Boy's Orphanage/Naegeli Rd.

[marshstomper]

My boyfriend and I recently started a weekend tradition of bizarre roadtrips on Sundays. We found this awesome abandon orphanage off of Indian Cabin road. It's on naegeli road, and it looks like its been torched. it's not very big, but it IS pretty spooky. There's graffitti all over and scorched foundations. There's even a creepy plastic bird in a tree near the one pile of rubble. I took a few pics, but the one here is of (what looks like) the main building...there's rooms close together with a narrow hallway. Pretty spooky, but pretty awesome.

 

[Ben Ruset]

Interesting. How do you know it was an orphanage?

 

[marshstomper]

http://weirdnj.com/stories/_roads09.asp

all the way at the bottom is an article about the orphanage. when we were driving on indian cabin, i'd forgotten all about it. i put two and two together and went back to the article. it was pretty awesome to find it by accident.

 

[Ben Ruset]

Is this the place?

I was checking tax records. There's no properties on the roll for Naegeli St. I was wondering if it's official address was on Philadelphia Rd. It looks like 2500 Philadelphia Rd. is a close address. If you look at the tax records, it's a 1.7 acre property owned by "Renault Realty."

 

[marshstomper]

close! this is actually a liiiiitle bit further up the road.

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=...9.56557,-74.615976&spn=0.001849,0.003616&z=18

this is BEFORE the fire. the only pics i got of it now are the ones i took, which isnt many, cause i wasnt prepared (they're cell pics). When you're visiting it, and you're on naegeli road, there's a grey street sign pole with no street sign, just some mailbox block stickers that say "NY AVE," with a dirt road, and the orphanage is on the left.

 

[Ben Ruset]

This might be it. I think it's owned by the Camden Diocese.

4.298 acres with a chapel. The address is 2501 New York Ave.

They also own a bunch of other properties in the area.

 

[woodjin]

I've been in there. I don't think it was an orphanage. It was a retreat center (religious or scouts or something) I read about it somewhere after I came across it. Anyway, it is creepy, it has been vandalized heavily and I guess set ablaze since I was there. You could still find old record players and records in the mess hall. That is probably gone if there was a fire there. I think it was posted no tresspassing after the weird Nj articles. Before that it wasn't posted.

Were the buildings still intact?

Jeff

 

[marshstomper]

i knew there had to be SOME kinda church thing happening there, cause in one of the rubble piles, i found some charred prayer books. the grafitti suggests otherwise tho...stupid kids.

and, no, the buildings are mostly gone, except for one dorm-like building...which had concrete walls.

 

[Ben Ruset]

I googled around and I found a post by Barry saying the buildings were bulldozed.

 

[marshstomper]

no no no ways. i saw em last week! we went back to find out if there was more stuff in the woods, and then we tried going down the rest of naegeli road, but turned around cause it turned into a quad trail. here's proof.

6th room on the left! heheheh i cracked up.

http://i45.photobucket.com/albums/f60/PartyAt174/glory.jpg

 

[woodjin]

no no no ways. i saw em last week! we went back to find out if there was more stuff in the woods, and then we tried going down the rest of naegeli road, but turned around cause it turned into a quad trail. here's proof.

6th room on the left! heheheh i cracked up.

http://i45.photobucket.com/albums/f60/PartyAt174/glory.jpg

That is pretty funny. Well now we know where to go for a good time

How badly burned were the buildings?

 

[marshstomper]

lemme think. the main church (i think), totally gone. its just charred remains. two buildings, tho, only half burned. there's no roof (which is kinda nice for safety reasons), but there's walls, and rooms, bathrooms and bedrooms....so its pretty cool to explore around, with decent boots. : )

 

[Stu]

I've been there several times and a friend of mine talked to the man who lived and maintained the site a few years back. It was a boy scout retreat/camp with a chapel on the grounds. Simple as that. He passed away and afterward the place got ruined.
I haven't been there in a few years, but when I did go the chapel was wide open and tagged up inside pretty badly. Statues outside had been knocked down and smashed. Nothing was burned though, except for around the fireplace.
I have somewhat of a before & after here.

The Shaler grave is just on the other side of the highway. Other than that, I'm afraid all the Indian Cabin Road stories are just that.

 

[NJTaco]

FWIW,

We just spent some time at lunch today discussing this property. Two of my co-workers "grew up" in EHC, and remember the orphanage, the scouts, the later occupants, the most recent occupant, and by who and when most of it was "cleaned up". Nothing "WEIRD" about it, just a varied history with recent vandalism.

Bob

 

[marshstomper]

I haven't been there in a few years, but when I did go the chapel was wide open and tagged up inside pretty badly. Statues outside had been knocked down and smashed. Nothing was burned though, except for around the fireplace.
I have somewhat of a before & after here.

that's pretty amazing, those pictures....cause my bf and i were trying to peice together what buildings and stuff where there before the fire. i can't wait to show him those pictures!! do you happen to have any of that dorm-like building? cause that building seemed a little spooky to me....i mean, staning in that shell of a hallway with both open doors on the end...i guess i've seen too many scary movies...lol

 

[Stu]

I think we were only in the one building. Somewhere in the back of the place was sort of a playground. Wonder if that's still there.

 

[marshstomper]

nope. just holes from the poles.

 

[Pandrews]

Does anyone know if there’s any buildings still standing here?

 

[gipsie]

Does anyone know if there’s any buildings still standing here?

There are no buildings left there and the land is privately owned by a prominent Egg Harbor City family. It is regularly patrolled by the police and trespassers have been prosecuted more than once.

 

[Pandrews]

There are no buildings left there and the land is privately owned by a prominent Egg Harbor City family. It is regularly patrolled by the police and trespassers have been prosecuted more than once.

Thanks! My dad remembered it from when he was younger so I was trying to find out the real deal with it. There are so many mixed answers as to what it was (very imaginative ones.)