From nj.com today, 10-15-15:

http://www.nj.com/...#incart_river_home

click to view

click to view

Photos from the article, reduced in size.

Bad link, unless it was a black bear.
http://www.nj.com...tion_nears_co.html

Such complete bullshit and an incredible waste. Things need to change, or this will happen again somewhere else.

They couldn't even keep Admin and make it a community center? Shameful.

Posted by EsseXploreR Such complete bullshit and an incredible waste. Things need to change, or this will happen again somewhere else.

The time to convert it to something else was a decade ago. I suspect issues such as it's large size, interior layout, and modernizing it made it hard to reuse it effectively.
It was a beautiful building at one time.
Certain people who spent time in prison for vandalizing Graystone didn't help the situation and hasten it's demise.
It's a shame no one on UER got together with the demo contractor at the start to shoot it.

Posted by blackhawk The time to convert it to something else was a decade ago. I suspect issues such as it's large size, interior layout, and modernizing it made it hard to reuse it effectively. It was a beautiful building at one time. Certain people who spent time in prison for vandalizing Graystone didn't help the situation and hasten it's demise. It's a shame no one on UER got together with the demo contractor at the start to shoot it.

The people who bought and have been continually restoring the Trans Allegheny Lunatic Asylum offered to buy it. They could have done the same thing here, operate tours to make money to fuel the renovation. At the very least, admin could have been saved and converted into something useful. It was a gorgeous building and was still in fine shape. The lights were on until 2014.

Yeah, for the life of me I do not understand the mentality of turning down an ACTUAL offer to purchase the property from someone and instead spend over $30 million of taxpayer money to demo the place.

The people at Trans Allegheny are not only restoring and reviving the Weston state hospital, they are reviving the town of Weston too. They're good for history and good for local businesses!

Most places have local historical societies that are devoted to preserving these sites. If you want to prevent this from happening in the future it's a good opportunity for you to get involved - who knows you may even get a private tour out of it. As a minimum donating to their preservation efforts can't hurt.

Posted by Peptic Ulcer Most places have local historical societies that are devoted to preserving these sites. If you want to prevent this from happening in the future it's a good opportunity for you to get involved - who knows you may even get a private tour out of it. As a minimum donating to their preservation efforts can't hurt.

My girlfriend and I spent many hours with Preserve Greystone. We spoke at a freeholder meeting, helped organize rallies, we even used to go to the park after work to distribute literature and get signatures. We spoke to so many local residents. Many of them couldn't care less at first, but by the time we left they gave us their full support. In the end it meant nothing. The thing that makes me even more angry, however, is how many others devoted even more of their time than I did to try and stop this. So much effort wasted. These were not people who had nothing better to do. We all had to put so much on hold to give our attention to the project.


And to think, if the building had been registered on the NRHP we may have actually had a chance. Things are in the works to make sure that this doesn't happen again. But there is only so much you can accomplish with a broken system.

Sorry for wrong link. Damn Firefox. Here's the corrected link:


http://www.nj.com/...tion_nears_co.html



Daily Record, Parsippany,NJ, online has video of facade destruction, and more photos:


http://www.dailyre...reystone/73932490/

Aerial drone video of dome destruction. With appropriate somber background music.


http://www.nj.com/...#incart_river_home

RIP Greystone. I never went there but the photos and videos I've seen made it look like an incredible building

Posted by EsseXploreR there is only so much you can accomplish with a broken system.

I feel you, bro. I spent a lot of time trying to save the Belleview Biltmore hotel in Clearwater, Fl. To be honest, I originally joined on to get access to the building, but as I learned more and got involved, I was seriously trying to save the building.

I went so far as to get an investor involved who was known for renovating old properties into luxury hotels. He took a monastery in Poland and turned it into a 5 star hotel. Ditto with a castle somewhere in Ireland, among many other properties around the world. This guy had the dough, the clout and the experience to save this building.


Him, and his investors, were willing to pony up $150 million bucks in purchase and renovation costs. After all, it was the largest continuously occupied wooden structure in the world. But no, the local yokels wanted the building down, so down it went. Short-sighted, greedy motherfuckers turned an historical masterpiece into just more condos.


Makes me sick.


Edit: This building was also on the Historic Register. Woopdefuckingdoo that does to save places.