Christina Mathews Books

The Greystone Park Psychiatric Hospital was more than a building; it embodied an entire era of uniquely American history, from the unparalleled humanitarian efforts of Dorothea Dix to the revolutionary architectural concepts of Thomas Story Kirkbride. After well over a century of service, Greystone was left abandoned in 2008. From the time it closed until its demolition in 2015, Greystone became the focal point of a passionate preservation effort that drew national attention and served to spark the public's interest in historical asylum preservation. Many of the images contained in this book were rescued from the basement of Greystone in 2002 and have never been seen by the public. They appear courtesy of the Morris Plains Museum and its staff, who spent many hours digitally archiving the photographs so that future generations may better know Greystone's history.

Abandoned resorts are both haunting and humbling to behold. Massive, cavernous, and sprawling, they once brimmed with life and laughter. Now they stand in eerie silence--a life of solitude they seem ill-suited to. Occasionally there are places which, through some chain of events, planned or not, come to embody a specific era in American popular culture. The massive vacation resorts of yesteryear are throwbacks to a way of life we seem to have drifted away from over the recent decades. They are relics of a simpler time when driving into the mountains with one's family was the pinnacle of a vacation getaway. These resorts still exist today, though by-and-large they have been left to rot, thrown away by a society that no longer requires them. They are decaying reminders that, not long ago, simply enjoying one another's company was considered a vacation. Walk the darkened halls and wander the shadowed lobbies of these immense, abandoned resorts, and witness what happens when properties built to entertain thousands are left without a soul to care for, or to care for them.