Ruins, and Terra Cotta Pipe.

[Teegate]

All,

In December Ben, Laura, Bob, Jessica, and I, did some exploring near Whiting. Bob had an amazing map that showed the location of "ruins" throughout the area we were in. We traveled to one of the locations on the top of a small hill, and found the remains of what possibly was a gun club. The foundations were made from what appeared to be cement from a bag, and in the middle of the ruins was a terra cotta pipe, obviously from the building. Engraved on the pipe was the name of the company that produced it and the town it was from, which was St Mary's Pa. Here is a photo I took of the pipe, and a photo of Ben there that you may have noticed in his post about his weight. ( Not heavy! )

http://www.njpinebarrens.com/~teegate/stmarysterracottapipe.jpg

http://www.njpinebarrens.com/~teegate/ruins.jpg

Upon returning home I wrote the Chamber of Commerce in St. Mary's hoping to find a time period that this pipe company was in business, to get an idea on the age of the ruins we found. Friday I received a large envelope in the mail with information on the pipe company. It was in business from 1901 to 1959 giving me a basic idea of the age of the ruins. In the envelope were copies of postcards and newspaper article on the plant, along with an actual Accounts Payable document from the company.

Here is the accounts payable document.

http://njpinebarrens.com/~teegate/sm/sm1.jpg

Postcard. Cough!!!

http://njpinebarrens.com/~teegate/sm/sm2.jpg

And a copy of an actual button from there.

http://njpinebarrens.com/~teegate/sm/sm3.jpg

Guy

 

[bobpbx]

Nice research job Guy. It helps put some color in ruins of questionable vintage. I wonder where they got their raw materials for the pipe and why they closed? Perhaps steel and plastic began to take over as the material of choice. Do you remember the sewer pipe called orangeburg? (name?). I wonder what that was made of, it seemed useless.

bob

 

[Ben Ruset]

I'm sure that by the 50s, Terra Cotta pipe had become either too expensive to produce or too inferior to plastic and copper. If TC gets a crack in it, there's really no way to fix it.