The “Nut Hut”

The Marlboro Psychiatric Center is one of the most famous Monmouth County, New Jersey creepy locations. The compound was affectionately nicknamed the “Nut Hut” by the local youth.

The psychiatric hospital opened in 1931. The compound sat on over 500 acres and was full of large brick buildings (pictured). The buildings were all set back from the road.

The hospital remained open until the late 1990’s. Local basketball teams were aloud access to the gym for practicing. I can tell you first hand, this was an uncomfortable place to practice. The stories alone were enough to make you feel on edge. It was subtle, but I would feel a very strange energy whenever I entered the compound.

The “Nut Hut” was tied to many stories. The hospital dealt with the criminally insane, and would suposedly perform experimental procedures and lobotomies on the patients. Patients were known to escape from the vast grounds every once in a while. Many people died there. The young basketball players would talk about the “Nut Hut” stories when they were at school or hanging out, but whenever we went there to practice in the gym, no-one spoke a word about it.

The gym was relatively basic. It had that weird smell that schools and old buildings have. I remember the only graffiti that was in the bathroom was some writing on a stall that said “God Loves”. The word Loves was intersecting God at the o.

We played basketball at the “Nut Hut” for a couple years. Sometimes, patients would come to watch us play. They looked normal enough but their clothes looked outdated and basic. We figured they were the “good behavior” patients. We had to stop practicing at the gym after a player told his mother about the patients watching them practice and his mother called the office administrator to make sure it was safe. She found out that the hospital had closed the year before and no patients were currently living on the compound.

They tried using the facility as a drug rehab (talk about a rough rock-bottom) but the rehab moved into a new facility. It’s been said most of the buildings were demolished and the rest sit idle and overgrown. It is a great place to look for ghosts, if you have the guts.