Taunton Mansion
- Thread starter PinesExplr
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I knew a lot about the house from what Mr. Hoffman said about it, but much of that's lost in the fog of time.
I thought that this building was Taunton Mansion. After talking to a couple of guys who grew up around there I think of the surviving building as the hotelBTW - a house pretty similar to this, it may be the portico that does it, may still, I think, be found in or around Atco. As usual, I have forgotten the proper location.View attachment 6246
Is this a photo of the Cranberry Packing House that became a school? I am wondering if this is the photo of the school that burned in the 1970's? Is this the building that the foundation can still be found on the corner of Breakneck and Hopewell/Taunton Rd?I thought that this building was Taunton Mansion. After talking to a couple of guys who grew up around there I think of the surviving building as the hotel
I would love to hear about the stories from Lenape Boy Scout Camp. The Riverside Historical Society has many online articles about Camp Lenape that you may find very interesting. I would enjoy personally talking with you about your memories of growing up in the area. If anyone has information about Camp Lenape or the surrounding area, photos, stories etc... please feel free to email me at Lakesideofmedford@gmail.com. I am very curious about the historic road that ran from Braddock's Mill, through Camp Lenape and continued parallel with Jackson Road. It is only a faint trail now, but apparantly there was some sort of building or stop there. The township owns the property and one can still make out where it must have been located on Jackson Rd.
I would love to hear about your memories of Camp Lenape/ Lenape Scout Reservation in Medford, NJ. I am always collecting old photos of the camp and anything about the history. I have been fortunate to meet many people who have helped me, and I have quite a collection. I would love to learn more about the names of the people listed on the old fireplace which still exists. I am interested in learning about Tomlinson, who dug out the old Cranberry Bogs and I believe Mimosa Lakes as well. The lake in the neighborhood of the former camp is called Wilderness Lake, but old maps show it as Cedar Run Lake. I am guessing that Jean Woodford saw those maps and named the Cedar Run Wildlife refuge after that, but I always think the refuge area as part of Braddock's Mill Pond.
Lots of wondering going on here......
Lots of wondering going on here......
I thought that this building was Taunton Mansion. After talking to a couple of guys who grew up around there I think of the surviving building as the hotel
If you are looking at the little ice house that still exists there, was this house to the right or the left of the ice house? I am thinking it was where Lawrence Street is actually paved or where a current home is located?
Tomlinson above is Eph Tomlinson, an attorney who worked for many years in Camden, then moved his practice to him home office at 51 Union Street in Medford in the 1960s. Eph, who served as Medford's mayor for 12 years including in the 1970s, created Medford Development Corporation with my father and mother, Ernie and Mildred Bareuther in the 1950's to create the Mimosa Lakes Development. Ours was the first house built there and I understand it was completed just before I was born in August 1958. Old family albums show Eph on his tractor creating Mimosa's beach and working to carve out the former cranberry bogs as lakes. Eph also came up with the street names. For example, Pontiac Drive was named because at the time there was an old Pontiac there abandoned in the bushes. Eph also helped in the creation of Camp Lenape. Much of my early growing up years was spent playing house or other adventures in the wood frames of houses being built in the Mimosa Lakes development. A common sound in the summer, when all the windows were open, was of the builders start hammering at 7 a.m. My mother, Mildred Bareuther (formerly Bunning, who was born and raised on the Bunning Farm that is now the Dr. Still Historic Site and Educational Center) worked for Eph as a legal secretary since age 18 and her graduation from Mount Holly High School (no high schools in Medford back in the 1940s) until 5 weeks of her death from cancer in October 1980. Thus, Eph would often come up to our house in Mimosa when he was out for a cup of coffee. One of my most vivid memories was standing in our kitchen, Eph with coffee in hand, and hearing that Artie Lightfine had gone under the ice over off the beach on the Upper Lake in Mimosa. I was 9 then, in 4th grade. Eph went over, stripped to his undershirt and pants, threw off his artificial leg (he lost his leg at age 12 waiting for the train to school and his friends were fooling around and he was inadvertently pushed; he never let it hold him back), and dove in the water to try and find a then 8-year old Artie. I remember the red lights of the Taunton Fire Department truck arriving and one of those volunteers was Bob Lightfine, Artie's dad, who ran the gas station by Rips. Unfortunately, it wasn't until some 45 minutes later that divers were able to find and bring Artie's body to the beach. For several days, the golf bag Artie got for Christmas, than he had slung over his shoulder and ultimately weighted him down through the ice when he went to retrieve a golf ball, laid by the beach as a monument to the tragic event. We all saw it as we walked to the school bus stop each morning, which was on the street by the swing set at the Mimosa beach. Let me know if you need more....I lived in Mimosa from birth until age 19, when my parents sold the house and moved to Leisuretowne due to my mother being diagnosed with breast cancer in 1976. My father, Ernie, just passed away in October at age 92. We came up to see him just before he passed and we enjoyed one of my most favorite adventures: taking my 29 year old son and 26 year old daughter up for a drive around Mimosa. In some ways, it is very much the same was it was 60 years ago. In others, if feels completely different because I want to just stay and 'go home' but I can't. It's someone else's house now. Technically, I guess my son and daughter and I are trespassing (as the sign at the beach warns) when we stop and swing on the swings there for a few minutes. But something tells me they wouldn't mind our few minutes in exchange for a little history of where they now call home.
Aha!... Yes, certainly not the Pines but a beautiful place nonetheless. Unfortunately, I see that COVID19 has also arrived on your shores.
Stay safe, and I'll look forward to hearing more stories!Thank you! Growing up in Mimosa Lakes and Medford was the best childhood anyone could have had. To this day, I value and have passed on to my kids a love of the outdoors. Speaking of outdoors, I remember the thrill of actually staying upright on my first two wheel bike and continuing to stay upright as the sand turned to paved road at the time from where Shanty Dam Drive meets Cedar Falls Drive. We lived right off Shanty Dam Drive on Cloverleaf Court. And, in the early spring and fall, my friends and I would spend the day playing up at Camp Lenape, which was deserted that time of year. We would run up and down the wooden beams that made up the seats in the amphitheater, or stand up on the wooden platforms used to erect tends and pretend they were a stage as we twirled our batons. And, went to what was actually the rifle range and instead jumped down the sand dunes where the targets would be affixed and into the soft sand with some type of acrobatics. One of the great spring time joys of growing up as a kid in Mimosa was the draining of the lakes so adults could rake out weed in anticipation of summer swimming. We kids would 'muck walk' or walk through the drained muck of the lake enjoying the slick mud and idea that we were walking through rather than around the lake. Then, each summer, all the parents got together and hired a Red Cross Swimming instructor for two weeks so we could grow up safely around the water by being able to swim. It was a summer rite of passage to advance from tadpoles to advanced lifeguarding. Even today, I can look at a tree and get a yearning to build a tree house. I had a couple in our yard in Mimosa over the years. I even got my mother to bring out and serve me dinner up there a few times so I didn't have to come down. Fond memories that only growing up in the Pine Barrens provides!
Yes, I moved to St. Thomas in the U.S. Virgin Islands in 1986. I was working in Philadelphia at the time and thought it would be fun to come down and work here a year or two. I'm a registered dietitian and worked at HUP. I'm still here. It's the endless NJ shore weather and the ability to live surrounded by forest/jungle that is the appeal. However, both of our children are very familiar with Medford and Mimosa. My dad took our son at age 5 (1995) to Larry and Eva Hageman's house there in Mimosa and it was the first time he saw ice on a lake. Both children went to camp Okanickin and Matolly. My uncle, Ray Bunning, helped build much of Okanickin (spelling?) and last October we took a ride up there while visiting my dad and took a picture to Uncle Ray's commemorative plaque in front of the dining hall.Aha!... Yes, certainly not the Pines but a beautiful place nonetheless. Unfortunately, I see that COVID19 has also arrived on your shores.
FWIW, I believe it's "Ockanickon". It is located here, and also on the Southwest side of that lake across a bridge (Rainbow Bridge?): https://boydsmaps.com/#16/39.8539/-74.7892/pines1999
I lived in various places in Medford from 1994 - 2006, and for awhile we owned one of the old log cabins in Medford Lakes while our daughter went to Shawnee. Used to ride bikes and wander around Camp Ockanickon.
This is Camp Lenape, which I'm not too familiar with, but my daughter had a good friend who lived in a development adjacent to it. My daughter thought it was so cool that her friend had that old theater "in her backyard"
https://boydsmaps.com/#16/39.8354/-74.8368/pines1999
Lots of great Medford memories. But honestly, I'm much happier down here in Atlantic County with a secluded little hideaway back in the woods that I'd never be able to afford in Medford, not to mention the all the traffic and development that has taken place up there.
I lived in various places in Medford from 1994 - 2006, and for awhile we owned one of the old log cabins in Medford Lakes while our daughter went to Shawnee. Used to ride bikes and wander around Camp Ockanickon.
This is Camp Lenape, which I'm not too familiar with, but my daughter had a good friend who lived in a development adjacent to it. My daughter thought it was so cool that her friend had that old theater "in her backyard"
https://boydsmaps.com/#16/39.8354/-74.8368/pines1999
Lots of great Medford memories. But honestly, I'm much happier down here in Atlantic County with a secluded little hideaway back in the woods that I'd never be able to afford in Medford, not to mention the all the traffic and development that has taken place up there.
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Most of our family photos are in my dad's house in Leisuretowne with my stepmother. But my cousin recently sent a few that give a peek at the early days of Mimosa Lakes.
That's it exactly! I remember Camp Lenape described as 500 acres, so I'd always say I had a 500-acre camp in my backyard to play. There were lots of trails, as well as a dirt road off Jackson Road that went through Camp Lenape and into the end of Cedar Falls Drive in Mimosa. We called it 'the back way' home. I had friends in Centennial and Braddock's Mill and we would all run through the woods. I've probably lost my touch, but back then you could stick me on a rabbit or deer trail anywhere in that area and I'd find my way out!FWIW, I believe it's "Ockanickon". It is located here, and also on the Southwest side of that lake across a bridge (Rainbow Bridge?): https://online.boydsmaps.com/#16/39.8539/-74.7892/pines1999
I lived in various places in Medford from 1994 - 2006, and for awhile we owned one of the old log cabins in Medford Lakes while our daughter went to Shawnee. Used to ride bikes and wander around Camp Ockanickon.
This is Camp Lenape, which I'm not too familiar with, but my daughter had a good friend who lived in a development adjacent to it. My daughter thought it was so cool that her friend had that old theater "in her backyard"
https://online.boydsmaps.com/#16/39.8354/-74.8368/pines1999
Lots of great Medford memories. But honestly, I'm much happier down here in Atlantic County with a secluded little hideaway back in the woods that I'd never be able to afford in Medford, not to mention the all the traffic and development that has taken place up there.
Speaking of cost...we actually just bought our first home after years of renting. That ordeal brought the story from my dad of how he and my mother had a budget of $20,000 to build our rancher in Mimosa. The finished price, when they spec'ed out everything they wanted including a full basement, fire place, porch, etc. was $18,700. That was a new build in 1956 at 3 Cloverleaf Court.