Slaters Mill

There are a handful of buildings in the state that sit right off a major highway. As a result they become landmarks for thousands of travelers who share the roadways every day. Slaters Mill right off of Route 287 was one such landmark.

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The iconic structure was built around 1850, and was originally known as Fords Mill. The land along the Pequannock River where the mill sat had hosted different mills since before the American Revolution. 

Local entrepreneur Joseph Slater purchased the existing mill in 1861. Slater used the mill to process beavers for use in Stetson Hats. Gruesome as it may be, furs were a valuable commodity before society realized how barbaric every aspect of the colonial and European fur trade was.

The mill fell out of industrial use after the Passaic Flood of 1903 destroyed the dam it relied on. It served various other hospitality uses over the years. 

1975 The mill was added to the state and National Register of Historic Places. New Jersey had only begun designating historic sites five years earlier, which speaks to how valuable the site was to so many locals. 

The building was last used as a strip club and bar, which closed around 1995. The following year it was used as a filming location for the move "In & Out", which many locals fondly remember as "the day Tom Selleck was in town". It sat on the market for years, before being abruptly demolished on November 15th, 2019. I only made one visit to the building around 2010, which is why the only photos I got were awful. For more photos, check out the Vacant New Jersey website, whose work has inspired me so much over the years. The land where the building sat is still unoccupied, with no signs of any immediate development plans. Slaters Mill joins the long list of squandered historical sites in New Jersey.