Editing Marlboro Township, New Jersey (section)

====Marlboro Psychiatric Hospital====
Opened in 1931, [[Marlboro Psychiatric Hospital]] was located on {{convert|400|acre|km2}} in the eastern part of the township. It was opened with much fanfare as a "state of the art" psychiatric facility. It was closed 67 years later on June 30, 1998, as part of a three-year [[deinstitutionalization]] plan in which some the state's largest facilities were being shut down, with Marlboro's 800 patients being shifted to smaller facilities and group homes.<ref>[https://usahitman.com/mphhhttp/ Marlboro Psychiatric Hospital History] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140819144051/https://usahitman.com/mphhhttp/ |date=2014-08-19 }}, USAHitman.com, September 7, 2013. Accessed August 30, 2015.</ref><ref>Peterson, Iver. [https://www.nytimes.com/1998/07/01/nyregion/at-67-marlboro-mental-hospital-closes.html "At 67, Marlboro Mental Hospital Closes"], ''[[The New York Times]]'', July 1, 1998. Accessed July 16, 2015. "Marlboro Psychiatric Hospital closed today for good, 67 years after it opened and after three years of blistering opposition from unions whose members lost good jobs, from the families of some patients who worried that their loved ones would be hurt and from homeowners who did not want mentally ill people as neighbors."</ref> The land that the hospital was placed on was known as the "Big Woods Settlement". It was largely farm land but there was a large distillery on the property which was torn down to make room for the hospital.<ref name=Beers1873/> Additionally, due to the long residential stays at the hospital, a cemetery was also located near the hospital for the residents who died while in residence and were unclaimed. The hospital was completely demolished in 2015. Most of the land was handed over to the Monmouth County Park system, with some of the ground becoming the final linkage of the [[Henry Hudson Trail]].<ref>[https://www.monmouthcountyparks.com/page.aspx?Id=2525 Henry Hudson Trail], [[Monmouth County Park System]]. Accessed July 13, 2022. "Currently, the trail runs four miles from Rt. 537 in Freehold to Big Brook Park in Marlboro. The trail then resumes at Station Road in Marlboro and continues for five miles to Church Street in Matawan. Future plans for the Trail include linking these two sections of trail and providing a connection to the original, northern section of the Henry Hudson Trail."</ref> The park system had developed the Big Brook Park and continues to expand and work on the park to provide services to the Monmouth County residents.