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Please attend our event: Historic Greystone Park: A look beyond the walls. A talk beyond the headlines, April 17 7-8:30. View pdf flyer here.

View the trailer for the documentary "Greystone's Last Stand" by Antiquity Echoes here.

Preserve Greystone regrets and opposes the decision of the State of New Jersey to demolish the historic Kirkbride Building on the grounds of the former Greystone Park Psychiatric Hospital.

We believe that the State established a very positive process for examining options for rehabilitation and reuse of the structure, and has not let that process run its proper course.

Six developers have submitted preliminary proposals, invited by the State itself. We contest the State’s view that all of these proposals would require State subsidy. Developers of international stature, with hundreds of millions of dollars in financing available to revive the Greystone site, have a genuine ability to complete this project. But, in never contacting any of the firms that submitted, the State has not shown a serious commitment to exploring alternatives to demolition.

Taxpayer funds created Greystone, and taxpayer money will be used  — in our view, wasted — in demolishing it, a process which the State says will take two years. If the State can find the money to remediate and tear down a massive structure over two years, it should reallocate that money to help with preservation, or hand the building over to a firm that can find solutions.

We value the open space around Greystone, which provides a proper setting for this majestic building, as it was meant to. The neighboring town of Morris Plains is putting in new high-density housing on Route 53 which seems to be absorbable by the surrounding area. This area survived easily during the many decades that Greystone housed more people than would live there if it were converted to residences now (including children of staff in the local school systems).

The most environmentally sound thing to do with an existing structure is to reuse and repurpose it, not tear it down at gross taxpayer expense. Our history and heritage matter — including the memory of the people who both were helped by Greystone and suffered because of it. The State shows great irresponsibility in walking away from ambitious, rewarding solutions for saving the building by private enterprise.

Public sentiment is overwhelmingly in favor of preserving Greystone, but there has been no public process for the citizens’ voice to be heard. There should be no final decision without genuine discussion.

Preserve Greystone calls for true dialogue with the people of Morris County and the developers who submitted ideas, and a formal RFP phase to solicit more detailed proposals, following clearly defined State guidelines. We call for freely expressed input from the State’s own historic preservation officials, who have not been heard publicly. We call for the demolition process to be suspended. The State, after years of inaction, has taken an expeditious approach. But it should not be a rushed one.

All supporters are urged to make their feelings known to the Governor here

The most recent media report on the issue can be found here