Annie's Road (Riverview Drive) by Steven

Deep in rural New Jersey, there is a road that winds dangerously through the forest and eventually leads to place known as “Midgetville”. This road is said to be haunted, and has caused many disturbances and violent unrest in the formerly quiet town. There is no limit to the possible explanations and stories created by locals surrounding Annie’s Road…

As a result, nobody is really sure exactly what happened to poor Annie. Some say she was killed on her wedding night, her body being dragged along the guardrail. Others claim she had gotten into a fight with her boyfriend right before prom, and decided to drunkenly walk along the road throughout the rest of the night. She was then killed by either a speeding car full of wasted classmates, or a group of rowdy sailors. More popular tales state that Annie was completely decapitated in a car wreck while riding home, or that she was mowed over by a truck driver while waiting for her date.

No matter what actually happened, her death still resulted in a large bloodstain on the road, and a similar splatter on the guardrail. However, the guardrail is actually painted red in memory of Annie. Creepier still, her deranged father is the one who comes to repaint it every year, on the anniversary of her death. In addition, the graveyard where she is supposedly buried is said to glow during the night. Many late-night adventurers have reported seeing a flickering light moving among the graves, as well as a rather short, white-clad figure posing as a hitchhiker during the night. The chances of seeing Annie are greater if the driver plays oldies music and keeps their headlights off…but people say that anyone who agrees to give her a ride loses control of their car. And while there is no proof of this, many accidents have occurred along Annie’s road in the night, with the wreck remains suggesting that the victims had been chased.

Another peculiar, if not paranormal, thing are the dwarves and midgets supposedly inhabiting this area. All of the houses are indeed smaller than average, but this is because the town was formerly used just for vacation homes. Ever since an article about Annie’s death appeared on the internet, numbers of curious, noisy teenagers have disrupted “Midgetville” searching for a glimpse of the little people. Some claim to have seen a dwarf chopping wood, a few visitors have been shot at, and one even received a resident’s phone number. Eventually, things got out of control, and the police put up a sign forbidding any unwelcome noise or disturbances.

Unfortunately, Annie is not the only teenager ever to have been killed in this area. About nine years ago, a group of six high school boys became obsessed with the story of the murdered young woman. They drove along the road constantly, and spent their nights snooping around the graveyard. Eventually, five of the boys decided they were tired of hanging out with the sixth. They tried (and failed) multiple times to burn his car, but he wouldn’t leave. So, using some sort of crazed logic, the five boys decided the only solution was to kill him. None of their attempts worked, until they all drove back to the school parking lot. The sixth boy was then strangled to death by an electrical cord as the rest of the gang recited the Catholic “Hail Mary” over and over again.

Here is a link to a video that was taken by people driving Annie's Road.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d3BUScqv5ZQ

Sussex County Hospital by Nicole

Sussex County Hospital: For Your Safety or For Your Insanity?

     Sussex County Hospital is like any other hospital in Sussex County; EXCEPT the fact that it was a state lunatic Asylum. In the video above, it shows what has been left behind from this creepy place, including dental areas, bathing areas, and places that just give you the chills. The Overbook Asylum was known for having a high altitude location which was believed to have a 'peaceful setting', giving itself the name Overbrook. It was located on verona but is now located on Cedar Grove.

 

   "In the early half of the twentieth century, Overbrook was at full capacity. In the 1940s and 50s, thousands of patients were housed at the Fairview Avenue facility at any given time. The facility was so large that it had its own train stop on the Caldwell Branch of the Erie Railroad, used to transport the massive amounts of coal and fuel needed to run the hospital complex." - Weird NJ

 

     It was an important hospital in the 1920s, and it was also important to the town's local legends. The Hospital was asylum was split into two different facilities. One portion, called the Mountain Sanatorium, sat on top of the hill. This facility used at various times to treat tuberculosis patients, wayward children, and drug abusers. These two facilities, and the many abandoned buildings associated with them, became Essex County’s most legendary location, home to escaped lunatics, troubled ghosts, and roving gangs that were up to no good.
     For this specific generation of North Jersey teens, a visit to “The Asylum,” “The Bin,” or “The Hilltop”, was just a way to show your mental strength and stability to your friends. The thousands of tales that made their way back from the site via these adventurous teens have long cemented Overbrook as a vital part of the tapestry of New Jersey’s local lore.

     Soon, the Overbrook facility will join the Mountain Sanatorium in being demolished and gone forever. But the stories that abound regarding the site have ensured that it will never be forgotten.

Mountain Sanatorium

 



Overbrook Asylum

Citations:
http://weirdnj.com/stories/abandoned/overbrook_essexcountyhospital/

http://www.mountainsanatorium.net/images/c/comfb.jpg

http://abandonedplaces.livejournal.com/1988880.html



The Actors Fund Retirement Home by Malik

The Actors Fund Home is one of the best places to work in the area of Englewood NJ. i have a good experience from working there i have worked there for the past three years. it is very fun to work along and have fun with all the residents in the home even when they play there old song that they made.


in the actors fund we all call ourself family. Even though sometimes we dont like to come to work on the days that we have to we still take it out of our time to get up in the morning and get ready for work

Ray Heatherton was born in the New York City suburb of Orange, New Jersey (some sources indicate Jersey City) and was first introduced to music upon joining a boys' choir at his church. He sang with the choir until his family moved to another of the city's suburbs, the Long Island village of Floral Park

Dahnerts Lake County Park by Yesica

By: Deborah Chamberlain

Dahnerts Lake County Park is located in Garfield, NJ.  Dahnerts Lake is a community park that families goes to. Throughout the park there are picnic tables for friends and families to use. Many kids enjoy the playground area where they can play on the swings, slides, or climb the wall. Many people will ride their bikes in the park, jog, or walk around the lake. There is also a fishing spot for people.

Emporia Birds Eye View Map 1907

 Before the park existed, this whole area had almost nothing on it. In the 1907 picture above, you can only see a few small structures where the park is currently located.

history

In 1920, this area was called the Pump House. Later in 1938, the park changed its name to Dahnerts Lake. In that time people were able to ice-skate in the lake during the winter season.

www.co.bergen.nj.us

 Over the years the park changed. The white ducks left and the water became too polluted to freeze during the winter.

Anglerweb.com

An island that once held a beautiful weeping willow tree collapsed. The park was recently renovated thanks to a federal grant.



By: Sheena Chi

Anglerweb.com

Anglerweb.com

Projects: Parks & Open Spaces

Mybergen.com

“The Playground Guide” Bergen County Edition

Angel Lounge by Colette

This is what the angel longe was in 1963.

deadlyaddressesnj.wordpress.com

 

This is what the angel longe is today. Today the angel longe is called Romono-Son.

http://www.finduslocal.com/cut-stone-and-stone-products/new-jersey/lodi/romano-son-granitemarble

Overview Of the book the Night Of The Devil

On the evening of Sunday, August 25, 1963, a group of revelers drove into the small town of Lodi, New Jersey, bound for a local tavern called the Angel Lounge. Hours later, bullets ripped through the smoky air of the bar. When the carnage ended, two Lodi police officers were dead. Their killers had escaped. The close-knit community of Lodi, shattered by the crime, would never be the same. Nor would the families of the victims: Sergeant Peter Voto, who left behind a wife and three children, and 22-year-old Gary Tedesco, whose career in law enforcement had barely begun when his life was brutally cut short. The people of Lodi vowed that the killers would pay for what they had done. One of the hoodlums was shot and killed two days after the murders. The other, Thomas Trantino, was imprisoned and sentenced to die for his crime. But Trantino would not be put to death in New Jersey; nor would he spend the rest of his life in prison. After being incarcerated for almost 40 years, and earning the distinction of being the longest-serving prisoner in the New Jersey penal system, Thomas Trantino ultimately walked out of prison a free man.

The murder of the policemen in the Angel Lounge remains one of the most notorious crimes in New Jersey history, yet there has never been an in-depth examination of the case and its aftermath -- until now. Night of the Devil takes readers inside the crime, from the blood-spattered Angel Lounge to the courtroom where Thomas Trantino presented testimony that would keep him locked up for decades. As they trace Trantino's tortuous path from death row to freedom, readers will be forced to confront their own attitudes about punishment and justice. How could a man who shot two policemen in cold blood -- a man who was supposed to die for what he did, whose despicable act inflamed the passions of politicians, judges, and entire communities -- ever be allowed to walk among us again? When the rules say it is time for a guilty man to go free, should the rules be changed to keep him imprisoned? Where do victims' rights end and prisoners' rights begin? Night of the Devil probes the answers to these questions, raising issues that compel readers to reevaluate their feelings about America's criminal justice system. Thomas Trantino's quest for freedom came to an end a generation after he committed a horrible crime. Did he serve more time than he should have? Or could no amount of time ever make up for what the people of Lodi lost in 1963?

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/night-of-the-devil-david-stout/1101073611?ean=9780940159709&itm=1&usri=9780940159709y

by-David Stout

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Two 1963 Slayings Still Rouse Passions in Lodi, N.J.

 

 

 

By ROBERT HANLEY

Published: October 03, 1996

 

The reason is Thomas Trantino. Not the Thomas Trantino of old photographs, neat in a suit and tie, clean-shaven. Not the Thomas Trantino described by his lawyer as a model prisoner and by corrections officials as ''well-adjusted.'' It is the other Thomas Trantino, the one who pistol-whipped and shot at point-blank range a 40-year-old police sergeant who was responding to a noise complaint at the Angel Lounge, a bar on Route 46.That Thomas Trantino is the reason the slayings of the sergeant and a 21-year-old police trainee who also answered the call, 33 years ago this August, remain an open wound in Lodi. A friend of Mr. Trantino's, Frank Falco, who shot and killed the trainee, was killed by the police after a struggle in his midtown Manhattan hotel two days after the officers' deaths.

http://www.nytimes.com/1996/10/03/nyregion/two-1963-slayings-still-rouse-passions-in-lodi-nj.html

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YvjH57CUO7c

This band was playing at the angel lounge the night of the shooting.

 

 

Route 4 Drive-In Movie Theater by Ms. Waller

Although it is difficult to believe now, there was once a drive-in movie theater on Route 4 in Paramus on the edge of what is now the Westfield Garden State Plaza.  It entertained New Jerseyans on steamy summer nights from at least the late thirties until the 1980s. There's only a parking lot there now, but many locals have fond memories of watching cheesy horror films and sweet musicals there. That, of course, after stuffing their slimmest friends into big, American car trunks to get the most bang out of the drive-in's pay per carload price.

An aerial view of the drive-in before the second World War and the mall.

The mall and the theater in peaceful co-existence.

Wouldn't it be loverly to go back to those simpler times?