Pinehurst or Pinewald?
- Thread starter uuglypher
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Hi,Pinewald is the name and it is in Berkely Township near Bayville and Tom's River. I went to school there. There was a railroad going through it (Jersey Central). The building that BobM mentioned is now Bayview nursing home. Formerly pinehaven nursing home and also pinehurst nursing home and originally the Royal Pines hotel. The lake in front of the building is crystal lake and the road heading east was the main road leading to the hotel from the railroad station which was still there the last time I was in the area. The hotel was built in the early 20's as a hide away vacation resort. The land that pinewald occupies was almost completely a part of the old resort. It contained a boat house on the lake, a boat house and pavillion on Barnaget bay in Bayvile, a dance pavillion, golf course, a bath house on cedar creek which we used to call the spanish mansion, hiking trails, hunting trips etc. It was quite an operation. A lot of money was spent to lure rich New Yorkers down there but the great depression sent it into bankruptcy. The nine story building was designed by William Sanger, husband of women's advocate Margret Sanger. When I was a kid rumour had it that Al Capone used the place as a hide out but I doubt it. It was also said that a tunnel went out under the lake and they used to keep and serve booze there during prohibition. There is a tunnel there, but it only goes from the building's boiler room to beneath the boat house across the street. (I used to work there) It has a main room down there and some smaller rooms so the speakeasy part could be true.
Dom
Here's what I was told about Pinewald. At some point in time Dr. Dodd from Beach Haven had a clinic or hospital there.
In early days it was also a home where the RICH sent their daughters who were in the family way while telling their friends they were visiting abroad or aunt Tillie....
I do know it was a hospitla during the 1940's as my late husband and many others from Ocean Co. and perhaps beyond were born there. I was also told it was a troop hospital during WW II.
T.
I had also been told that many of the roads around the old hotel were originally meant to be canals, ala Venice, but it never happened. I have no idea on the validity of that story.
You can also explore the site of the Pinewald station of the CNJ. The site is mostly overgrown, with just sume rubble and a bit of the foundation remaining from the station. It is interesting that the flagpole still stands at the site, poking up between some Norway Spruces, and still topped with a piece of the old wind vane. The site is on Wheaton Ave. I forget the name of the intersecting road. I do know it isn't Station Rd., which is a block or two away, and most likely named as the closest road to the station that goes out to Rt. 9.
You are very correct. The place is Pinewald, a section of Berkley Township. Living here my whole life I know it all to well. No one will admit to all the rumors. As personal experience has shown me, they are true. The tunnels are there. One does lead to the opposite side of the lake. There is a hatch in the lake. There is a tunnel to the "spansh mansion". All the tunnels have been sealed off. And yes the place is haunted. The top floor so called tower, is locked up, and no one enters it! Yet at different times you can find it unlocked and opened. The same goes for the tunnels, they are sealed with concrete, but before you get to the concrete, you have to get past the locked steel gates. As for who was there, I don't know. Yes the old railroad tracks went near there, you can still find remnants of them a mile away, over the Cedar Creek. Still to this day there are no buildings around here that can compare to it. Plus the tunnels and tower room, have no real reason to have been made, so then why?? Why build a tunnel from a hotel under a lake to the other side of the lake, a lake that is man-made. Something not right there. As people can deny the rumors and tunnels, if you look you will find them there. It is now a nursing home and rehab, but most is still original, like the "scary" elevator, other's have spoken of. It is an open metal cage elevator, with sliding cage grate door. I am sure when opened as a hotel it was beautiful. Now it is what nightmares are made of.
Im pretty sure it was benjamin sangor, not william sanger. he wasn't an architect he was more like a land developer.Pinewald
Pinewald is the name and it is in Berkely Township near Bayville and Tom's River. I went to school there. There was a railroad going through it (Jersey Central). The building that BobM mentioned is now Bayview nursing home. Formerly pinehaven nursing home and also pinehurst nursing home and originally the Royal Pines hotel. The lake in front of the building is crystal lake and the road heading east was the main road leading to the hotel from the railroad station which was still there the last time I was in the area. The hotel was built in the early 20's as a hide away vacation resort. The land that pinewald occupies was almost completely a part of the old resort. It contained a boat house on the lake, a boat house and pavillion on Barnaget bay in Bayvile, a dance pavillion, golf course, a bath house on cedar creek which we used to call the spanish mansion, hiking trails, hunting trips etc. It was quite an operation. A lot of money was spent to lure rich New Yorkers down there but the great depression sent it into bankruptcy. The nine story building was designed by William Sanger, husband of women's advocate Margret Sanger. When I was a kid rumour had it that Al Capone used the place as a hide out but I doubt it. It was also said that a tunnel went out under the lake and they used to keep and serve booze there during prohibition. There is a tunnel there, but it only goes from the building's boiler room to beneath the boat house across the street. (I used to work there) It has a main room down there and some smaller rooms so the speakeasy part could be true.
Dom