HauntBound archive · catalog record
Reported phenomena — as catalogued
Founded in 1898 as New Jersey's institution for epileptics — demolished 2012, replaced by Skillman Park — the ghost-town campus drew urban explorers and featured in Weird NJ
Skillman Road, Skillman, NJ 08558
Research updated June 2026
Age
All Ages
Cost
Free
Now Skillman Park — a 247-acre Somerset County passive recreation facility. All original buildings were demolished by 2012. Free public access to the 2.2-mile paved multi-use loop trail and surrounding grounds.
Access
Wheelchair OK
Paved 2.2-mile multi-use loop trail. Flat, open park grounds.
Equipment
Photos OK
Est. 1898 · Founded 1898 as NJ State Village for Epileptics · Self-sustaining institutional campus — one of largest in NJ · Renamed NJ Neuro-Psychiatric Institute 1953 · Closed 1995; all structures demolished 2012 · Now Skillman Park, Somerset County
The facility was established in 1898 as one of a wave of late-Victorian 'colony' institutions that sought to segregate people with epilepsy from mainstream society while providing a structured, supposedly therapeutic environment. The Skillman campus was designed to be self-sustaining: patients grew food on the grounds, maintained the buildings, and provided the labor that kept the campus running. The institutional model was considered progressive in 1898; by the mid-20th century, it was regarded as exploitative.
During the Great Depression and World War II, the facility deteriorated sharply enough to earn the informal nickname 'the Snake Pit of New Jersey,' a reference to the 1948 film depicting institutional abuse. The name reflected overcrowding, understaffing, and the declining conditions that characterized large state psychiatric facilities nationwide during this period.
In 1953, the facility was reorganized and renamed the New Jersey Neuro-Psychiatric Institute, broadening its mission to include treatment for alcoholism, drug addiction, cerebral palsy, and emotionally disturbed children. It was again renamed the North Princeton Developmental Center before closing in 1995; the final patients were relocated in 1998.
Somerset County purchased the 247-acre property for nearly $16 million. The demolition of more than 100 structures — including the original hospital buildings, a morgue, and a power plant — was completed in 2012. Skillman Park opened on the site with a 2.2-mile paved multi-use loop trail built in 2014–15. The park is now administered by the Somerset County Park Commission.
Sources
The North Princeton Developmental Center gained its haunted reputation during the 17 years it sat abandoned between its 1995 closure and 2012 demolition. The decaying campus — over 100 structures including old wards, a morgue, and a power plant slowly being reclaimed by vegetation — drew urban explorers and ghost hunters drawn to the combination of institutional history and accessible ruins.
Weird NJ, the magazine that documented the state's unusual and uncanny locations, featured the Skillman campus. That coverage amplified the site's reputation and brought new visitors. NBC Philadelphia covered the campus before demolition began, noting that 'kids were breaking into buildings in hopes of seeing ghosts' and that local authorities characterized the site as both dangerous and an eyesore.
The specific paranormal claims from the abandonment period were typical for former institutional sites: unexplained voices in empty wards, apparitions in the windows of derelict buildings, and the general sense of presence that investigators often attribute to locations with long histories of human suffering. No formal, documented investigation of the campus was completed before demolition; the institutional records and the buildings themselves are gone.
Media Appearances
The 247-acre grounds of the demolished North Princeton Developmental Center are now Somerset County's Skillman Park, open for passive recreation. All institutional buildings — including the morgue, hospital, power plant, and more than 100 structures in total — were demolished by 2012. The flat open landscape and mature trees are all that remains of what was once a self-sustaining psychiatric campus.
Every HauntBound history is researched from documented sources. We clearly separate verified historical fact from paranormal folklore.
Marlboro, NJ
Marlboro Psychiatric Hospital operated from 1931 to 1998 on 594 acres in Monmouth County, New Jersey. Over its history the facility documented repeated patient abuse including restraint deaths, a 1979 food-poisoning outbreak that killed five patients, 15 recorded suicides over an 18-year period, and a 1993 undercover newspaper investigation that concluded patients were treated with less care than prisoners. All buildings were demolished by 2015; Monmouth County converted the property to Big Brook Park.
Hot Springs, AR
The United States Army-Navy General Hospital at Hot Springs opened in 1887 as the nation's first joint Army-Navy medical facility, built to take advantage of the city's therapeutic mineral springs. Rebuilt as a 412-bed brick complex in the early 1930s, it treated more than 100,000 veterans during World War II before closing permanently in 2019.
Newtown, CT
Fairfield Hills Hospital opened in 1931 in Newtown as Connecticut's second state psychiatric hospital, built in a Georgian Colonial style across 16 interconnected brick buildings. At its peak, the campus held approximately 4,000 patients. The facility was known for its use of psychosurgery — over 100 lobotomies performed in the first year after lobotomy was introduced — as well as electroconvulsive therapy and insulin shock therapy. The hospital closed in 1995; the campus was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in September 2024.