Historic Batsto Village
One of the state's few remaining historic villages, located in Wharton State Forest in Burlington County, is shown to new generations of tourists.
Batsto was founded in 1766 and was known for its iron making and glass industry until falling into decline after the Civil War.
The Richards family controlled the village from 1784 until 1876. Industrialist Joseph Wharton acquired Batsto in 1876 and remade the village in the Victorian style. Wharton tore down the few remaining structures from the Richards era and substantially remodeled the mansion before his death in 1909. The state began to acquire the rundown property in 1954.
As a child, George Greenamyer loved to visit Batsto Village. The first time was in the 1940s.
The village, renowned for its glass and iron, was run-down. The dam in the center of town had collapsed, water had gushed through the remnants of a bridge past the dilapidated sawmill and weeds were choking the surrounding farmland.
A cluster of historic cottages once was rented out to locals. The bumpy dirt path leading to the cottages was barely passable because of overgrown bushes, and renters had changed the buildings so much they lost their charm.
"It was rough, very rough looking," said Greenamyer, an artist who now lives in Boston but was raised in different parts of New Jersey. "But I'd come with my parents. We all need a Walden Pond."
Then the state bought and repaired Historic Batsto Village, and, 41 years after that purchase, it wants to make Greenamyer's refuge - a cluster of 33 historic buildings tucked away in the Pinelands along Route 542 in Burlington County - even nicer.
A sewing kit sits on the sofa
in one of the bed rooms of the Batsto mansion.
History:
Batsto is one of the state's few remaining historic villages, first settled in 1765. People who lived there made iron kettles and ammunition to help the Continental Army.
It then ventured into glassmaking, specializing in window panes for gas lamps. In the late 1800s, a man named Joseph Wharton bought Batsto and changed its image. He turned it into a farm community, re-established a post office, renovated buildings and remodeled the mansion to reflect a more Victorian style.
When the state bought Batsto in the 1950s, it decided to promote it as a historical village. By that time, the 40-acre site suffered from years of neglect. So the state fixed the gristmill and sawmill, making them operational.
Workers repaired the dam and the 1852 Post Office, and built a new visitor center and road. Many of the 33 buildings on site were restored. The state even added a food-concession stand, parking lots and a self-guided tour.
Now, when tourists visit the site, they're greeted by staffers who give highlights of the walking tour. The employees tell visitors to set aside two hours for the tour.
Visitors usually should start at the center's gallery, where they walk through an exhibit to catch a glimpse of iron life in Batsto, then they head over to the mansion.
Stop at the Post Office for a chat with the postmistress, visit the general store and take a look at how workers lived in their cottages, the staff says.
But try and do it on a weekend because there's not much happening during the week and there are few staffers to answer questions about the buildings and villagers' lifestyles. And during the winter, it's like a ghost town.
Even in the bustling summer months, there are only two costumed workers - a weaver and potter - and they live on the site. A naturalist describes wildlife that inhabit the Pinelands and a postmistress talks about life way back when.
Some of the buildings have walk-through areas, but visitors are kept at bay by fences stretching from floor to ceiling. Tourists do get a kick out of the mansion tour, but are sometimes hungry for more.
The folks at the state's Division of Parks and Forestry say they wanted to provide more. In 1993, they decided it was time to look at where things were going with Batsto. The state felt promoting the Victorian era of Wharton was the way to go. Most of the buildings there reflected that time period and all the iron and glassmaking factories were destroyed.
They also envisioned more "living history" presentations: the sounds of a costumed blacksmith hammering an anvil, or a farmer storing corn and tending to hay.
Members of the Batsto Citizens Committee didn't like the plan. They argued there's more to Batsto than just 1876 to 1909. The committee said there was an entire section of time before the Wharton era that was also important.
"Wharton was an absentee owner who had managers. He was sporadically there," said Lois Ann Kirby, a committee person who discussed the plan with the state. "There were over 100 years of history of iron and glass making that the state seemed to want to brush aside."
The groups reached their truce. The gist of the revised plan is to hit visitors with as much history of the preserved Pinelands settlement as possible ... of course, making sure to adequately cover all the periods of history at Batsto.
The state now calls it a living-history museum. The iron- and glassmaking period are represented through exhibits and demonstrations near the place where the old bog-iron furnace and glassmaking factories stood.
The state didn't forget about the European settlement at Batsto, the Battle of Chestnut Neck in 1778 - which took place at a Mullica River port where colonials preyed on English shipping - and how workers lived in the cottages.
All that is stuff the citizens pushed for, and the state suggests a huge amount of changes. Just a few include developing more tours, creating audio, visual and slide programs, adding more demonstrations and costumed presentations of the Victorian era, and expanding the visitor center's exhibit.
Greenamyer likes what the state has done with Batsto since the 1950s. More improvements would be even better for him. "New Jersey smashes its own history. It's full of franchises and developments. This is a little island of history. There's no other place like it," the sculptor, architect and artist said. "But it needs more of a presence. Otherwise, it will become a pile of dust, a museum."