a question about Belleville (Orange, South Orange: military, work, hospitals)

[blackfox1028]

I am trying to do research on historical architechture in NJ and the big old building at the very end of Franklin ave in wha tI think is Belleville before Clara Mass hospital keeps coming to mind, anyone have any info on what this old beautiful building WAS in it's past, or sites where I can get more information on it's past? Thanks in advance!

[paul76]

I know this building, I have lived in the essex county area for some time and have heard alot about this building, there are rumors like you wouldnt beleive. The bottom line is that it's basically a very old and abondanded insane asylum.. I have a freiend which is into photography and he did visit this site recently to take pics of the old place he observed open doors along the back of the building which he gained access into and found old medical equipmnet and old strechers and so on.. there is not too much details on this building, here is what i found...

Essex County Isolation Hospital/
Essex Geriatric Center
thiis is all i found the name of the old place.. try and google it in bellville nj sure it will kick back something

http://www.oldnewark.com/imagepages/...isolation1.htm

[bIqPaUl]

Yes, I know what place you are talking about. Meand a couple of my friends used to hang out and chill there 2 yrs ago. We called it Soho hospital and it was used for people who were homeless,influenza,for WW2, and the school nest to it is used for children that are (mentally challenged i think <---not sure). I also had medical books dating back to 1935-1950. Im currently 18 now i was 16-17 at the time i went in but is ur talking bout the big hospital then i dunno nothing about that place but i been in the buildings in the back before they knocked it down. Back to the books after i had them i brought them home and i was sleeping one night i i felt something standing over me like it was someone from the hospital. I mean it could have been my imagination but after i took that book i was getting in trouble a lot more lol. But if you go down Franklin Ave. and you get to the light make a right go 1 block and make another right and at the corner there is an old house ( on your right) i also been in that house. I heard that aome old guy lived in it and killed 2 kids and they never found the bodies so me and a couple people went and checked it out and there was nothing but they also said he worked in the place(dunno if true). But before knocking down the buildings there was a tunnel underneath filled with water up to the middle of your shins which was disgusting, but hey we were curious, but at the end of the tunnel there was a huge metal door which was locked from the other side and it looked like they kept dead bodies in, but we couldnt even get the door open.But when we were in there we heard some strange sh*t in there i mean like with all guys goin in we were f****** sh*t*n our pants no lie. But if you have any more questions about any other places i might know of Instant message or Pm thanx Paul

[BahamaBlu]

That hospital place?? Its wierd because everyone says its empty but I see lights on in it.. its very strange.

[Shereads]

The building that is now known as the Essex County Geriatric Hospital used to be known to locals as Soho Hospital and was previously known as the old Isolation Hospital. My mom, who would be in her middle 80's now, was a patient there in their several times with diptheria and scarlet fever. Later, it was changed to the geriatric hospital and was also used as the setting of the military hospital in the movie, "A Beautiful Mind". It's such a majestic building but hardly haunted I think. I well remember my mom telling me what it was like to be a child and a patient there.

[Shereads]

My entire family grew up in Belleville, as did I. This was never an insane asylum, although that is what it was rumored to be because it's such an awesome structure. I've been in it many, many times and it is rather fabulous inside.

Originally Posted by paul76

I know this building, I have lived in the essex county area for some time and have heard alot about this building, there are rumors like you wouldnt beleive. The bottom line is that it's basically a very old and abondanded insane asylum.. I have a freiend which is into photography and he did visit this site recently to take pics of the old place he observed open doors along the back of the building which he gained access into and found old medical equipmnet and old strechers and so on.. there is not too much details on this building, here is what i found...

Essex County Isolation Hospital/
Essex Geriatric Center
thiis is all i found the name of the old place.. try and google it in bellville nj sure it will kick back something

http://www.oldnewark.com/imagepages/...isolation1.htm

[CJ-FROM-NJ]

Shereads,

You are right - that movie was in "A Beautiful Mind". I never knew that until I saw your post and researched it. Now I have to watch it again.

I heard several things:
-Everyone calls it the SoHo Hospital
-Cancer Ward
-Psych Ward
-Geriatric Ward
-Quarantine Hospital

I always see cars there but never seen a person there.

I do know that Centex Builders is trying to buy it and knock it down to make way for mor of their crappy townhouses.

What a shame. That building is beautiful and very scarey when a lightning storm is above Belleville because the background is dark and the building looks all lit up like a scarey movie.

[CJ-FROM-NJ]

http://www.abandonedbutnotforgotten....n_hospital.htm

[Eugeneorman]

I always called it "the shelter". I was "imprisoned" there as a child, in the late 60's. I say imprisoned because it certainly wasn't for my benefit.I was tortured horribly, and I believe someone actually tried to murder me to shut me up. I left the place in an ambulance.
Recent events in my life have forced me to look back and I am trying to get my records, w/very little luck.

It is possible I was in a nearby hospital, but I don't think so. I saw the picture a few minutes ago and my body reacted exactly as it did the last time I saw it in person in 75-76 while waiting at the bus stop on the corner there. I was transferring. I looked through the fence, saw it, nearly pissed myself, and realized my memories were real and not the fantasies I was accused of making up by the ALLEGED psychiatrists working for DYFS!

Hope it helps you and if you have mopre please let me know.

[MemaaBrown]

You cannot imagine my surpise to find these questions and remarks about Soho hospital online.

Yes, I was a patient in Bellville, New Jersey's Soho Hospital in 1953! I would have been 6 years old. It was called Soho Children's Hospital For Infectious Diseases.

I had polio and was diagnosed in or around September 1953. My Doctor was Dr. Tichneor from South Orange, New Jersey.

It is funny that I have such vivid memories of my illness. I did not feel well in school.....I was in the first grade. I was sent to the nurse's office and the nurse called my mother. My mother picked me up at my school, The First Street School of South Orange, New Jersey. It seems I had a very hight fevor. My Mother took me to see Dr. Tichenor. I can remember going home and being put to bed. I remember Dr. Tichenor making "house calls" to my home and treating me. He did not know what was wrong with me and I was not responding to his treatment. One day, my Mother dressed me and I was taken to Orange Memorial Hopspital in Orange, New Jersey. I was admitted through the Emergency Room and given a spinal tap right there.

The next actions happened very quickly. I was diagnosed with Polio from the spinal fluid they had extracted from my spine. I was isolated in the ER. Every one seem very afraid of me. I found that strange.

I was finally put into an ambulance. The nurse in the ambulance put the sheet over my face/head like I was dead. I remember pulling the sheet down. The nurse put the sheet back up, and I pulled the sheet down. The nurse actually told me I had to keep the sheet up. I actually told her NO. I kept the sheet down. I can remember the loud siren blaring as we zoomed through the streets. For some reason, I was not afraid. My parents were not allowed in the ambulance with me, but followed in their car.

I was taken and admitted to SoHo Children's Hospital. I was placed in a very nice large room with a single bed. I had my own bathroom. I also noted that the room was locked and I was locked in. That still did not bother me. The wall facing the hallway was solid half way up and then there were large windows allowing your to look out into the hallway. So, I guess you did not feel shut in altogether. I remember the nurses telling me that I had to stay in that room until I was better so no one would catch my germs.

During my illness, I spent the sickest days at home. By the time I was diagnosed and sent to Soho, I was feeling better. Funny, isn't that?

I still remember the name of my head nurse. Her name was Helen Carver. She sent me Chirstmas cards for years and years and I would send her one in return.

When my parents and relatives would come to visit me, the nurse would roll my bed over to the windows looking into the hall. There was a phone on the wall that I could pick up and use to talk to the visitors on the other side of the glass. My parents came every day to visit me. Every day but one. I can remember waiting and waiting for them to arrive for my dailiy visit. When I realized they were not visiting me that day, I started to cry. My nurse came in and held me an told me it was okay, that my Mom would be coming tomorrow. That something must have happend to keep her from visiting me that day.....maybe the car had broken down. That seemed to sooth my feelings and I remember feeling better about it.

I can remember I had a ton of comic books, coloring books and a pot holder making loom with cloth strips you wove into a pot holder. I can remember not getting out of bed for several weeks.

The nurses would come into my room a couple of times a day, pushing a funny round machine on wheels. I remember thinking it was like a portable washing machine. They would hook up it's hoses to the sink and fill it with hot water. They would then put square and oblong pieces of brown wool into the "portable washing machine". The machine would swoosh the wool around in the hot water, and then it would spin the water out. The nurse would take these wet hot woolen fabric pieces out of the machine and wrap me up in them. They wrapped my torso, arms and legs and covered me with my blankets. I had to stay still while the warm wet heat worked it's miracals with my polio ravaged muscles. This process took about an hour in all. I would say I stayed wrapped and moistly warm for about a half an hour before they unrapped me. I learned after from my Mother that those treatments were called the "Sister Kenny Treatments for Polio". Sister Kenny was a Roman Catholic Nun who was a nurse. She developed her own protocol of treatments for polio patients that was later recognized and used by physicians. By the time I received the Sister Kenny treatments it has long been accepted as a successful method of treating polio.

I can remember one day the nurses left my door ajar, before visiting hours. I left my bed and escaped out that door. The hallway just seemed to have more doors and windows as I explored further away from my room. I can remember I came to a Kitchen right off the hallway (It seems that each floor of the contagious areas had their own kitchens so no germs would be spread). There was cook there who looked at me and laughed. He asked me what I was doing out of my room. I don't remember what I told him, but I can remember he lifted me up and set me ontop of his wooden preparation table and fed me carrot sticks and cookies. In a little while a flock of nurses dressed in white came into the kitchen ........it seems everyone was most upset by my absence from my room and they were hunting for me. I was promptly returned to my room and locked in. I was told never to do that again. I can remember leaving my room several times again when I had a chance, but I don't think I got very far. It became like a game to me.

The only painful memory I have of Soho are the spinal taps that they did on me periodically to check my progress and presence of the disease. I can remember knowing what was coming and knowing that fighting them was useless. I remember thinking the more quiet and still I stay, the faster this will be over.

I was treated very well at Soho Hospital. The nurses and the staff were caring and loving to me for my entire stay. It is strange to me today that at 6 years old I was so calm and almost "stoic" about the situation. I was not afraid.......I attribute that to the loving care of the nursing staff and reassurance from my parents. I was away from my home and family, but I knew that as soon as I "was better", I was going home.

I most certainly did not come into contact with any patients with mental illness, or homeless............to the best of my knowledge the entire hospital was filled with children.

I am fortunate enough to say, I was one of Soho's successes. I walked out of Soho with no visable after effects of Polio. I was a patient in Soho for between 2 and 3 months. I rember when I was discharged to go home I was extremely thin.

I can remember on the day I was discharged my head nurse, Helen Carver, took us on a tour of my floor. We went into a large room that had many iron lungs in it. I remember hearing the noise of air being forced in and out of the iron long......forcing those children in those iron lungs to breath. It was kind of scary to me. The children had a mirror positioned over thier heads so they could look at people who where speaking with them. My polio did not affect my lungs like that ........just my muscles on my right side. I remember seeing a small child who Nurse Carver lead us away from ....I heard her say to my Mother that this child would not be going home. I think that is the first time that thought ever occured to me......someone might not go home. I knew I was going home. I never doubted it. I did my exercises daily with my nurse and she told me every time we did them that they would help me get back home. I never questioned that statement.

I cannot remember anymore about my hospitalization. But, I never forget what I do remember. Those memories are vividly stamped into my memory .....they never fade and never change. I will forever be grateful to the staff of Soho Hospital.........without them I might be confined to a wheel chair today. I do have some post polio syndrom affects now in my later life, but ones that I can and do live with and no one knows about them buy me and my doctors. I don't like to admit weakness.

I was an athletic young girl after I was well. I was and am an excellent swimmer. I got my lifeguard certificate as soon as I was old enough. I played tennis, softball and soccer. I remember loving tumbing in gym class. We were not allowed to use the bars, horse or rings lie the boys, because "we were girls". LOL.......what a rip off.

Somewhere in my parents photo collection that I still have, there is one or two photos of me standing infront of Soho Hospital on the day I was discharged to go home. If any one would like to have a copy of it for their research, let me know. I will try to find it and have a copy made for them.

I hope my story shed some light on Soho Hospital. I cannot say what became of it after 1953......but back then it was truly a great place for children with infectious diseases. It was certainly not spooky or a "snake pit" at that time..........what happened in the later years, I cannot say.....as I walked away and never returned.

Susan French Brown
Former Patient, Soho Hospital 1953