Ghost Towns in New Jersey

Allaire

Monmouth County • Est. 1822

Allaire was built around the Howell Iron Works, which smelted bog iron ore. James Allaire bought it in 1822 and built a model company town. When Penns...

Batsto Village

Burlington County • Est. 1766

Batsto produced bog iron cannons and munitions for the Continental Army during the Revolutionary War. The Pine Barrens provided bog ore, charcoal from...

Double Trouble

Ocean County • Est. 1900s

Double Trouble was a company town dedicated to cranberry farming and logging. The name's origin is debated (possibly a beaver dam that broke twice). T...

Feltville

Union County • Est. 1845

Feltville was built by David Felt as a utopian mill village. He controlled every aspect of workers' lives, earning the nickname 'King David.' When the...

Fort Hancock

Monmouth County • Est. 1895

Fort Hancock defended New York Harbor from 1895 to 1974. The fort has abandoned barracks, officers' quarters (some being restored), gun batteries, and...

Harrisville

Burlington County • Est. 1795

Harrisville was a paper mill town that processed salt hay from the coastal marshes. The town declined after the mill closed in 1914. Today, ruins incl...

Ong's Hat

Burlington County • Est. 1700s

Ong's Hat was a real hamlet in the Pine Barrens, named (by legend) after a hat thrown into a tree by a rejected suitor named Jacob Ong. In the 1990s, ...

Walpack Center

Sussex County • Est. 1800s

Walpack Center was a quiet farming village condemned by the federal government in the 1960s for the Tocks Island Dam project. Residents were evicted, ...

Whitesbog

Burlington County • Est. 1857

Whitesbog was a cranberry farming village where Elizabeth White and Dr. Frederick Coville cultivated the first commercial blueberries in 1916. Workers...