The Republican., 1893-02-23
A PICTURESQUE RUIN.
An Old New Jersey village That is Cor
pletely Deserted.

|
handsome state camp ground, that is a
counterpart of Goldsmith's deserted
village. 1t is pretty spot in the town.
ship of Allaire, in Monmouth county,
and oddly enough its existence is
known to few outside of the residents
Of southern New Jersey. A pictur-
esque country road winding past large
| farms leads the traveller into a tract OF
cultivated land, over one thousand
acres in extent. owned by one man, ac-
counted to be the wealthiest in the
county, and right in the middle of this
tract stand the ruins of the deserted
village. 1t is collection of score or
more of dwellings and large buildings
whose colonial type of architecture
makes it plain that they must have
been built over one hundred years ago.
Some are in good state of preservation,
and are inhabite by employees of the
owner of the estate. Others have
tumbled into hopeless ruin.
The walls of what was once a large
and busy iron foundry stand at one end
of the village. The roof tumbled in
many years ago and buried in ruin the
outfit of the foundry. To the right are
a row of two-story brick houses with
gabled roofs, where the foundry hands
used to live half a century ago. Only
one of this row is now habitable. Last
year the front walls of the others were
tumbled in a heap in heavy storm.
The roofs have fallen in, and carried
with them the rotten floors. Near by
is the stone building which was the
village post Office, and two hundred
feet away still stands four-story
building in good preservation that was
the village general store, with a school
house overhead. This is now furnished
just as it was when the industry that
gave employment TO several hundred
workmen and their families suddenly
| ceased at least fifty years ago. as the
present dwellers there say, through the
failure of the iirm of iron men who ran
itors nowadays at certain times, when
guide takes sightseers around the de-
serted village. All the old tools and
the unperishable things that were sold
at the village store are still to be seen,
rusted by age and disuse
What was once q spacious and hand
some dwelling in the colonial days
when the village was founded stands,
amid trees, near the old store. 1t is
crowned with an old-fashioned cupola
of wood, with balcony, overgrown
with vines in the summer time, and
great entrance doors with glass panels
on either side the threshold, set with
tiny panes of glass Standing back of
what was the main street of the village
is the little church where the villagers
worshiped, which is still kept in good
repair to accommodate churchgoers in
the immediate vicinity. A country par
Sou drives up in his buggy every Sun
day and breaches from the ancient
pulpit to the country folk This church
is crowned with fat wooden steeple,
with great clock set in it that has
faced many storm and was long since
disabled for further service in keeping
track of the march of time. A grass
plateau spreads out in front of the old
church, and is now one of the most
popular picnic grounds in New Jersey.
Picnickers gather there in the summer
time from Asbury Park Long Branch,
Belmar, and other neighboring towns
The opportunity afforded to get good
view of the deserted village is big in
centive in drawing the crowds thither
There are other odd things besides
the decaying and deserted buildings to
reward the visit One of the strangest
to those unfamiliar with the region is
the spectacle of a sparkling brook flow
| ing up hill to the left of the ascending
road to the village. Down n declivity
about twenty feet from the road level
is another brook flowing down hill. To
watch the one go up Hill and the other
down puzzles most of the sightseers
who view it for the first time The
guide smiles at the questions of the Wis
itors about the phenomenon of the as
cending stream. He explains that it is
| an excellent illustration of the wonders
of the system OF steam force pumping.
To save his fine cattle long journey
down the road to the natural broo,
| level the owner of the extensive tract
of land built great force pump at the
foot of the hill, dug new bed along,
side the road and forced the cool water
up hill, so that the cows could readily
get drink. At one point near the
bank of the up,flowing brook are the
ruins OF an ancient well that was in usC
when the foundry was going. 1t dried
up long ago. and now gnarled and
twisted apple tree grows up out of the
side of the we'll. 1t evidently grew from
seed dropped into the well when it first
fell into disu>e. Another object of in
tcrest to the visitor is the spot where q
canal ran while the foundry echoed
| with the hum of its noisy industry. 1t.
walls tumbled in and buried the greater
part of its course. All that is now left
| of it is a little well-like body of water
that is clear and sweet and cool.
! What is the story of this mysteriou:
monument of a dead industry? The one
man who probably knows is not talIa
tive, and nobody has yet been able, tn,
present townspeople say, to get him Il
tell the interesting history. He is Mr.
James T. Allaire, owner of the deserted
| viltcge and of the wide tract surround
ing il, and the man after whose ances
tor Allairc was named. There is an old
legend that the country folk nowadays
profess to believe that Capt William
Kidd, the pirate, was interested in som,
| way in the work of the foundry whcr