Elizabeth Edwards School

This old brick building which once stood along Route 9 in Barnegat originally served as the town's first high school. Many locals will remember passing the structure, which opened in 1931. 

 By 1957 the Barnegat Regional High School opened, rendering the original building obsolete. However it wasn't long before the structure reopened as an elementary school. The new school was renamed in honor of Elizabeth Edwards, who was a beloved local educator. 

 The Elizabeth Edwards School lasted for 47 years, but as the newest iteration of Barnaget High opened it fell out of use once again. The building continued to be used by the town for various administrative purposes. A theater group also used the old auditorium. 

One day the town decided to cut the utilities, rendering the building entirely uninhabitable. The school achieved momentary fame once again when it appeared on an episode of Ghost Hunters (S.9 Ep.24) in 2014. The team concluded that the school was indeed haunted by their standards. 

Nearly 20 years after the last class was held inside the school, the town announced the building would be demolished. They determined the building was too far gone to save and that the long vacant building was a hazard. After several items of historical significance were salvaged from the building, the structure was cleared out and demolished in 2022. I had been trying since around 2016 to get inside the old school. It was in sort of a tricky area though, which limited the amount of mornings I could dedicate to trying to sneak in.

When the news of demolition was first mentioned I put it on the top of my to do list. After getting up early one morning my partner and I ventured over to the school before daybreak. She hung out in the car while I made a desperate final attempt to find a way in. Under the cover of darkness I made my way up to the front of the building. I knew all the back entrances were well sealed, so my only hope was that I could get a window open. Fortunately it didn't take long for me to find one.  

I popped inside and walked over to the doors to see if I could get them unlocked. Sure enough it worked, so I ventured back over to my car to get my camera gear and my partner. After timing our moves to avoid the gaze of the early morning elderly speed walkers, we slid back in through the front doors like so many students had over the decades. We were fortunate enough to be able to spend a good amount of time inside, making sure to appreciate the details of each room. The most impressive space in the building was definitely the auditorium, but the whole structure was filled with relics of the past. I'm grateful we were able to get inside the building before anything was removed. The school didn't last much longer.

I'm sure people will continue to tell stories of the structure for years to come though. School buildings generally hold a special significance in the hearts of those who used to attend classes inside them. It's part of what makes them one of my favorite structures to document and write about. Unfortunately when I do it generally means they've been demolished, but at least the photos will be around long after the buildings.

689 River Drive

689 River Drive was a historic old farmhouse in Elmwood Park.

The home was built in 1900, with two additions added making the home 4340 sq. ft. total. The property functioned as a farm, as did the adjascent property. Both homes had large greenhouses and barns behind them.

By 1954 the farms were being surrounded by houses. Homestead Rd was cleared and developed, leaving little space around the greenhouses.

The farm at 689 ceased operations and the greenhouses were demolished in the 1970s.

 In the mid 1980s the home and neighboring farm were sold to be redeveloped into offices. The farm was demolished, but 689 was untouched aside from the demolition of a large barn that used to sit behind the house.

The property was sold in 2009 for $985,000 and sat completely abandoned until 2022 when the trees around the home were removed and the house was demolished.

"The Trees" Home

It's hard to imagine how New Jersey looked in 1775. That is the year the story of "The Trees" begins.

What began as just a humble farmhouse would go on to be one of the most elegant homes in the region when Edward Cone and his family left NYC for the wide open spaces of a town once known as Houghtenville.

Cone began developing the area along with two other prominent former NYC businessmen. They built a golf course complete with its own clubhouse and several modest dwellings, telling all their old NYC associates about their new colony.

The group of men would go on to petition the name of the town be changed to Colonia, and in 1897 that request was granted. Local legend has it the idea to rename the boro Colonia was made in this very house. 

By 2014 the home was vacant, and the new owners of the property had applied to subdivide their property, with the intent of demolishing the historic home. Despite explicit opposition from over 1000 concerned citizens, the subdivision was granted.

The home wasn't demolished right away however. The owner, knowing it was a valuable historic property, left it vacant with utilities shut off for nearly a decade. This, often in conjunction with intentionally leaving open doors and windows, allows animals, water, and vandals to get into the structure. 

These intrusions often accelerate the decay of a building, all but ensuring the owner can eventually claim the property is a burden and cannot remain standing. It happens so often preservationists have even coined the term "demolition by neglect" to describe the phenomenon.

Eventually the owners got their way, and Colonia lost a valuable piece of their history. Satellite imagery in 2022 shows the home has been demolished and the land it once stood on is now bare. Another incident of short sighted foolishness from a state that continues to disgrace their historic buildings.