Forest Haven Asylum

This was once one of the most state of an art facilities within the US before it went down in flames and became known as one of the most deadly institutions.

This facility was well known for its death an abuse long before it closed. The Facility opened in 1925. It was hailed as a forward-thinking institution, part of a progressive movement sweeping Europe and North America at the time. A lack of funding and stifling of newer treatments kept Forest Haven from evolving with modern medicine. When the District began suffering from its mid-century financial crisis, all education and recreation programs at the facility were terminated. 

 Forest Haven Video part 1

   

 Below are some photos from Forest Haven:

Jungle Habitat (Abandoned) West Milford, NJ

 Jungle Habitat

West Milford, NJ 

    An abandoned drive through zoo that was located in North Jersey. Tales of escaped and left behind animals plagued this location for years. Nature has once again taken over and the only remains of this zoo is the parking lot, a ticket booth and the tunnels that lead under the road from the parking lot. Not much left to see. this is a cool spot to do some hiking though. 

Short video of the tunnels

Trail

Abandoned, Roadside and Historic Facebook

Abandoned, Roadside and Historic Youtube

Abandoned, Roadside and Historic Tik Tok

"The Mysterious C Hole Found" Girardville, PA 11-27-16

by Chris Chaos

The elusive "C Hole"

Many in the Girardville, PA (known for its rapidly growing annual St. Patrick's Day Parade) area are very familiar with the swimming hole known affectionately as the "A Hole", others may even know the "B Hole", but the legendary "C Hole" (Which is not even mentioned within Google Maps) has been located and documented by us in late 2016. (more info concerning the various locations will be added to this article one it is finalized)

The coal monument

These holes are old abandoned mining locations and specifically, the A Hole collapsed in on itself. On the east end of the banks all the debris that was either thrown or blown into the body of water accumulates. Much of the old mining equipment is also located in the bottom of these bodies of water.

An Interview with FOX TV Concerning the Fairview/Edgewater Tunnels

Conducted by Sibile Marcellus
Reporter, Chasing News, Fox


In early 2016 I was contacted by Sibile from Chasing News to provide an interview for a story that she was reporting on for a segment to be aired on Fox News. Here is a transcript of the interview along with the original story that i did concerning the tunnel.
 
The abandoned railroad tunnels, Fairview/Edgewater

Entrance to the tunnel

The 1754 Woolman Farmhouse: Westampton, New Jersey

by Chris Chaos

Close up of the 1754 dating

This location has been shrouded in mystery despite it's history being well documented by historians. It is located on Rancocas Road in Westampton, New Jersey, right off of exit 45 near 295, but for years it had the infamous name of "The 1754 Mount Holly Farmhouse Massacre", but of course it resides in Westhampton and not Mount Holly. Some say this was to fool and mislead vandals and teens away from the location so they do not turn it into a party spot and further destroy this historical landmark.

The location was on the 1681 Woolman tract and was built in 1754 by Asher Woolman, the younger brother of Quaker abolitionist John Woolman. It has not been confirmed, but according to locals they state that the last farmer to reside here was Ed Friend.

Interior view of one of the bedrooms

According to the Courier Post article by Carol Comegno dated July 6, 2014:
"The Asher Woolman farmhouse was the only tri-county site listed in this year's (2014) annual Preservation New Jersey endangered list.

Woolman House in better times, date unknown

"Our goal is to bring awareness to cherished sites that have been a vital part of a community that, without intervention, would fade from existence," said PNJ President Michael Hanrahan.

The Woolman site, vacant since the 1970s, is owned by a real estate developer who declined to sell it years ago to the Rancocas Historical Society. Now the building is enveloped by vegetation; its windows are broken and its roof leaks.

The house, on a hill surrounded by fields along a I-295 ramp at Rancocas Road, replaced an earlier Woolman home built in 1754. A dated stone commemorating the earlier house was incorporated into the present structure.

John Woolman's book

Asher's brother, John, was an influential Quaker preacher and antislavery advocate in Burlington County. "The plight of the Asher Woolman homestead is a reminder that many absentee owners allow valuable historic properties in New Jersey to deteriorate," Hanrahan said."

A video concerning the farmhouse

More info concerning John Woolman
http://www.woolmanhomestead.org/

Stairway

The legend and lore portion of this location is as follows: Many years ago a family lived here at this location. One of the children was mentally deficient and was the bane of the area. Then one day when the disturbed youth was a teen, he snapped pre-Columbine style and bludgeoned his family to death. He even took his infant brother and bashed him against the bricks of the chimney. When the townsfolk discovered what he had done they ransacked the house and beat the teen to death in the backyard. Legend has it that the ghosts of this family still haunt the grounds.

We traveled to this location on two separate occasions and acquired video and photos to document the house before it falls into decay and Nature reclaims it. The house apparently has been used by squatters over the winter since we found some blankets, bottles, trash and other artifacts to indicate this. While venturing through the house I was unsure if we were alone and I had the feeling that behind one of the doors awaited a homeless person or a junkie. We carefully proceeded to enter all the rooms and even venturing into the dirty, dark, dank basement proved that we were alone. Maybe it was the disturbed spirits of the family that lived here all those years ago?

Despite all the stories that center around this location, our end conclusion is that we did not come across any ghosts, we didn’t hear any screams nor did we acquire any EVPs; also all the photos were free from orbs.

(1) source Courier Post Carol Comegno July 6, 2014

(Chris Chaos is a long time resident of South Jersey who once again resides in and writes from Gloucester City, New Jersey. He is a filmmaker, a business owner, writer, urban explorer and investigator of the odd and weird, a proud parent, happily taken and a connoisseur of hot wings. Chris can be reached at AxisVideo@aol.com)

Brooksbrae Brick Factory and Mount Misery

by Chris Chaos

It was a nice cool, windy day and after servicing a client we decided to go on a drive to find the abandoned Brooksbrae Brick Factory location. The trip was unplanned so we uncharacteristically headed out unprepared. Normally we come equipped with ample food, drinks, battery power, digital and video camera to properly document our findings. Not to mention usually we properly and extensively research a location so that we can understand it before our arrival. From where we were our way point was 9.8 miles away (Mount Misery). We have been at the MT Misery locations a few times but that was a few years ago, so we decided to go back.

While venturing down Four Mile Road we saw several flashing lights and determined as we approached that they were police and they have the road blocked off. Several cars were pulled off to the side of the road and we assumed either an accident, a tree fell or possible a Pine Barrens fire.

AN ACCIDENT

Apparently a truck carrying what looked like pallets flipped over and a car plowed into them landing on top..also somehow there was an additional truck that was flipped on the side of the road. The police requested that pictures not be taken anymore due to the fact it was a possible crime scene.

THE PROFANITY HOUSE (The Rutherurd-Stuyvesants Estate), Allamuchy, NJ

by Chris Chaos

(WARNING: Strong language)

The area is called Tranquility along the County Road 517 and consists of rolling farmland and rural countryside. You would never know that this fantastic rustic abandoned location existed unless you knew where you were going. Even an overhead search of Google Maps hides this beauty all too well. The road to this location strolls past a bar and looks like a dirt road leading to nowhere, but if you decide to follow it you will see it runs past 2 occupied houses and alongside a heavily tread mountain. You will come to a once impressive ten foot concrete pillar with heavily rusted iron gates. This was the grand entrance to the Rutherurd-Stuyvesants Estate. This road, which was once the driveway to one of the most impressive estates in New Jersey and arguable the whole United States, is called Stuyvesant Road. The Stuyvesant's are one of the oldest and wealthiest families in the United States. The Rutherurd-Stuyvesants were direct descendants of Peter Stuyvesant (1592-1672), who was the last Dutch colonial Director-General of New Netherland, the Dutch territory between the Delaware Bay and the Connecticut River (including what is now New Jersey) until it was ceded provisionally to the English in 1664.

If you decide to continue past the gates you will see a wooded carriage path and the remains of structures that were built in the late 1700's, featuring walls, bridges and dams. If you venture even further you will come to one of the oddest of locations that we have visited. There are 6 buildings still standing but are in very severe disrepair, these include farmhouses, barns, mills and what not, on our 2nd trip here there was a little boat added to the mix. Now onto the most strangest of the strange..on EVERY square inch of this property, every board, door, window, cabinet, there is vulgar profanities Spray painted onto it. To the average person this may be disturbing, but to us, we can find the extreme beauty in decay. There also is a train station a few miles away that suffered the same treatment as this location but we have not visited there yet. No one has claimed this work but the majority of it appears to have come from the same person since the paint and the writing is very similar. Obviously other visitors have added their print to this masterpiece. Some of the slanders are directed at someone named Mark and his mother, I can only imagine the anger seething in the person that wrote all of this towards another human being. The dedication is top notch based on how the artist painted so much in all these buildings.

Visit #2:
This group of buildings was probably my favorite location of all the places that we visited. It is a collection of 7 houses in various stages of decay due to neglect and vandalism. But it seems that someone took their graffiti skills to a whole new level at this location. Each of the 7 houses has been decorated from top to bottom with no portion of the houses missed with deviant phrases spray painted in a non -delicate way.

The way in was very interesting, from the road you can see a bar way back in the tree line but you have to venture down a dirt road to get to it. Upon passing the bar there is an even smaller dirt road that you have to traverse for several hundred yards until you come to an old imposing iron gate, from here you have to go on foot. Depending on the time of the year the forest here can be very thick and hard to walk through. Luckily when we went it was only medium thickness.

We walked to the 1st house and were impressed by its size. Sexual innuendos and graphic sex acts were spray painted all over the house greeting us with a taste of irony. The house was in moderate disrepair and the fear of falling through the floor laughed at us with each step. The person that did this "urban artwork" must have a lot of bottled anger due to targeting specific people in his work and the depth of depravity some of the sentences reach. It much have taken weeks to add their artistic touch to all 7 of these houses. If GG Allin were still alive I would say that he was involved. We plan to go back due to the fact that we missed 2 houses because there was no path to these structures and the sticker bushes and growth was just way too much to trek through. In one of the buildings we found an unidentified half skull which I added to our private collection.

My personal favorite poem from these walls is: "Eminem gets fucked up the ass by Billy Goats"

Exiting one of the houses we came across a haunting image of a moss covered shoe hanging from a tree. Obviously someone put it there long ago, but the image stays with me to this day.

The Rutherfurd-Stuyvesant Estate History:

The state purchased the land in the late 1960's to build interstate 80 which split the estate and the 2 farms (Tranquility and Allamuchy) in two. On the Allamuchy Parks and Recreation web site it states, “The mansion burned to the ground in 1959 and was bulldozed under and the remaining farm buildings are completely covered with trees, brush, etc. and the area is definitely not safe or pleasant to roam around.”

Now the Tranquillity Farms is in operation across the road from the estate. If you check out the local cemetery just up the road you can also find many buried that share the Rutherford-Stuyvesant names.

Here is a short video:The Profanity House Video

The Profanity House Video 2

(Chris Chaos is a long time resident of South Jersey who once again resides in and writes from Gloucester City, New Jersey. He is a filmmaker, a business owner, writer, urban explorer and investigator of the odd and weird, a proud parent, happily taken and a connoisseur of hot wings. Chris can be reached at AxisVideo@aol.com)

Centralia, Pennsylvania: The Burning Town Inspired Silent Hill

by Chris Chaos

Centralia: The Pennsylvania abandoned town that has been burning for over 50 years. On May, 27th 1962 the fire started and has been raging ever since. Exact details are sketchy about how the fire actually started but according to historical documents it states that burning trash from the landfill set an exposed coal vein in an abandoned strip mine on fire. The movie and video game SILENT HILL were based on this PA town.

This small coal mining town use to be home to over 2,000 people has now been just about completely abandoned, although a few residents still call this town home.

THE REALITY SHOW OPPORTUNITY

by Chris Chaos

Many opportunities can present themselves and it can be quite difficult to sift through them all and determine what is worth devoting your time to. This situation occurred to us back in 2008 when we were approached by a well known cable television channel to produce a "ghost hunting" themed show based on the work that we were doing with our Jersey Devil documentary and our plans to film a documentary and write a book series that eventually became known as "CURSED: An Explanation of the Unknown". An actress that we used in one of our shorts connected us to the producers and we were highly appreciative.  Being approached by the producers of the channel was mighty interesting to us and this was also prior to the fad of all the current “ghost hunting” television programs. They wanted to follow us around as we conducted office and field investigations in the search for the Jersey Devil and also the various abandoned and supposed haunted locations that we were investigating at the time.

In initial meetings this project seemed promising until they starting dictating terms that would end up being misleading and false for the viewers. We wished to conduct legit investigations, research and provide the evidence backed by science that we collected, but they stated that if nothing was found that we would have to embellish it with "exciting“ insertions of E.V.P.s, orbs, sounds and other encounters that may have not occurred. using logic we countered back that there is no scientific based concerning orbs or E.V.P's and they have been disproven many times over. They countered with "It doesn't really matter, we wish to entertain the audience, not educate them." We rebelled and stated our points again on how we wished to conduct legit investigations and provide the results without embellishments. The producers restated their terms and said "Take it or leave it.“ They wanted me to sign a waiver that included following their script and give them permission to take creative liberties in the editing process to use as they see fit. I didn't want to go through all that we did and would just to have our findings distorted and manipulated.

The pay per episode with the addition of riders and perks were very enticing, but compromising and allowing the producers to manipulate the information would just defeat the whole purpose of the documentary that we have been working on for many years. For the most part each episode was almost as scripted out as a sitcom or a movie. There were certain points that we had to make and we had to find something "haunting" or "positive evidence" in each show, if not, it would be added in later.

We had one last meeting hoping that we could have our terms reconsidered and we could do a straight up investigative show without anything fake or misleading being inserted into the program. The producers wouldn't budge and stated that the clause would still be in effect that things might be added to spice the show up at their discretion. So we declined and moved onto the next project.

So here we are heading into 2015 with an awesome track record and much information for our Jersey Devil documentary called "THE SEARCH FOR THE JERSEY DEVIL" (along with 2 books on the subject) and the CURSED series which will contain 3 books.

Cursed: An Explanation of the Unknown:
http://www.amazon.com/Cursed-Explanation-Mr-Chris-Chaos/dp/1497537436/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1418922533&sr=8-2&keywords=cursed+an+explanation

Cursed: Revisited
http://www.amazon.com/Cursed-Revisited-Explanation-II-2/dp/1502830507/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1418922587&sr=8-1&keywords=cursed+an+explanation

FOR MORE INFORMATION:
https://www.facebook.com/Cursedbook
or
https://www.facebook.com/TheSearchForTheJerseyDevil

(Chris Chaos is a long time resident of South Jersey who once again resides in and writes from Gloucester City, New Jersey.  He is a filmmaker, a business owner, writer, urban explorer and investigator of the odd and weird, a proud parent, happily taken and a connoisseur of hot wings. Chris can be reached at AxisVideo@aol.com) 

THE PURGATORY HOUSE/ROAD (UPDATED 3-26-15) Route 70 and Purgatory Road, Vincentown NJ

by Chris Chaos

A nice little gem in Vincentown along Route 70. There are many legends and stories that go along with this location; we will touch on a few of them.

Updated Video

There are tales of orgies, animal sacrifice and ghosts haunting this location. One of the legends that attempts to explain the ghost girl (that lived in the house) was that a 17 year old girl named Maria Alacon died in a car crash in 1978 on Church Road and 541 as she was heading back to Lenape High School from lunch. They say the accident decapitated her. In this crash Brian Pittman (from Main Street in Vincentown) was also killed. The driver of the car lived but people claim it wasn’t his fault for at the time there was no traffic light at this intersection and they were hit by a large truck carrying logs.

Maria's mother was very religious and knew of the evil sources that the house possessed and finally left the property.

 

Some say a girl still lives on the property. Could this be Maria? Some say the kitchen floor shakes from the captured anguish and anger in the house. The current owners decided not to tear the house down due to the historic value and the legends that surround the location.

Many people wonder why the road and this location had the name Purgatory in it. The Oxford Dictionary also states that the word Purgatory refers to streams that flow in a ravine. Purgatory Road takes its name from Purgatory Run because the road crosses the headwaters of that stream. The toponym “Purgatory Run” dates to at least 1838 and is generally associated with Bear Swamp. Purgatory Run may have received its name because it may have contained enough water to make its presence known, but not enough water to power a mill, thereby making it a source of suffering. Bear Swamp could have brought temporary suffering to the landowner, likely a member of the Prickett family. I am sure the swamp was quite a dismal place, although, once the owner had harvested the Cedar trees, I suspect he no longer felt the place was a purgatory.

UPDATE: The Purgatory House caught fire and burned down in Sept of 2011. The cause is under investigation

UPDATE: 3-26-15 THE PURGATORY HOUSE UPDATE

We were out with a client and afterwards found ourselves right next to Purgatory Road and the Purgatory House so we decided to stop and obtain an update. As we have known there was a fire a few years back and the place burned down, all that was left is a pile of rubble and the chimney along with a temporary lake that formed due to the melting snow and the torrential downpour that occurred today.

Based on the "Coming Soon" signs along Route 70 in the same area we can only assume that shortly this property will also be sold to developers to make mini malls or more housing developments. 

The Purgatory House was an interesting location with a haunting past and we are glad that we were able to document it prior to its untimely demise.

Additional Info for the Purgatory house:

1699 Route 70

Southampton, NJ 08088

Sold for $125,000 on Sept 19, 2003

Status Not For Sale

House Size 4,000 Sq Ft

Lot Size 1.39 Acres

Year Built 1962

(Taken from public record)

For more information:

www.facebook.com/Cursedbook

(Chris Chaos is a long time resident of South Jersey who once again resides in and writes from Gloucester City, New Jersey. He is a filmmaker, a business owner, writer, urban explorer and investigator of the odd and weird, a proud parent, happily taken and a connoisseur of hot wings. Chris can be reached at AxisVideo@aol.com)