Abandoned Shop in the Woods

Urban exploration is not always about finding abandoned houses, warehouses, factories, or massive amounts of cars. Sometimes it’s all about the small find: little places or items that can still tell a story. This was the case when I stumbled upon this abandoned auto-shop in New Jersey.

Years ago when I lived in New Jersey, I would often just walk through the woods. Nature up north is hard to beat. I was following a path that I normally did, but one day, I went a little farther. Through some reeds, I saw a structure in the distance. I scouted out the area from where I was, and after I determined it to be abandoned, I decided to take a look.

It was a basic wood frame building with a cinderblock foundation. It was quite modern, but it still looks like I had not been used in years. There were a few bay doors, and with the tires, gaskets, and drums lying around, it appeared to be and old shop of some sort. It was probably for trucks based off the type of tires, and I remember seeing old dump trucks at another location somewhat nearby.

Next to that building was a smaller building that looked like a small barn on the inside. There were some interesting things lying around like some old pictures and a CD. This was closer to some houses, so I did not spend much time here. I just took a few pictures and left.

While this isn’t exciting like the abandoned airport I explored, that’s what urban exploration is like: sometimes you find gold, and other times it’s an old soda can found in a river in Alaska. That’s the game, and it is what you make of it! If you want to see more of what Mother Nature takes back as hers, then keep coming back to this blog, as there is plenty more to come. Thanks for stopping by.

Abandoned Airport | Preston Airfield (Marlboro Airport)

New Jersey is filled with history. Some of it is preserved, and some of it is left to rot. This is the case with this abandoned airport. Preston Airfield, also known as Marlboro Airport, located in Morganville, New Jersey is one of the top places that I have been to. While it is a smaller airfield, it’s not something that is as common as an abandoned house.

Rhea Preston was the man responsible for building the airport. In 1932, Preston flew his first plane at age 20. After that, he started taking lessons, and was hooked. In 1939, he began using a flat portion of the Preston Farm to take off and land his Luscombe Silvaire that he bought that year. When WWII started, he left for the Navy.

When he came back home, be wanted to build is own airport on the 44 acre farm. It took a while for the township to get on board, but all the necessary paperwork was completed, and the Preston Airport opened in 1954 with a single dirt runway. Just before 1972, the airfield gained a paved runway and was later sold. Preston said it was a lot of work to keep the place running, and it wasn't exactly profitable.

By 1974, there were about 100 planes associated with the airfield. The same year, it was named the “best maintained” airport by the state’s Aviation Advisory Council. The next year, it was approved for 21 new hangers and an 840 square foot operational building. As time went on, the name was changed to Marlboro Airport (due to the township it was in – Marlboro Township), and owners changed.

Its fate became sealed when it was purchased in 2000 by Marlboro Holdings LLC, and that land was to be turned into housing. It was closed for good in 2002, and the hopes of it being turned into housing failed after federal count cases proved the mayor accepted bribes to get the area re-zoned.

Today, everything is gone expect for some rubble and the crumbling runway. When I went in 2010, the buildings were still there, and so was the runway. Part of the airfield is used as a cemetery, and I believe the rest is now owned by the Monmouth County Park System.

I sort of went on a whim while scouting another location that will be featured in an upcoming post, and I went while the sun was going down. I don’t like going to abandoned places in the dark. It’s harder to see, harder to take pictures, and looks more suspicious. However, I parked my car at the end of the cemetery, which still had some snow on the ground where it was piled up after the last storm, and walked up to the field.

With the sun setting, my pictures were not that great, so I apologize. The area was eerie. It was empty. Therefore, I loved it. The buildings and hangers had some plane parts, paperwork, and other historic artifacts of the once popular airport. It was messy inside, but it did not seem like it was too vandalized. I didn’t get to explore all the buildings due to the setting sun, but I did get to see the hangers on the north side of the property, and south-west side.

It’s a shame that history falls apart sometimes like this, but it’s people like me who hope to help preserve it, if only just text and some pictures. If you wish to learn more about the airfield, there is a book by Randall Gabrielan that has a small section on it, but it also covers some great local history. There is also a website by Paul Freeman that covers abandoned and little-know airfields and covers the airport history in great detail. If you want to see more of what Mother Nature takes back as hers, then keep coming back to this blog, as there is plenty more to come.

Deserted Village of Feltville

In relation to what you typically find with urban exploration, an abandoned house is more or less common.  One lone, standing building in the middle of nowhere is fun, but what about what you come across an entire town?  This is just the case in Berkeley Heights, New Jersey where a village from the 1800s still can be seen today.

In the mid 1800s, businessman David Felt realized he could not keep up with the demand from his merchants with the mill he had already built in New York.  He looked for land in New Jersey and bought up some property from the Willcox family.  Peter Willcox was the first settler in area that David Felt was looking at who had built a sawmill in that area in the late 1730s.

After Felt bought the land and built his mill and a couple dams, he built a town for the workers.  This town became known as “Feltville”.  The town housed 175 people by 1850, and that usually meant about four families per large house, and two per small house.

In the late 1860s when David Felt sold the property, many other businesses came and went such as in 1882 when it was turned into a summer resort called Glenside Park.  That failed when the Jersey shore (not the show) gained more popularity.

As time went on, the Union Country Park Commission purchased the location, and it was added as a historic location.

The location is open to the public.  When I went there (many years ago), some buildings were in the process of being refurbished.  Some building had people living in them.  Some buildings were tourist buildings.  I, of course, was more interested in none of the above, and instead the ones you were not supposed to enter.

Some of those buildings were in rough shape.  I could tell they were used for storage for building “parts”.  I even went down in a creepy basement.  There were some really historic things to see.  Even the architecture of the building was something to experience such the brick chimney poking through the plaster and paint in the upper bedroom.

When I went, there was an occasional police car.  The houses had plenty of windows, but of course that goes both ways, so I would place myself against a wall to remain out of sight, and all was good.

I could continue writing, but since a picture is worth a thousand words, enjoy some of the pictures I took while I was there.  If you want to see more stuff like this, keep coming back as there is plenty more to come!  Thanks for stopping by.

Rosen's Beverages Antique Bottle

What may just be seen as a piece of glass to some, is a story of the past to another.  I love local history, especially history that hasn’t been seen for decades, and you get to uncover it yourself.  This is just the case with what happened with this glass “Rosen’s Beverages” bottle.

A few years back, I was canoeing on Farrington Lake (located in Middlesex County in New Jersey).  The 290 acre lake is quite long and narrow, making it seem more like a large river.  It makes canoeing the length quite fun.  When you get to one end of it, it literally becomes a stream that is only a few feet across and less than an inch deep.  I brought my canoe up to as fast a speed as I could when I was getting close to this area so I could bottom it out on the rocks.  As I did, I decided to get out and walk to shore.

No matter where you are in the world, it’s common to find bottles and other garbage in water.  This was no different.  However, when I neared the river bank, I saw a bottle in the water that was completely black.  I could tell it was in the water for some time.  I picked it up and didn’t recognize where it was from.  I placed it in the canoe just for the heck of it, and continued walking.  When I finally canoed back, I decided to clean off the bottle.

I got the bottle to almost its original clarity save for a few brown spots inside that I couldn’t reach.  I was able to see “Rosen’s Beverages”.  There were other markings on it too:

• Contents 7 FL. Oz.
• Registered 647-2
• South River Bottling Co. South River NJ

This was as local as local history gets.  South River was just the town over.  I got quite excited.  Upon further research, not much was found out about either Rosen’s Beverages, or the South River Bottling Company (at least not online).  One newspaper from 1946 came up that had an article about Mr. Rosen, and the bottling company.  Based off of some pictures from the New Jersey Bottle Forum, this bottle is probably 1930s or 1940s.

The newspaper article from the South Amboy Citizen (August 30, 1946) claims that William Rosen headed the South River Bottling Company for the past ten years (which one could conclude to be 1936).  It is interesting to note that the article mentions the strict sanitary precautions the company adheres to.  Something we wouldn’t even question today.  (The article is on the second to last page, at the bottom).

Garbage is everywhere, but sometimes what you can manage to find can quite unique.  It makes you wonder: how did that bottle get there?  Who was drinking out of it?  Why did they discard it where they did?  What did that person end up becoming?  Things like that, one will never know, but it’s fun to imagine.