OC Parks "Ghost Town" Tour - Jan '08

[NJsurf68]

Hi guys: Nice site you have here. Very informative too.

I'm planning on taking the Ocean County Parks "Ghost Town of the Pine Barrens" tour in January '08. The winter newsletter states that the tour will include "the ruins of the Pasadena Terra Cotta Company". Is this the location you refer to as "Brooksbrae" or perhaps "Union Clay Works"...or is it some place different entirely?

Thanks for any info you can provide!

 

[Ben Ruset]

More than likely they're calling the "Brooksbrae Brick Company" by the wrong name. The site of the Pasadena plant is up the road a bit, on private property.

Here's an article on Pasadena: http://www.njpinebarrens.com/content/41

 

[Buck]

Where is the Pasadena site? I know the road pretty well but did not know there was a Brooksbrae and a Pasadena.

 

[Teegate]

NJSurf68,

Here is your chance to pass on a little info to the people who are giving you the tour.


First, let me say that Jerseyman from this site is the person who told all of us about this. Hopefully, I will get the facts correct.


Pasadena was a development plan of the Wheatland Land Improvement Company. Below are 3 maps from Jerseyman’s collection that proves that. He gave them to me to post a few years back and here they are again. The development was started at one location up the road from The Brooksbrae Brick Company that Beck and others called Pasadena. The location shows obvious signs that something was there, but unfortunately it is on private property. So because of that I will not say where it is. I doubt the people there even know that this occurred, but then again maybe they do. I have not stopped in to talk to them.


http://teegate.njpinebarrens.com/Pasadena/PasadenaMap1.jpg


http://teegate.njpinebarrens.com/Pasadena/PasadenaMap2.jpg


http://teegate.njpinebarrens.com/Pasadena/PasadenaMap3.jpg


So Ben is correct that you will be going on a tour to the wrong place, or I should say going to the right place being called the wrong name.


Guy

 

[NJsurf68]

Wow! Great stuff. I'll be sure to pass it on. I'm fortunate enough to live in Toms River, so the Library, the Historical Society, and the OC Parks Dept. are all easily accessible. So far, I have 2 books on reserve at the library: "Forgotten Towns of Southern NJ" and "Ghost towns and other quirky places in the New Jersey Pine Barrens". It's amazing...I grew up here (moved here in '74). I never knew these places existed until now.

 

[GermanG]

That tour will indeed be going to the Brooksbrae site. The trip descriptions have been recycled over and over for years, going back the day when Beck was a major source of info for many amateur historians. That particular trip despription certainly should be corrected. In any case, any of the two or three staff likely to be leading the trip are familiar with the more up-to-date history of the clay industry in that area.

 

[omega]

The OC Historical Society recycles bad info as well.

For decades they have been saying, and publishing, that the 1923 Ocean County Hall of Records was knocked down in 1951 to make way for the expansion. Not true, the building is still there. They redid the facade to match the 1951 West wing.

When they renovated the buidling, into a couple conference rooms on the upper ald lower levels, workers had a helluva time removing the old safe that was on the second floor, in what was one of the clerk's offices.

But those erroneous statements keep being reprinte In the lastest book on TR, it says the evidence is that the columns on the front of the building are no longer there. So that is evidence they knocked down the entire structure? A cursory visual inspection shows its a new facade,about 4 inches thick, and if you walk thru the habitrail between the Courthouse East Wing and Justice Complex and look at the back and sides you can see the different architecture.

 

[Teegate]

It looks like Ocean County has all kinds of problems. The Ocean County Library forgot the lease on their Domain name was up and it expired. An online business purchased it and the library no longer has it.


Guy

 

[omega]

http://oceancounty.lib.nj.us/

still works, it's the one I always use.

 

[Teegate]

This article said it so I was assuming it was correct. They must have acquired it again.


http://thesandpaper.net/SandPaper Pages/sandpaper_page33.htm


Guy

 

[flyingn]

you have a pm..

Hi guys: Nice site you have here. Very informative too.

I'm planning on taking the Ocean County Parks "Ghost Town of the Pine Barrens" tour in January '08. The winter newsletter states that the tour will include "the ruins of the Pasadena Terra Cotta Company". Is this the location you refer to as "Brooksbrae" or perhaps "Union Clay Works"...or is it some place different entirely?

Thanks for any info you can provide!

 

[omega]

Guy, we're both right!! they lost the .org the one I posted is the original, which I don't believe can be purchased as its a government address.

 

[Teegate]

Bill,

They now have a .org


http://theoceancountylibrary.org/


Guy

 

[omega]

thanks Guy,

I think I got an email from them last night explaining they let it lapse, and tried to get it back. I have the gov't url bookmarked.

 

[omega]

check this link
http://www.ocean.nj.us/parks/van tours pg2.htm

you can also email them to subsribe to the newsletter.

 

[Dragonfly]

Here's the link to that van tour:http://www.ocean.nj.us/parks/van%20tours%20pg2.htm

I took this trip last year; it was a lot of fun and I learned a lot. The naturalists do a great job, and as German said, they know it's Brooksbrae, not Pasadena. I recommend calling first to see if there are openings before you send in your money, because these trips book up so fast.