Take a walk around the awesome old building that started its life as the State Lunatic Asylum at Morris Plains and you are struck by a haunting sense that there is some incredible insanity afoot.

No, it has nothing to do with the stories of the thousands of mentally ill housed for decades at what eventually became known as the Greystone Park Psychiatric Hospital. Or the story of how a model for compassionate care for the mentally ill became a metaphor for our society's horrific shortcomings in that regard.



What is truly insane is that the state is about the tear the old place down.

On today's Ledger Live, I team up with Star-Ledger columnist Mark DiIonno for what may be one last walk around Greystone. As Mark wrote last week, preservationist groups like PreserveGreyston.org are launching one final push to try and save the massive main building.

But as Mark has recounted before, including this previous Ledger Live about New Jersey's terrible record of paving over its Revolutionary War history, the Garden State appears about to lose another precious piece of history to what he calls "demolition by neglect."

Brian Donohue is a Star-Ledger video commentator/columnist. He may be reached at bdonohue@starledger.com or (973) 392-1543.

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