Popularity: 8% [?]

Tags: Folklore, Ocean County, Pine Barrens, Ruins

First visited 12/02
Page redone 2/05
Video added 9/08

This place is, surprisingly, right off a main road, just down the street from the alleged Capone Place. There are stories that this old mansion also had Capone connections. On my trip to the Capone Place, my guide told me a few stories I hadn’t heard before. She said among the ruins there used to be the remains of an oven. This oven was said to be used to burn the bodies of people the mobsters bumped off. The ashes could easily be thrown into the creek just down the trail. The trail was also an easy escape route.
As for the name Spanish mansion, my only guess would be the style of the house. We also saw Spanish tile near the building, so this is pretty much a no-brainer.

Of the building itself only one corner of wall remains. The site is very, very overgrown with thorns and vines. You can see in some parts where the wall has fallen over. One small part of a wall is standing in the middle of the vines by itself.

Down the trail a bit you come across a small foundation. Just a bit down from that is the creek ‘escape route’.

Popularity: 4% [?]

Tags: Atlantic County, Religion, Roadside Oddity

First visited 12/02
Page redone 3/05

Along Rt. 30 one can find what was once the Temple of Hope and Knowledge, which was some sort of church. One story says it was a Scientologist church, but after reading some articles on it I’m not so sure that’s true. It hasn’t been in use for a while since the owner went bankrupt. The property is currently for sale.
There is one large pyramid, with 2 smaller ones connected to it on either side. The entrance is a nice set of carved wooden doors.

There used to be a sign out front, which was also a tiny pyramid. It’s now just a skeleton.

Then….

….and now.

Popularity: 3% [?]

Tags: Abandoned, Camden County, Destroyed/Demolished

Visited 12/02
Demolished sometime afterward

According to sources, Ancora Village, now abandoned, once was a community of minimum risk patients deemed suitable to live outside the hospital walls (mostly veterans, hence its name, Veteran’s Haven). However, because of a series of escapes, murders, or a lack of funds, depending on which set of rumors you choose to believe, it was closed down. The houses still stand, though it appears a few have been demolished.
~ Daemon

I don’t know much about Ancora. I heard some stories that the hospital was also abandoned but found out this wasn’t true when I drove by it. There are no side streets to park on and Ancora’s roads are blocked off. I must say I wasn’t expecting much out of the village either. I was expecting maybe 10 houses down some side road. How wrong I was! There were about 50 houses, all emptied out and some boarded up. Someone emailed me and said they actually saw the furniture being moved out back in September. Mail boxes and street signs were still up. The place just looked frozen in time.

There were a few spots that looked like they might’ve been foundations for houses. Maybe these ones were knocked down already. I’m sure the rest of the town’s not far behind.

Popularity: 4% [?]

Tags: Cemetery, Ocean County

Originally posted 12/02
Page redone 8/05

Finally got around to reshooting this page.
I’m still not sure why I’ve decided to keep this place on the site; ultimately it’s just another small cemetery. Maybe it’s because it was one of my first accidental finds. Maybe it’s because of its location and the fact that the road sign has been missing for quite a while now. Maybe it’s because of the condition of the cemetery. I just like it, and that’s good enough for me.

At the end of Cemetery Road, in Eagleswood Township, is a small cemetery that backs up to the woods. This is the Staffordville Cemetery, and while not the oldest graveyard around, it does have what few others nearby do – some graves have outlines, something they stopped doing 150 years ago. Some graves are in pretty bad shape, while others are just weathered. There’s never a shortage of mosquitoes here either. I get bitten up every time I visit.

Popularity: 3% [?]

Tags: Big Thing, Ocean County, Roadside Oddity

Originally posted 12/02
New pics from 12/05

This has never been a big deal to me, since Bayville is my hometown; I’ve seen this every day of my life. However, other people find it strange that there’s a dinosaur on the side of Route 9. Nobody is 100% sure just where it came from. One popular tale is that it was purchased from the 1939 World’s Fair. The building it guards was supposed to have been a Sinclair gas station decades back. The building has changed ownership several times and is currently a home decoration store. A carpeting store, which was in the building for years, still has pictures of a dinosaur at its new location.

It has its own lil’ platform.

The Midnight Society said the sauropod’s unofficial name is Dino, but I never heard it referred to as that. At any rate, “Dino” has gone through quite a few color, and head, changes through the years. I’m not sure what colors it was before I was born, but I’ve heard quite a few. It was a light blue for most of my life. I think I remember it being briefly purple at some point, but that didn’t last too long. Now it’s gold – which could use another coating. The current store’s name is also painted on its sides.
Since I’ve been around, the head has been replaced at least twice. Our roadside buddy has been decapitated by cars, and at other times the head was just too heavy for the neck to support. When I was a kid, the head was rather scary, for an herbivore at least. It had small eyes on either side of its head and sharp teeth, which I never understood. Nowadays, the head is cartoony, with both eyes in the front and a corny smile. I think the new head is really, really lame.
A few people said to me that at one point it had lights in its eyes and going down its back, but I haven’t been able to confirm that yet.

The tail just stops at the wall. I remember this wall being a rollup metal door at one point.

Bit of a nest hanging out the mouth.

Popularity: 4% [?]