2020 Halloween Post: The American Cyanamid Labs of Princeton, NJ

 The story of how I wound up here goes all the way back to the beginning of Quarantine. Like the very beginning, where we literally weren't allowed to to be out in public on nonessential business. I, like most people, was stuck at home and bored out of my mind. To pass the time, I would find urbex sites (most of which are very stubborn about not giving out locations) and track down the buildings they featured. It was a fun challenge, almost like detective work. One site, Abandoned NJ, had a neat page on an unnamed Agricultural Research Facility. I became instantly obsessed- it was so modern but so decayed at the same time. It also had practically no clues on how to find it. It took me a few days, but ultimately I was able to track it down using a product name that appeared in one of the photos, finding the company that made that, then ultimately discovering that they still had a helipad registered at this address. After a few months when things had settled down virus-wise, I called up a few friends and arranged a trip. It was well worth the trip- it was cool enough that I went back the following weekend with more friends that wanted to see it. The complex is massive, between the two trips I still haven't seen all of it.

Now as for the complex itself- it consists of two office buildings, a huge lab facility, greenhouses, and several outbuildings in the middle of a huge farm field. It was first opened in 1950 by the American Cyanamid Company as the research and testing facility for their agricultural branch of chemicals and supplements. Cyanamid was bought out in 1994 by American Home Products (later known as Wyeth), who drastically renovated and expanded the lab complex before divesting the branch of business to BASF in 2000. BASF announced the closure of this facility in 2004 and sold it to mall operator General Growth Properties, who owns the Quaker Bridge Mall across the street. They planned on redeveloping it into a huge town center, but those plans were squashed by the recession. They sold it to another developer, who had a similar plan. Similarly, that never came to be. It was sold again last year, and is planned to be turned into a mixed use residential, office, and retail development. I would say this plan looks like it's going to happen, but the same was said for the last two. It is an incredibly large amount of vacant land in the middle of a densely-built part of the state, conveniently located halfway between Philly and NYC, so I figure its only a matter of time before something happens. Despite it being a huge modern building, no effort was made to keep it up while it sat in limbo. The building has suffered a shocking amount of decay, and the lawns and parking lots that once surrounded it have turned back into forest.

For some added spooky factor, I'm writing this post while on riot lockdown and the lock on my building's front door happens to be broken.

We parked at the Mall and walked over through the main entrance, and almost noped out at the sight of this car. Then we decided at least we should go over and at least talk to the security guy and see if he can let us in. As we got closer, we noticed the car looked a little grimy and the tires were a little flat. There was nobody in the security shed, and the car's plates expired in 2014. After some discussion, we agreed it was safe to proceed.

Another sign it was safe was that the security kiosk's window was busted open. There wasn't too much to see inside, but I did find some papers indicating it was still being used until November of last year. That's around the time the property was last sold, and I'm guessing the new owners didn't want to pay for security like the last ones did. I also figure they must have cut electricity to the property around that time, since it still had it at the time of Abandoned NJ's post.

For what it's worth, that's not me in the reflection.

The security kiosk was probably added during the 1994 expansion. Between being the last building vacated and its young age, it actually still looks pretty good.

Walking up the overgrown path that was once driveway, the first building we reached was the administration offices. They may have had some bushes along the building at the time they closed, but it wouldn't have been nearly as overgrown. I'm kinda amazed by it.

Here's the main entrance to the offices, courteously propped open by a milk crate. I got some serious Explorer-finding-a-lost-jungle-temple vibes from this.

The inside of this building's not totally trashed yet. Either it was better built than the 90's buildings or had its roof replaced shortly before closing. The first floor must have been redone towards the end as well.

The backside of the building's south wing had the hardwall offices. It's in rough shape but with a couple new ceiling tiles could be nicer than some of the offices I've worked in.

The stairwell is another story. It's got some serious water damage I'm going to blame the windows for.

Upstairs, one of the meeting rooms still had notes left on it from the last meeting. It's impressive this has held up so well 16 years after the closure.

The upstairs offices weren't as modern as the downstairs ones, but the hardwalls looked a little larger. The curains make me think this was where a bigwig would have sat.

This floor actually might have never been remodeled. I suspect this building was one of the plant's original ones; and I'd believe you if you told me this was done in 1950. The walls have been repainted and carpeting replaced, but I don't imagine anything else has really been changed around. 

Continuing up the staircase brings us to the roof, which was unsurprisingly open. We ran into a group of high schoolers up here, which scared both of us but also made it less scary as now we knew why we kept hearing noises in the building earlier. At this point in the exploration we had no clue where the rest of the complex was as the ground was too overgrown to see anything. 

Unfortunately, the rooftop view just gave us a view of more trees where parking lot formerly was. After we left the office building, it started pouring rain so we ran into the next closest building, which was just another office, but much smaller than this. It was too dark to get any pictures in there and my flash didn't want to work, so we just waited out the storm in there.

You can see a little of the main lab complex on the other side of this lot. It looked like just a small garage from here so I didn't suspect it at first.

After the storm let up enough to go back outside, we went back into the first office building, where I snapped a picture of the front desk I missed beforehand. We snooped around on the ground floor until we found a covered walkway which led us to the main lab building.

The former employee cafeteria was at the other end of it. Part of the 1994 expansion, this was an incredibly modern-looking part of the building. Somehow the 1994 buildings were also in the worst shape. It was practically raining inside here.

I suspect the seating was originally in this area, and that counter held the cash register. 

The curved window here was perhaps my favorite part of the building. I imagine before there were all those trees outside it had a pretty neat view. I also wanna say this was on the second floor of the building, but never made it under here to see if there was anything. Like I said, this complex is huge and even with two several-hour explorations I didn't even see all of the main building.

A sign from the kitchen made its way out into the dining area.

It was pitch black in the kitchen (aside from a sliver of sunlight where the roof separated from the wall) so this was the best view I could get. My flash refused to work, but only when I was here. If we wanna get even spookier I can blame that on ghosts or something. 

Later during this visit we went through one of the building's several basements which of course had no natural light, so we were relying on flashlights. It was probably the creepiest event of my life. That was where I first noticed my flash wouldn't work. Then my friend opened one of the walk-in freezers and it started making a hissing sound so we came back up. There was some...questionable stuff on the floor down there.

I absolutely love the curved wall here. This would have been a neat cafeteria in the day.

One of the conference rooms in the main building had a rounded glass brick wall wrapping around it. There was a huge chalkboard along the other wall that still had some chemical equations scribbled on it, along with a smattering of other explorers' Instagram handles. Other than those, I was surprised how little graffiti there was here.

The hallway leading through the 1994 building to the main labs. I keep saying this, but it's amazing seeing a new-ish building in this condition.

It would seem this is the room they made insecticides in.

The main corridor through the 1994 building had these awesome skylights and staircases. This was another one of my favorite parts of the complex.

The labs flanking the corridor were in unbelievably bad shape. This is one of the better parts, in areas we'll see later the ceiling is just gone completely.

The part leading out the other end of the building wasn't in much better shape. 

Enough moisture is getting in here that a walnut tree is growing out of the carpeting. I figure there would have been vending machines in the alcove here, and a coffee station on that counter. One of the things I hate most about working from home is that I have to pay for my own coffee.

This walkway, separating the 1994 building from the older labs, is the most famous part of the building. There aren't too many videos on YouTube of this place, but most of them have this as their thumbnail. I had to take some portraits of the people I came with in here.

There's still some nasty looking clouds outside, but it stopped raining so we came out to the roof here.

We went through one of the utility rooms on the roof, then realized there was an asbestos warning by one of the other entrances. We didn't stay long up here, but we did get to see where maintenance's storage was; there were racks of new pipes, light bulbs, fittings, and so much more up here.

The layout of the lab buildings felt confusing inside, but from up here it looked like they were in a U-shape. I think the reason it got confusing was that the ground around it looked flay, but somehow every all the lower floors seemed to become basement at some points, then some basements would also emerge out of the ground. Maybe this building is some kind of possessed shape-shifter; if it is, at least it was kind enough to let me out.

We wanted to see the greenhouses, so to avoid getting lost in the building we went along the roof of the connector hallway.

Here's the hallway we were just walking on top of in the last picture. Greenhouses are off to the sides. I've seen some other peoples' coverage of this place, and a few of them mention the stain on the wall behind the curtain looks like blood. I highly doubt that's the case, but since it's Halloween let's pretend it is and that I wouldn't have noped out of here as soon as I saw it. I also saw some mysterious red substance and a set of clothing on the floor in the basement too, which freaked me out at first. I think it might've been left down there as people changed into lab clothing, and the red stuff was just rust.

A whiteboard in the greenhouse still had some information on what was being grown there and who was in charge of it.

Quite a few of the greenhouses' plastic windows were broken, but overall it was much more intact than I would have expected.

This massive Polonia tree has taken over one of the greenhouses. It strikes me as odd that an ornamental tree would have made its way in here, since I think everything they would have grown here during the lab days would have been crops and there aren't any nearby places that a squirrel could have carried a seed from. 

Despite having enough moisture getting in to grow a large tree, this plant engineering book has held up pretty well.

The greenhouse hallway had a bunch of freezers and other machinery in it

I know this machine had a label on it but I can't remember what exactly it was. It was something plant-related, though.

Here, we're back in what I think was the U-shaped part in what appears to have been a wet lab. There were a ton of fume hoods in here.

Most of this floor was normal lab. They do have fume hoods, but it looks like most of the work was meant to be done on the table. It had some big adjustable vacuums hanging down over it. We joked that even in its current state, this lab was nicer than the ones we use for school. Honestly, that might not have even been a joke. Ours isn't any cleaner than this, and actually has older equipment and no vacuums.

I can just imagine these shelves lined with test tubes back in the day. I have to wonder if any products I use were first synthesized here. Products like Old Spice were once part of Cyanamid's line, but they were probably developed in another lab since this one was for agricultural products.

Another exceptionally beefy fume hood, which looks like it had at least 4 types of gas being piped into it.

This side of the building appears to be where they did work with livestock. There were a few pens here that were probably home to the test subjects.

These stalls inside were for cows. If this place is haunted, I can guarantee you there's going to be at least a few ghost cows wandering around.

Here we are in the U-courtyard, looking up toward where I took that first picture a little while back. 

One last look in through a busted window before we called it a day. At this point we were all dying of thirst and my phone battery was dead, so we began making our way back to the car through the parking lot. It was harder than we expected, as so much of it was overgrown we had to bushwhack a little. Then, we got back to the front gate and saw a police car was parked in front. We panicked and hid in the bushes, and to our relief he drove away like 2 minutes later. It looked like he was just using the driveway as a place to set up a speed trap, which was another relief. He wasn't onto us.

After we got back to the car and I plugged my phone in, I saw one of my friends replied to a picture of the place I posted asking about it. We talked about it for a little while, and I agreed to go back with her and some other friends the following weekend.

We followed the same route through the buildings I took the first time, but tried to hit different parts of them. This time, we started off cycling through the administrative building's basement. I'm glad we did, as we came across the closet that held all of the building's blueprints! Some, like the one pictured, were thrown around on the floor, but most of them were still neatly rolled up in barrels. The ones we found were all from the 1994 expansion. I also happened to find a hardhat with the Cyanamid logo on it down here, which I brought home with me. The flash on my actual camera didn't work this time either, so the basement pictures from today are all from my phone.

There was some sort of rock garden under the stairway down. I figure there might have been some potted plants or something in here before they closed, but if there were they're long-gone now. I trusted the people I was with not to give me the virus, which is why you might notice some of them aren't wearing masks. The ones who were did it as a precaution against the mold in the building. 

This room used to be filled with cubicles. Most of them had been removed, but a few were still set up and some had been taken down but not removed. This would have been a dismal room to work; I can't imagine being assigned to a basement 8 hours a day. At least they've got some groovy wood accents to make up for the lack of natural light.

Here's the cafeteria when it's not raining inside. It was a little more comfortable to explore this time around.

It was weird seeing the trays were left behind, and how many of them were still stacked like they were ready to be used again the next day.

One of the cash registers made its way off of the counter. somebody had already broken it open, so there was nothing inside. Not that I would have expected Cyanamid to leave any money in there, but I guess the would-be thieves didn't want to rule out the possibility.

Here we are, crossing back into the 1994 labs. I tried to take the same picture the previous week, but saw it didn't come out after I left. This was a redemption shot.

Remember earlier when I mentioned the ceiling was totally gone from some of the 1994 building? This is what I meant. Not just the tile, but even the steel brackets had rusted away. It's amazing that the lights aren't in worse shape.

I always associate the rainbow Apple logo with the 80's, but apparently it was still in use up until 1999. Apple products must have always come with logo stickers.

Here's the 1994 building's atrium again. It feels so wasteful seeing the building falling apart like this. It would have been an incredibly nice place to work before it was shut down.

Apparently they were still using slideshow projectors up until the end here. We found this slide on the floor. And no, if you were wondering, my arm isn't insanely long. This picture was a team effort.

As I am not a chemist, I've never had to use a cube like this in the lab and can only guess what it was for. I'm torn between saying this was to contain fumes or if it was supposed to act as a mini greenhouse, but am leaning towards the former. The paper taped to it implies they were supposed to move it out after the facility closed, but for whatever reason that never happened. It was one of relatively few remaining pieces of equipment that was not built-in to the structure.

We ventured to the northern end of the building, which contained more offices. It looked even newer, I later learned these were added on in 1997. It's one of the most modern looking parts of the complex. One of the people I was with happens to be an interior design major commented that if it weren't for the carpeting pattern, this could pass for brand-new. Another person I was with said it reminded her of the backrooms meme/creepypasta/whateveryouwannacallit. I guess there's two different ways of looking at it.

There were a few different signs lying around here advertising Cyanamid's products. I can't say I recognized many of them, but I'm sure if I worked in the agriculture industry I would have seen at least a few I knew.

This part of the building was almost identical to my dad's old office- hardwall offices with windows surrounding a central coffee counter and conference room, surrounded by cubicle space. It even had the same wall color and lighting. 

The 1997 building had a cool entryway. All the glass was broken, but the building was actually still in great shape otherwise despite only being three years newer than the worst part of the complex.

The buildings connected on the second floor, but the first story had an open-air walkway separating it from the 1994 building.

Here we are back in the older labs, which as I said before are still better than the ones we use for school. I liked this room since it had all the fun knobs and dials on the end. Knowing me I'd probably press something wrong on that and blow something up. Maybe its a good thing we don't have labs this nice.

This room was full of tubes and gauges. I think the large tubes coming from the ceiling were more vacuums. Had these still been hooked up, I can guarantee I would have done something stupid in here too.

I found a floor plan hanging up in one of the rooms. It would be a good guide through the building, but only shows one floor. The different floors are the most confusing part. If you walk far enough down what starts out as the first floor, you'll wind up in like the sub-sub basement. If the windows weren't all busted out, I would have been worried about getting lost in here.

Finishing up our tour here with some trailers set up next to the complex. It was still packed with books, papers, and photos. I could have spent all day just looking through these alone. But we had already been here for a few hours and were starving and thirsty (not to mention it was about 95 degrees out), so we figured it was best to get out and find some refreshments.

There were three trailers set up, with a covered walkway built in between them. I can't tell if anybody worked in these full-time or if it was just for storage. It actually predates the 1997 offices, which probably would have replaced some if not all of the permanent seats in here.

This concludes our tour, I hope you enjoyed it! This is my all-time favorite explore and honestly the most fun thing I did during lockdown.

And of course we need a Halloween song to go with the post! Cher's got us covered here.

UPDATE!!! Literally the day I posted this; Abandoned NJ added recent drone photos of the site, showing the trees surrounding the building being removed. I can't find any news confirming this, but I'm worried this means demolition will follow soon. For legal reasons I can't say anybody in the area should check it out before it's too late, but remember I'm behind a screen here and can't stop you from going.

Legal disclaimer: Trespassing is illegal. Please don't do it. I don't wanna get named in a lawsuit. For that reason, please realize there is not any evidence that would hold up in court that it was me who entered the property and took these photos.

I've heard of other explorers who have wound up with their content banned or even got arrested after being traced back to their work and do not wish to wind up like them.