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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.
Hi,
The place you remember as "The Shelter" was the Essex County Children's Emergency Shelter. The facility for the children was in a separate building located next to or behind the big building, which was the hospital.
The kids and staff from 'the shelter' ate their meals next door in the hospital cafeteria, but slept in 'the shelter' building, not the hospital. In the late '60's, my understanding is that the hospital treated patients without funds for care, ie 'the indigent'...at some time in the past it may have been an isolation hospital for those with communicable diseases. If you were a child housed at 'the shelter', and became very ill, it is reasonable to assume they would have transferred you to the hospital building next door.
I was a high school student in the late '60's, and several of my friends and I would go to 'the shelter' as volunteers on the weekends to help with activities like reading, arts and crafts, and outdoor play. One of my friends brought her guitar, and we would sing with the kids etc...The children at the shelter put on Talent Shows from time to time...I remember lots of great dancing, singing and lip-synking Jackson 5 songs, etc...
We also helped escort the kids to lunch; in order to get from one building to the next, we travelled through underground tunnels...I know we did this when it was cold or rainy; I can't remember if we walked outside in nice weather. The tunnels were sometimes fun to run through, but I am sure they were also scarey, esp for little kids. According to my memory, the shelter director was named Mr. Wright (he was black); two of the teachers in the toddler area that I remember were called Aunt Dolly and Miss Juney.(They were both white).
Some kids were there because their families could not afford to support them, some because of abuse, some because the primary caregiver was unable to care for the kids due to being hospitalized, incarcerated or had died.
I am sorry to hear you were mistreated...There were many people on staff who seemed to me to care very much for the children placed in "the shelter" and did a fine job, but the conditions there were not good, and it is absolutely 100 per cent possible that a child could have been mistreated by staff. Many children had been abused or neglected at home, and were not getting the one-on-one care they needed at the shelter due to lack of funds. All of the children there were on site due to bad situations at home, and many because of truly horrible conditions. Credit has to be given to the staff who were trying to provide the best care they could under very difficult conditions; while at the same time it must be recognized that just being at 'the shelter', where you were basically under lock and key, and away from your home, had to be traumatizing. I wanted to bring each and every kid home with me, every time I was there. I hope this info is helpful to you.
I was in the shelter building in 1964 for a few months, a 7 year old severly abused and abandoned little girl. although they beat me when I wet the bed and would not allow me to eat as a punishment, I thank God because there was no place for me to go when I was rescued from the street.
There are a lot of people that try to make these things stay suppressed as though they never happened but it is a reality in the lives of many people.
Today at 53 years old, I thank God that He has healed the scars in my heart and set me free from the mind trauma, because He is the only one that can do it. I encourage everyone that suffered any physical and emotional abuse to seek God for the purpose that He birthed you into this life, because He has plans for you and that is why no devil or demon in hell was able to take you out no matter what they did.
Let's see
I found out it was closed as the Isolation Hosptal in 1955. the county took it over for a while. There was a Geriatric ward on the upper floors and rented out the first floor and basement to the Garden School for Emotionally Disturbed Children.
They were both closed in the early seventies. This is what I have found out so far. The NJ
information room at the Newark Public Library is a great resource.
My memories have filled in more and what I thought was putting me in an ambulance was a furtive shuffling of me into a childs seat (which I resented deeply because I was a big kiid!:-) and then taking me off to my first foster home.
I remember escaping and running around the grounds trying to get away from the placem but it is surrounded by one of those ubiquitous in Essex County, tall wrought iron with spikes fences.
I was older than I thought originally, I was probably underdeveloped for my age. I am fairly certain I was malnourished. Maybe one of the reasons the county had me.
Anyone else out there? I sure could use some information to give my memories better context.
it means that i feel bad about my joke saying the place was haunted, because in reality there are some serious activities occuring in there like the research for cancer and a school for mentally challenged kids. that's not something to joke about.
P.S. since ur a Nutley nut, perhaps you can help me out on my latest thread entitled "Nutley/Lyndhurst Residents"
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Children's Shelter
