome catch. They eventually tore down the entire campus back in 2015 to make way for an open park.

    Posted 4/1/22

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    3 out of 3 found this review helpful

  • Spooky dawg

    So there used to be a fallout shelter when you get up the path a little ways from the cottages. A group of us were walking past and I looked up to the second story of the shelter and I swear to God there was someone or something standing in the giant broken window up there. Spooky af...

    Posted 3/25/22

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    3 out of 3 found this review helpful

  • Tricked into going there

    In late 2010, a group of friends of mine wanted me to go here but I was hesitant for fear of getting the $600 trespassing ticket other friends of mine had. they told me we were goin to the devils tree in NJ instead. when we got to the couldesac, we walked along the reservoir of water in that neighborhood (you can see it on google earth) and there was a hole in the fence we walked through. we walked through this field and I began to notice even though all was overground, I was walking on pavement. I looked down and saw parking lot lines and realized I was standing on an overgrown parking lot. my friend shines the flashlight on a building that looks abandoned. they tell me it's a school and we go inside. everything felt uneasy and as we were walking through one friend says - hey if this is a school why does this say linen closet? they turn around and go 'this aint no school mfer, welcome to Marlboro insane asylum!" and we all were stunned and couldn't believe I got tricked into going here along with a few others. walked in every building we could. we attempted to go through the underground tunnels but they were completely flooded. the scariest part of the place was a building with Half walls seperating patients. its a big open room with all half wall dividers. You couldn't see what was behind each wall until you walked past it. we also went into the barns and that was ultimately the creepiest part. were were there for a good 4 hours easy. I was in shock the entire time and just felt absolutely scared out of my mind. Once we left I read that the farmer haunted those barns and it made sense to me now because it felt wrong. everything about that place was creepy. being such a big property that was abandoned, it felt like you were in this ghost town. street names overgrown with grass. a fully functionally place that one day everyone left from and literally just didn't come back. that made it even more eerie. that was an experience for me that I will never ever forget and I am still scared to this day thinking about that place.

    Posted 2/27/22

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    3 out of 3 found this review helpful

  • I lived next to the Hospital..

    I lived next to the Hospital my whole childhood from 0-15. Once I had to go to my older brothers baseball game and it was right next to the hospital, and by this time it was still open. And so I decided to go look around the Hospital for at least 20 minutes and then when I got to the back of the Hospital building I decided to stop and take a look around. But out of no where I heard screaming, like very loud screaming. And so I ran back to my parents and told them everything. A couple years later I started hearing stories about the Hospital, so I dicided to share mine. Until I heard that the exact night I went looking around was the exact second one of the nurses were killed by one of the patients. And by that time I couldn’t help myself so I ran off and never talked about it again. But when I got married and had 3 little girls, we started living really close to the place. And so we driven by so many times, I dicided to tell them about my story, and we went looking around it again. And that it!

    Posted 5/9/21

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    3 out of 3 found this review helpful

  • Super scary

    Recently me and friends had decided to go for halloween and have a fun night out due to covid. But when we arrived it was super dark and there was no sounds at all! It was like the tree's and birds went quiet. While me and my friends were there we went inside and we heard what sounded like someone was walking behind us so we had all stopped moving and sure enough there were these loud footsteps and we all ran to one of the rooms and hid. We stayed in the room for about an hour but we were all freaked out so we wanted to get out of there. But overall the place is really haunted and I would definitely recommend this place for anyone looking to be scared

    Posted 11/23/20

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    4 out of 8 found this review helpful

  • Student Nurse 1981

    I did my psych clinical rotations at Marlboro. Never like it there. Patients were let out on the grounds all day, back in for meals and bed. I was offered a job there later at 19.00 per hour. For an LPN, that was great money. I turned it down. One nurse was killed there by a patient. I’m sure she wasn’t the only one.

    Posted 10/24/20

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    2 out of 5 found this review helpful

  • GHOST AND SHADOW PEOPPLE!

    On a warm spring night we left Rutgers at 12 midnight, drove and parked by the asylum and went through a hole in the fence. the grounds are huge! we walked around the outside path for 30 minutes and finally came to an overgrown cemetery. Siddenly white mists starting rising from the grounds. My friend was psychic, she started saying, " they can see me." Her phone rang, just as she was freaking out, it was her aunt, a medium in Florida. She said " I have a bad feeling youre in danger." We all freaked out and started booking out of there heading back down the path. A block of mist came right at me, I freaked out! We started fast walking back towrds the car. When I looked bck I saw this BLACK thing with long limbs crawling after us. I was scared sht.ess and said " go go, run," to my friends. I kept looking back at it as my friends asked me, " what ARE YOU LOOKING AT." . I dared not tell them. I just knew we were not safe! We finally hoped thru the hole in the fence to the car and the cops show up. But they couldnt arrest us because we were not on the state property! It was dvary as hell! ITS HAUNTED by sad souls trapped there!

    Posted 9/20/20

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    4 out of 6 found this review helpful

  • I saw the disfunctional care of patients

    I was a resident of a residential center 1961?, I was 11 ? years old, I was young Some of us had to go to Marlboro state hospital to clean. It was disgusting. We cleaned the bathrooms had feces on the walls and floors. When you walk into the community room, it stank to high heaven of poop. Some patients only wore hospital gowns open in the back showing their buttocks. I was pretty young. Of course something's like the name of the residential center, anyway I ran away from there at night through the woods with another girl. I was only there for a short while. Thus was my experience. I'm in my early 70's now.

    Posted 9/7/20

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    3 out of 4 found this review helpful

  • Student nurse very uneasy every shift

    In the early 70s my class was bussed onto this property. I literally never felt comfortable there. We had to go into different buildings except “L”. That was for dangerous patients. I became very emotional during that time esp on the days we were there. Having to walk around the entire campus alone to find our designated patient was terrifying. And we had to assist the psychiatrist by holding patients down while they were given shock treatment! Some were done twice within an hour! Horrifying! The atmosphere along with that torture actually caused me to be suicidal. I almost jumped off the roof of my nursing school. I stopped myself and ran to our psych instructor. I never went back but thought about it occasionally. Haunted? No doubt it’s history would lend it to be so. Tearing it down was a good idea.

    Posted 7/4/20

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    6 out of 8 found this review helpful

  • My stay @ rehabilitation .. My exsperience very scary..

    I also stayed there for rehab in 2000 .. It was a creepy & scary place at night.. I was in a four man room the last night I was there .. It was late & couldn't sleep .. I felt a present among the room ... I was lying there & looked up at the foot of my bed & seen a vision of a man's body ... It was like a ghost of a vision.. Scared me right out of the room.. I never exsperienced nothing ever like that my entire life ... I never said nothing to know one .. UNTILL NOW .. but I'll always remember that evening.. There really is unsettled spirits there... It's a fact... Spirit s roam the grounds of MARLBORO STATE HOSPITAL. GARY GROVES..

    Posted 4/21/20

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    2 out of 3 found this review helpful

  • I lived in Marlboro as a patient

    My name is Erwin. I grew up in NJ, Plainfield and Middlesex Township to be specific. I ended up being sent to Marlboro for the first time in 1995 or 1996. The cottage that I remember the most is cottage 13. It is etched in my mind. I have mixed feelings about cottage 13. I had friends there. It felt like family. Like a place where I belonged. I remember having a therapist, a kind black lady, who was good to me. I remember that we had to go outside to smoke. We could go out by ourselves at times. There were bad things too...way too many. Abuse, assholes, all of that. I did feel the presence of...I don't know... but it was not harmful to me. I was at home there. I often think about Marlboro and cottage 13. This might seem crazy, but I miss it. I remember Bella, I remember Bonny, I remember Mike, I can smell it as I think of it. It is part of me. I lived there several times. Maybe a bit over a year altogether. I am still mental, but Marlboro is gone. I escaped once. Marlboro was huge and we got to know it. There were so many places to just run out of. Cottage 13 was home to me once, I mean it really was home. It was not always pretty, but I miss it.

    Posted 2/1/20

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    8 out of 8 found this review helpful

  • Working at Marlboro Psychiatric Hospital

    I worked at the facility from approximately August 1968 to November 1971. Held 2 different positions there - Stores Clerk ($2.10 per hr.) under John Collins and later Groundsman ($2.80 per hr.) under Bill Paterson. Both fine supervisors I can still say after all these years. An employee could actually choose to live in a private room and eat all meals there for a modest room and board amount taken from their pay. Commuting employees such as myself ( then 18yrs old ) could eat decent meals there for what I would suggest at a fraction of the cost. Rahway prison trustees would work in the employee kitchen,on the hospital farm or the in slaughter house.We’d deliver food from our wear house to the this kitche almost every day. Once a week we’d pick up two large stainless steel wheeled tubs filled with actual pig heads that originally came from the slaughter house somewhere on the grounds I never ventured. Myself and whomever was my coworker at the time befriended the lead cook one of the jolliest souls I’ve ever met before or since . A massive black man who often said....... “Bet you white boys got lots a’ money .... hell, bet you were born with a hundred grand in the bank ! All white boys got least a hundred grand ! His premise was so preposterous, that even at 18 we mostly got the harmless joke and I would banter back.Often I’d say .....” Willy , let’s see those teeth of yours and he’d smile. Dam !not only are you strong as a bull , with those pearly whites you’d had been worth a fortune in the old days yourself. Such a dialog in 1968 ; but believe me , we loved this guy . You could feel his kindness when he’d step out onto the kitchen loading dock to check in our supplies.I remember a couple of times,if Willy wasn’t nearby,a prisoner kitchen helper would try to get me to bring him a particular spice ( turmeric I believe) for some reason. Sometimes I’d have a patient trustee working with me.The most often assigned fella was an old guy who thought he was Jack Dempsey and felt obliged to say it often. “ I’am Jack Dempsey, champion of the world! I can lick anybody!” I myself and others never felt threatened but simply accepted him as a part of the team. At the end of the day, this stoic old black gentlemen was paid with a small pouch of tobacco and rolling papers.He never said a word to anyone to my recollection. I have more true accounts....... but I’d like to see if there’s still any interest out there in Ol’ Marlboro, the most fun job I’ve ever had.

    Posted 12/8/19

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    8 out of 9 found this review helpful

  • marlboro insane asylum

    About 5 years ago a friend said he had blueprints to the insane asylum, so a group of like 6 us of went late at night to check it out. Had to park in a neighborhood and crawl under a fence to get in. We went all over from building to building, and went underground into these tunnels. I knew basically nothing about this place before doing this, otherwise I prob never wouldve done this.. The tunnels were creepy as hell, we’d turn off our lights and just listen. I dont remember though if we heard anything weird. The tunnels were like an endless maze, it was scary bc i didnt think wed be able to find our way out. Up in other buildings we saw the bedrooms, and this sort of party hall. There were huge cages in the corners. I have some pictures of them actually. At one point outside we split up and ran blindly into the dark bc saw headlights coming. A car came driving by as we all hid. I dont remember if we really experienced anything weird or not but it was definitely creepy as hell and idk what is wrong with us for doing that lol. i gotta find those pics now

    Posted 7/31/19

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    6 out of 6 found this review helpful

  • I did a 30 day inpatient stay at New Hope back in 2000

    I stayed at New Hope in September into October 2000 on the grounds of Marlboro psychiatric hospital. Place was super eerie and scary when you were alone. I still remember the smallest sounds at night keeping me awake. We spent alot of our free time outside when we weren't in groups. Smoking wasn't permitted there at all, but we were addicts trying to get off drugs (heroin in my case). We'd sneak cigarettes whenever we'd go outside or creek open the bathroom windows and blow the smoke out of them. I remember sitting in the grass under these huge trees that were just so big and beautiful. There was some beauty there but it just had that old brick building vibe. Beautiful grounds it was the buildings that were scary. I heard the deer inside the gates had been there since the place opened and we'd walk right past them grazing sometimes. The counselors would take us on walks that would usually only be to certain areas on the grounds. There was a few times, like on weekends when programming was very light and one or two of the cooler counselors would take us on longer walks around the property. I recall me and another guy picking up a downspout and leader that fell off one of the buildings, and talking about all the scrap copper money than was sitting in there. Typical addict behavior. I always found a way to keep my habit going back then. On Friday or Saturday nights me and a few other guys would take turns going on cigarette runs to the store. We'd collect money from others and charge a fee so we'd get our smokes free. We'd wait till it start getting dark out, sneak out and hop the perimeter fence. One time me and another guy were running through this tall grass nearing the fence and we nearly stumbled across several deer, including a pissed off male who chased us.That alone was a pretty scary moment, even if it wasn't supernatural like. There's definitely something chilling about my stay there still. The scariest were when I was alone detoxing. I was stuck in a decrepit, dirty room. I thought I saw things like this one night when I walked to the bathroom after repeatedly puking all evening. I swear it felt like someone touched my shoulder and back while I was over the toilet throwing up. Another was when I was showering the next evening. The feel of the warm water was a way of taking the edge off detoxing I felt. I know I didn't turn the water all the way up to hot. I leveled the temp before feeling it and stepping under it. I washed my hair and started lathering up when all of a sudden the water was burning hot. I went to lower it and the handle was like stuck and I couldn't move it. I had soap in my eyes and started screaming until a nurse came in and had no problem lowering the water temp. Whether it was all in my head or not I can't say. Was it me kicking the dope and benzos, or was it the fever playing games with me. There's a pretty large graveyard there, so you can imagine all the people who ended up dying while patients there. That's just the unclaimed bodies so the number must be quite larger. There's gotta be ghost and spirits there. I wouldn't want to spend a night in one of the old buildings that littered the property back then, that's for sure. I had this feeling the whole time like I wasn't alone even when I was. I grew up living in Old Bridge, so I've passed the grounds many times before this but there was always chatter about the place. Oh I finally put down the heroin and other garbage I was using and have been free from the drugs and lifestyle for over 9 years now.

    Posted 4/19/18

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    14 out of 14 found this review helpful

  • I was a patient in late 1970s

    Don't mind admitting it, I had a choice of the nut-house or jail on false charges, I chose the nut-house because I thought it would be better and I didn't trust the Court. After a month (and having my bank wire me some money), I hopped the fence. A missing persons was put out, I was caught in Washington DC and put in Saint Elizabeth's Hospital for three days. Lots of literally crazy stories to tell about my experience. This was a classic snake pit. The floors in intake were so filthy (I was barefoot), from cigarette ashes, I asked for a mop. The nurse poured a full bottle of rubbing alcohol into the bucket. I asked why and he said, "ringworms". They didn't serve any fresh fruit in the cafeteria so I asked the doctor for some vitamin C. He refused because I refused their "medication". I complained to other officials and they began serving fruit. I was about the only one eating it! One patient would go around eating cigarette butts. I told them to stop it. Prisoners worked in the kitchen, they baked their own bread. I would walk around the grounds, there was a farm there that grew soybeans. Some of the patients were there for decades, the doctor said to me, "what can we do with them, they don't know how to ride a bus?!" My paranormal experience was being forced to take haldol (twice, the second time I didn't swallow) because I "acted up".

    Posted 9/23/16

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    7 out of 8 found this review helpful

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