Taunton Mansion

[Mimosa Lakes]

Here are a few photos of Mimosa Lakes from the late 1950's to early 1960's. #1 is my grandmother, aunt, uncle and mother on the beach at 3 Cloverleaf Court. #2 is our dock with father in the rowboat, me, my mother and my grandmother in 1962. My grandfather passed away in 1959, so my dad built an addition onto the house for my grandmother and she lived with us until after I went to college. #3 is before my time, and of my dad and two cousins before our house was finished in 1958. See, no lawn to the right. No awning over the entrance to the basement. #4 Me riding my bike around my grandmother's side of the house with the Lower Lake in Mimosa Lakes in the background.

 

[Boyd]

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!

The 2007 aerials have pretty good detail, and might bring back some memories.

Ockanickon: https://boydsmaps.com/#19/39.85363/-74.78948/njgin2007

Lenape... looks like there's not much left. I don't know where the theater was. If you can find it, drag the map until the crosshairs point to it, then copy the link from the address bar and paste it into your post

https://boydsmaps.com/#19/39.83461/-74.83665/njgin2007

 

[Mimosa Lakes]

Heavens! There are houses all there now! The theater would have been here: https://online.boydsmaps.com/#16/39.8486/-74.7868/njgin2007

 

[c1nj]

Great post. I remember Eph used to plow the streets as mayor when I was a little kid in Medford. I think he used to bring his dog with him.

 

[Boyd]

Heavens! There are houses all there now! The theater would have been here

I see. You are talking about the theater at Camp Ockanickon. I was talking about an old theater at Camp Lenape, although I never saw it myself.

 

[Mimosa Lakes]

Great post. I remember Eph used to plow the streets as mayor when I was a little kid in Medford. I think he used to bring his dog with him.

Yes, he loved to get out with that plow. His dog was Mac and he was a mutt/rescue. My mother always joked that she wasn't taught dog walking in secretarial school, as often when Alice, Eph's wife, was out, and Eph's office was his home at 51 Union Street, it was the two secretaries, one being my mother, who had to walk Mac. I remember a big snow one day and school was cancelled. Still, I wanted to go up to Braddock's Mills and play with my friend Nancy Rogers. My mother was no way leaving the house. So, I talked 'Uncle Eph' as I called him into letting me ride with him in his plow up to Braddock's Mill and later he picked me back up and brought me back to Mimosa. We're only talking 2 to 3 miles, but my mother hated to drive in the snow. It's genetic. I hate driving in snow too.

 

[Mimosa Lakes]

I see. You are talking about the theater at Camp Ockanickon. I was talking about an old theater at Camp Lenape, although I never saw it myself.

No, my fault. I was talking about the ampitheater at Camp Lenape. I can better describe. See where my cursor is in the photo below, that's where it was. There was a trail that left from Scout Drive and followed the southern shoreline of the lake there at Camp Lenape. It went through the woods flat for awhile, then there was a dip down and when the hill rose that was the top of the logs that made up the ampitheater. There must have been 25 to 30 logs up the hill and spanned out on the side. It was pretty sizable. At the bottom, right in front of the lake was where they made the evening bonfire. Like hearing the cars race at Atco Speedway in the summer, we could also hear from our porch during the summer the boy scouts singing around the campfire at nights. This was circa 1960's and perhaps early 1970s.

 

[Mimosa Lakes]

More on point with the topic of this thread, when I came back after college and was working in Philadelphia from 1983 to 1986, there was nothing I loved more than to take my doxie and hike in the Pine Barrens. We often did Carranza Memorial on 206 to the Apple Pie Hill fire tower. Or, to go over to Batsto and hike to Quaker Bridge. Or, elsewhere on the Batona Trail like to Martha's Furnace. There is nothing like the indian summer days of autumn when its in the upper 60s, the sky is super blue, the pine trees are bright green and the sandy trails are bright white. I'd often go alone with my dog. But, I'd also go with the Outdoor Club of South Jersey. There was a man named Bert Nixdorff that led hikes every month and these were advertised in the Burlington County Times or Medford's Central Record.

 

[bobpbx]

I did a week at Camp Lenape as a scout in 1967(?). Our scoutmaster was a builder, and he had us rebuild the dock the season before I camped. We had to swim a mile in the lake.

 

[Boyd]

No, my fault. I was talking about the ampitheater at Camp Lenape. I can better describe. See where my cursor is in the photo below, that's where it was.

Thanks - very interesting! So, is this it?

https://boydsmaps.com/#19/39.83650/-74.84201/njgin2007

There are some lines on the LIDAR imagery that could be it.

https://boydsmaps.com/#17/39.83642/-74.84200/lidarHD

As a kid, in the 1960's I was sent to a summer camp in Wisconsin, on the shore of a larger lake. They had a cool hillside amphitheater that could seat hundreds, although it was just grass and you had to bring your own blanket. We did several shows each summer, ending with a big musical. That's where I got my start with technical theater, around age 12. It became my career until I retired 50 years later. So I'm always interested in lakeside amphitheaters!

In the coming month(s), I'll be mapping that area for my new LIDAR site. That should reveal some more secrets that are hidden under the trees.

 

[Mimosa Lakes]

Thanks - very interesting! So, is this it?

https://online.boydsmaps.com/#19/39.83650/-74.84201/njgin2007

There are some lines on the LIDAR imagery that could be it.

https://online.boydsmaps.com/#17/39.83642/-74.84200/lidarHD

Sometime in the coming months I should make it into that area with my new LIDAR site. That may reveal some more secrets that are hidden under the trees.

Those maps you have are way cool!! I just googled and found this that matches my memory: ...they built a very large and impressive campfire area that tiered down to overlook a lake....https://www.lakesideatmedford.com/history.htm

So, I think it might be this: https://online.boydsmaps.com/#19/39.83562/-74.83860/njgin2007
At first I thought this was a newer 'beach' creation some of the new house owners built. But I really think it would have been hard to have let this spot go back to totally natural. Plus I remember it was indented a bit. Not the right word, but in a cove or with land stretching out on either side and this shows that in the map. I wonder if its possible to tell elevation. There was definitely a slope down to the water and you felt tall standing on the log seats at the top of the theater.

 

[Boyd]

Yes! I was looking at that and wondered, but your arrow was pretty far away. But the terrain definitely makes sense there, you can see the "bowl"

https://boydsmaps.com/#17/39.83548/-74.83841/lidarHD

You can see contour lines here

https://boydsmaps.com/#17/39.83529/-74.83852/pinesHD

 

[Boyd]

That also makes sense, because now I recall dropping my daughter off at one of those homes on Blue Herron Court.

https://boydsmaps.com/#17/39.83582/-74.83635/hereHybrid

 

[ecampbell]

Here are a few photos of Mimosa Lakes from the late 1950's to early 1960's. #1 is my grandmother, aunt, uncle and mother on the beach at 3 Cloverleaf Court. #2 is our dock with father in the rowboat, me, my mother and my grandmother in 1962. My grandfather passed away in 1959, so my dad built an addition onto the house for my grandmother and she lived with us until after I went to college. #3 is before my time, and of my dad and two cousins before our house was finished in 1958. See, no lawn to the right. No awning over the entrance to the basement. #4 Me riding my bike around my grandmother's side of the house with the Lower Lake in Mimosa Lakes in the background.

You might enjoy Lewis Kalb's YouTube videos.

YouTube

Enjoy the videos and music you love, upload original content, and share it all with friends, family, and the world on YouTube.

www.youtube.com

 

[Mimosa Lakes]

You might enjoy Lewis Kalb's YouTube videos.

YouTube

Enjoy the videos and music you love, upload original content, and share it all with friends, family, and the world on YouTube.

www.youtube.com

This is great! It was before my time, but in my time I remember the large log cabin, Settler's Inn. The Medford-Vincentown Rotary Club use to meet downstairs there in the 70s and I remember going to an regular Easter buffet there. When my dad first got into real estate in the early 1960's, he first worked for Todd at the building on Stokes Road across and a bit down from Lenape Trail. So, I remember the stories of the start of Medford Lakes in the 1930's and how the summer cabins became year-round homes. Medford and Medford Lakes school districts were (maybe still are) separate then, and I didn't get to know the Medford Lakes kids until I went to Shawnee, 1972-1976. But, right before Memorial School was completed in Medford, I was in one of two 4th grade classes (i was 9 then, so 1967??) that was at the Cathedral of the Woods Sunday School classrooms for the year. This is such a very cool video!!

 

[c1nj]

My neighbor used to spend her summers in Medford Lakes.
The family lived in Philadelphia but had a summer cabin along one of the lakes. She is in her 50s and believes her family was one of the last to own a "shore house" in Medford Lakes.

 

[Boyd]

Hey - that was cool, thanks for posting. Lots of memories....

We had one of the older (but not original) log cabins on Tabernacle Road. It was interesting how they built them back then, since they were only intended to be summer homes. In many cases, they just put some stones in each corner, laid logs across them and built the home with no real foundation. Ours was originally like that, but was later improved somewhat. Had to go into the crawlspace a couple times and it was like crawling under a car! Very rustic inside, with a huge stone fireplace in the main room, vaulted ceiling, all finished with split cedar logs.

Owned that place from 1997-2002, and was glad to get out with a nice profit when I did. In 1999 the Settler's Inn burned down, will never forget that day. The town just didn't seem the same afterwards.

Then in 2004 the big flood came through and really took a toll on Medford Lakes. It was a real mess after that. I was living on Atsion Rd in Medford then, and very fortunate to have a home on high ground that didn't experience anything but a wet spot on the rug.

Looking back 10 years after the 1,000-Year storm in Medford

Can you believe it’s been a decade since that frightning Monday evening in July 2004, when torrential downpours hit this area, causing major floods, a host of dam failures and

www.southjerseylocalnews.com

You can see some of the lakes were still emtpy in 2006. IIRC, somebody was killed driving near Aetna lake when the dam burst.

https://boydsmaps.com/#17/39.86341/-74.80692/njgin2006

Thinking back a little farther, I remember "discovering" Medford Lakes back in 1993 when I was still living in PA, just out for a drive. I just loved the whole atmosphere there, so we started looking at real estate. Found a really cool original log cabin right on the lake with a dock - perfect for the canoe carnival. They were asking a little too much, but the agent was sure they would take less. Looked at the schools, and the middle school left a lot to be desired. Then there was the issue of having only a tiny yard while we had a big dog. So we passed on that - for good reasons - but I always regretted it. By 1997 our daughter was in high school, and Shawnee was great, so we finally moved there. One of my daughter's best friends was the granddaughter (maybe great-granddaughter?) of the Medford Lakes founder, Leon Todd. My lawyer was the Mayor of Medford Lakes.

On a darker note, talking to a friend who had been in the area a long time, she said that for many years (until the 1970's perhaps?) Jewish people were not welcome there.

 

[Mimosa Lakes]

Hey - that was cool, thanks for posting. Lots of memories....

We had one of the older (but not original) log cabins on Tabernacle Road. It was interesting how they built them back then, since they were only intended to be summer homes. In many cases, they just put some stones in each corner, laid logs across them and built the home with no real foundation. Ours was originally like that, but was later improved somewhat. Had to go into the crawlspace a couple times and it was like crawling under a car! Very rustic inside, with a huge stone fireplace in the main room, vaulted ceiling, all finished with split cedar logs.

Owned that place from 1997-2002, and was glad to get out with a nice profit when I did. In 1999 the Settler's Inn burned down, will never forget that day. The town just didn't seem the same afterwards.

Then in 2004 the big flood came through and really took a toll on Medford Lakes. It was a real mess after that. I was living on Atsion Rd in Medford then, and very fortunate to have a home on high ground that didn't experience anything but a wet spot on the rug.

Looking back 10 years after the 1,000-Year storm in Medford

Can you believe it’s been a decade since that frightning Monday evening in July 2004, when torrential downpours hit this area, causing major floods, a host of dam failures and

www.southjerseylocalnews.com

Thinking back a little farther, I remember "discovering" Medford Lakes back in 1993 when I was still living in PA, just out for a drive. I just loved the whole atmosphere there, so we started looking at real estate. Found a really cool original log cabin right on the lake with a dock - perfect for the canoe carnival. They were asking a little too much, but the agent was sure they would take less. Looked at the schools, and the middle school left a lot to be desired. Then there was the issue of having only a tiny yard while we had a big dog. So we passed on that - for good reasons - but I always regretted it. By 1997 our daughter was in high school, and Shawnee was great, so we finally moved there. One of my daughter's best friends was the granddaughter of the Medford Lakes founder, Leon Todd.

On a darker note, talking to a friend who had been in the area a long time, she said that for many years (until the 1970's perhaps?) Jewish people were not welcome there.

I remember the big flood in 2004, not from being there, but because that was the summer we sent our son to Ockanickon and the dams burst. I remember that iconic photo of a canoe wrapped around a tree in Medford Lakes in that link you have above.

I don't remember anything about not welcoming Jewish folks, but I grew up in Medford, not Medford Lakes. I do remember that out of about 2000 students at Shawnee in 1972-1976, there were about a dozen African Americans. I remember fondly that no one that I knew ever made anything negative of that. In fact, our senior class president was one of the African American girls, a very well liked girl who excelled in athletics and academics. Another was a classmate whose family lived in Oakwood and I remember he ran track. Another African American classmate from Shamong was a guy we all stood in line to dance with at the Shawnee Friday Night Dances because he was so good. It was the disco area and we all liked to pull those spins and turns. It was an upbringing I treasure because for the past 30 years I live in an a place that is population 60,000, 92 percent is African-American, many of these Hispanic-Americans and its an everyday occurrence to see Palestinian taxi drivers take tourists each day to visit our second oldest synagogue in the Western Hemisphere. Back to Mimosa Lakes, I remember everyone would love it in the summer, especially my grandmother, when one of the gentlemen who lived in the house across the lake would play the organ. He played beautifully and it was like a free concert. It was only as an adult that I realized that him living there for years with another man was not mainstream. I never heard one negative word about their lifestyle.

 

[Mimosa Lakes]

I remember the big flood in 2004, not from being there, but because that was the summer we sent our son to Ockanickon and the dams burst. I remember that iconic photo of a canoe wrapped around a tree in Medford Lakes in that link you have above.

I don't remember anything about not welcoming Jewish folks, but I grew up in Medford, not Medford Lakes. I do remember that out of about 2000 students at Shawnee in 1972-1976, there were about a dozen African Americans. I remember fondly that no one that I knew ever made anything negative of that. In fact, our senior class president was one of the African American girls, a very well liked girl who excelled in athletics and academics. Another was a classmate whose family lived in Oakwood and I remember he ran track. Another African American classmate from Shamong was a guy we all stood in line to dance with at the Shawnee Friday Night Dances because he was so good. It was the disco area and we all liked to pull those spins and turns. It was an upbringing I treasure because for the past 30 years I live in an a place that is population 60,000, 92 percent is African-American, many of these Hispanic-Americans and its an everyday occurrence to see Palestinian taxi drivers take tourists each day to visit our second oldest synagogue in the Western Hemisphere. Back to Mimosa Lakes, I remember everyone would love it in the summer, especially my grandmother, when one of the gentlemen who lived in the house across the lake would play the organ. He played beautifully and it was like a free concert. It was only as an adult that I realized that him living there for years with another man was not mainstream. I never heard one negative word about their lifestyle.

Hey - that was cool, thanks for posting. Lots of memories....

We had one of the older (but not original) log cabins on Tabernacle Road. It was interesting how they built them back then, since they were only intended to be summer homes. In many cases, they just put some stones in each corner, laid logs across them and built the home with no real foundation. Ours was originally like that, but was later improved somewhat. Had to go into the crawlspace a couple times and it was like crawling under a car! Very rustic inside, with a huge stone fireplace in the main room, vaulted ceiling, all finished with split cedar logs.

Owned that place from 1997-2002, and was glad to get out with a nice profit when I did. In 1999 the Settler's Inn burned down, will never forget that day. The town just didn't seem the same afterwards.

Then in 2004 the big flood came through and really took a toll on Medford Lakes. It was a real mess after that. I was living on Atsion Rd in Medford then, and very fortunate to have a home on high ground that didn't experience anything but a wet spot on the rug.

Looking back 10 years after the 1,000-Year storm in Medford

Can you believe it’s been a decade since that frightning Monday evening in July 2004, when torrential downpours hit this area, causing major floods, a host of dam failures and

www.southjerseylocalnews.com

You can see some of the lakes were still emtpy in 2006. IIRC, somebody was killed driving near Aetna lake when the dam burst.

https://online.boydsmaps.com/#17/39.86341/-74.80692/njgin2006

Thinking back a little farther, I remember "discovering" Medford Lakes back in 1993 when I was still living in PA, just out for a drive. I just loved the whole atmosphere there, so we started looking at real estate. Found a really cool original log cabin right on the lake with a dock - perfect for the canoe carnival. They were asking a little too much, but the agent was sure they would take less. Looked at the schools, and the middle school left a lot to be desired. Then there was the issue of having only a tiny yard while we had a big dog. So we passed on that - for good reasons - but I always regretted it. By 1997 our daughter was in high school, and Shawnee was great, so we finally moved there. One of my daughter's best friends was the granddaughter (maybe great-granddaughter?) of the Medford Lakes founder, Leon Todd. My lawyer was the Mayor of Medford Lakes.

On a darker note, talking to a friend who had been in the area a long time, she said that for many years (until the 1970's perhaps?) Jewish people were not welcome there.

Oh, on another note, I'm not sure if you are speaking above of Janet Todd. Not sure if she was the daughter or granddaughter of Leon. She was a registered dietitian and in the mid-1970s was working at Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital. My father took me to meet her and talk with her when I was in high school and wanted to become a dietitian...which I did.

 

[Boyd]

Yeah, I don't really know about the history of discrimination in Medford Lakes, never saw any problems there myself, and only one person told me that story. But she was quite definite about it.

Janet Todd might have been the mother of my daughter's friend (Jess Todd), don't know. She would be in her late 30's now.

Another of my daughter's best friends lived in Lake Pine. He and his family told us the story of growing up there in the 1970's and 80's. Calista Flockhart - who was later the star of the hit show "Ally McBeal" - was their neighbor and frequently babysat for them. She also went to Shawnee.