Enduring Legacy: Windows to the Past

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Transom Windows from Greystone Hospital Chapel

by Anne Motto, Curator of Collections
January 18, 2022

Transom Windows from Greystone Hospital Chapel
This window, along with the one in the top photo, believed by experts to be made from Kokomo Opalescent Glass first produced in 1888, may date to 1931 when new windows were installed in the chapel.
The chapel at Greystone, c.1898. From the 1876 commissioners’ report, two out-of-town firms specializing in stained glass were paid for windows early that year, HJ Smith & Co. of Philadelphia and Belcher & Povey of Newark, which in the mid-1880s became the famed Belcher Mosaic Glass Co.

Windows, both literal and metaphorical, into the history of Morris County’s Greystone Psychiatric Hospital are on display at Acorn Hall. A pair of stained glass windows from the chapel grace the Hall’s family art gallery, and kitchen lists from both the main building and annex are on exhibit through February 13th. These two sets of artifacts, held in MCHS’s collection, shed light on the attention given to the design and construction of the once state-of-art facility. Built upon the philosophies and beliefs that fresh air, sunlight, and recreational activities held curative properties Greystone was, at its founding, on the cutting edge for the treatment of mental illness.

First opened in 1876 as the State Asylum for the Insane at Morristown, the hospital included a medical library, dining rooms, dormitory, laundry and even an “amusement room.” However, two spaces, the chapel and kitchen, received particular attention before and after construction, and both spaces had a central location in the newly completed building. The chapel especially, beyond what was strictly necessary, was designed to create a welcoming space and calming respite lit by stained glass windows and adorned with frescoes throughout.

Two years later, when the hospital was featured in Scientific American, it highlighted not only the “tastefully frescoed” chapel, but also the extensive kitchen with its large three-oven range, broiler, cake baker, and eight cast iron steam ovens for roasting up to 25 lb. of meat each. By 1911, the year of the kitchen lists in MCHS’s collection, an additional annex building and kitchen had been erected, and construction of yet another kitchen was underway. While patients grew food  such as lettuce, onions, radishes, tomatoes, green beans, watermelon, and corn on Greystone’s expansive grounds, this only supplemented the enormous quantities needed, according to the April 1911 kitchen lists.

Original floor plan of Greystone in 1876. The chapel is labeled with a “C” at center of the building and the nearby kitchens were under the amusement room (“A.R”).
Kitchen list comparing total food purchased in April 1911 vs April 1910 for the main building’s kitchen. The total cost of the food noted in both kitchen for April 1911 was $9381 (the equivalent of ~$275,000 today) and included 1615 lb. of apples, 7952 lb. butter, 5432 lb. chicken, 4200 dozen eggs, 1530 lb. oatmeal, 1725 lb. peaches, and 10,104 lb. of sugar.

Demolished in 2015, Greystone’s history is now somewhat mythic, with few tangible objects left to tell its story. Our windows and kitchen lists, however, provide critical and enduring insight into the founding tenets of the institution, and how its core philosophy influenced everything from its construction to its daily operation.