Rich Kennedy, author of the newly released book on the Essex Mountain Sanatorium that once stood on Verona’s Hilltop, will be speaking about the book at Watchung Booksellers in Montclair on Saturday, September 21 from 1 to 2 p.m.
Founded in 1907 amidst protests and a burgeoning suffrage movement, Essex Mountain Sanatorium was established as a tuberculosis treatment center after lobbying efforts from two Montclair women. From these humble beginnings, the hospital grew to become one of the finest treatment centers in the nation. Following a nationwide decline in tuberculosis cases, it was eventually abandoned in the early 1980s, and the hospital became a haven for urban explorers and vandals, becoming the source of local legends and myths. The main complex would finally fall to wreckers in 1993, ending an important era in county, state, and national history. Kennedy, an amateur historian and past explorer of the Sanatorium, has amassed a collection of photographs to pay a final, lasting tribute to this once grand institution.
You can read MyVeronaNJ.com’s story about how Kennedy came to write the book here.
