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NEW JERSEY
A Guide To Its Present And Past
Compiled and Written by the Federal Writers' Project of the Works Progress Administration for the State of New Jersey
American Guide Series

Originally published in 1939
Some of this information may no longer be current and in that case is presented for historical interest only.

Edited by GET NJ, COPYRIGHT 2003

Tour 28
Junction with US 130–Woodbury–Mullica Hill–Woodstown-Salem; State 45.

Junction with US 130-Woodbury-Mullica Hill-Woodstown-Salem; State 45.
Junction with US 130 to Salem, 28.4 m.
Pennsylvania-Reading Seashore Lines parallel the route between junction with US 130 and Mantua.
Hotel accommodations in larger towns; meals, gasoline stations, and garage service available.
Two- and four-lane concrete roadbed.

State 45 runs southwest through a row of Camden suburbs into rich farming and dairying land. The country then changes to the typical pine and scrub barrens, broken by an occasional farm. Farther south it climbs low rolling hills on which grow the famous Gloucester County tomatoes. The land flattens out again as the road approaches the industrial section of Salem. There are many buildings with historic associations along the route.

State 45 branches south from US 130 in Westville (see Tour 19).

The highway pursues a straight course between the tracks of the Pennsylvania-Reading Seashore Lines (L) and homes of commuters (R). An occasional open field breaks the monotony of solid rows of brick dwellings of Philadelphia pattern.

At 1.8 m. is the junction with a dirt road.

Right on this road to the MANOR HOUSE (private), 0.6 m., 1337 Colonial Ave., a two-story Dutch Colonial home built in 1688 by John Ladd Sr., surveyor and court officer. The original Colonial lines have been almost wiped out by alterations. Ladd was expelled by the Quakers because he married couples who did not belong to meeting, and because it was determined that he could not be a good court officer and a good Quaker.

WOODBURY, 2.8 m. (50 alt., 8,172 pop.), the seat of Gloucester County, has an up-to-date business section and is the center of a prosperous farming region.

State 45, here Broad St., follows a section of the King's Highway that linked Burlington and Cape May. The QUAKER MEETING HOUSE (L) built 1716, has had several additions. It is a plain, two-and-a-half-story brick structure covered with ivy and shaded by large trees and a low porgy across the broad front. Inside are massive, hand-hewn timbers, wooden benches, and an old wood stove, contrasting with the modern covering of the wide board floors and the mosquito screens. The meeting house was used as a hospital during the Revolutionary War.

Opposite the Meeting House is the PAUL HOTEL, built in 1720 from surplus bricks ordered for the meeting house, and still in service. Confiscated from a Tory owner during the Revolution, the inn became known after the battle of Red Bank as The American Defeating the Hessian. Additions and changes have obliterated its early lines. At the town center on Broad St. are the GLOUCESTER COUNTY COURTHOUSE (R), a brownstone, steepled structure built in 1787 and modernized in 1885; the Ionic- columned HALL OF RECORDS, erected 1926; and the CIVIL WAR MONUMENT.

Opposite the courthouse is (L) the JOHN COOPER HOUSE (private), a substantial red brick building. Cornwallis took over the house in November, 1777, as his headquarters. The owner, John Cooper, a member of the Continental Congress, was forced to flee, leaving his well-filled wine cellar to a foe with a raging thirst. The house has a large fireplace and fine, paneled woodwork. The door panels are in the "Holy Cross door" tradition of England, so designed to protect the house from evil spirits. Deep marks on doors and frames were made by British bayonets.

The LAWRENCE HOUSE (L), 58 N. Broad St. (open Mon.-Fri., 9-5; free), was built in 1765 by the Rev. Andrew Hunter, celebrated clergyman who took part in the Greenwich Tea Party (see Tour 29B). Of native brick, the structure follows the typical South Jersey style, combining various features of Tudor and Dutch Colonial architecture. The house later belonged to John Lawrence, brother of Capt. James Lawrence (see BURLINGTON), who lived here while attending school in Woodbury. The Gloucester County Historical Society exhibits a well-ordered collection of Colonial relics and documents.

FRIENDSHIP FIRE HOUSE (R) has in its yard a HAND PUMP FIRE ENGINE bought in 1799, the year the company was formed.

The region south of Woodbury is rich farming land. The farms are as broad as they were in 1777 when Gen. "Mad Anthony" Wayne successfully foraged here for Washington's army.

At 5.6 m. is the junction with a dirt road.

Right on this road to the MANTUA OAK, 0.4 m., estimated to be more than 600 years old. The tree stands on the banks of old Mantua Creek. The topmost branches are 87 feet high, and the girth of the trunk is 19 feet 9 inches. The trunk is sound, but some of the branches have begun to wither.

MANTUA (Indian, frog), 5.8 m. (35 alt., 2,697 pop.), is a quiet old farm center with closely built houses set behind lawns shaded by stately trees. There is still a frog chorus on the creek (March-Nov., 7 p.m-4 a.m.; free).

South of Mantua short, scrubby oak trees, puny pines, and cedars line the road.

JEFFERSON, 8.6 m. (140 alt.), has a double row of houses, many of them glistening white, along the highway.

MULLICA HILL, 10.9 m. (80 alt., 600 pop.), rising from the banks of Raccoon Creek, has a mile-long, tree-lined main street with neat homes, and business places serving the farm region. It is named for Eric Molica, or Mullica, who led Swedish colonists across the State to the Mullica River in Burlington County (see Tour 23A).

The brick QUAKER MEETING HOUSE. (R), built 1808, is typical of the plain structures of the sect. Hand-split shingles were used on the roof with wrought nails. During the Civil War, Mullica Hill formed a complete company of Quakers who saw active service.

At Mullica Hill is the junction with US 322 (see Tour 25) and with State 46 (see Tour 32).

The highway runs over a series of long rolling hills and through wide fields of sweet potatoes, asparagus, and tomatoes.

At 13.3 m. is (R) a small, square, white building, the former TOLL-HOUSE for the turnpike. It is now the office of an agricultural agent.

Giant silos, windmills, and barns form an impressive agrarian scene between Mullica Hill and Woodstown. The land gradually flattens as the road crosses Oldman's Creek at 16 m. This rich land attracted the Quaker followers of John Fenwick in 1675. Many of their descendants remain, farming the same acres.

WOODSTOWN, 19.1 m. (50 alt., 1,832 pop.) (see Tour 24), is at the junction with US 40 (see Tour 24).

State 45 crosses the headwaters of Salem Creek southwest of Woodstown at 19.8 m. Herds of cattle browse in wide fields, near corncribs made by stretching small-meshed, ratproof wire over a frame of planks, roofed to keep out the rain.

At 19.9 m. is the junction with a dirt road.

Left on this road to Fenwick Rd., 1.4 m.; L. on Fenwick Rd. is PORTERTOWN, 1.6 m. (70 alt.), a Negro village of dingy frame houses. This is old Bushtown, scene of "June Meetings" that until about 20 years ago emptied three southern New Jersey counties of their Negro population for a period of religious revival in the summer. Here singing bands vied to stir religious fervor; Negro spirituals were sung and new lines inspired while standing in the spirit with Moses on Pisgah's height viewing the promised land. Relays of preachers of varying sects followed one another with appeals to the emotions in "gravy" sermons, as they were termed. Just outside the camp gamblers gathered, liquor flowed, and there were orgies of betting. Bootleggers in the bushes and black queens in bustles offered temptation to saints and penitents alike who wandered away from meetings. The automobile is chiefly responsible for the passing of the Bushtown "June Meetings."

The highway at 21.9 m. passes the SALEM COUNTY HOME (L), its huge farm fenced by whitewashed boards in striking contrast with the red brick buildings.

At a road fork at 22.2 m. is the Fenwick Monument (L), erected in 1929, indicating the GRAVE OF JOHN FENWICK, founder of the Salem Colony, at a spot not exactly determined.

At 24 m. is (R) the SMITHFIELD HOUSE (private), a fine example of early Colonial architecture. Two and one-half stories high, the brick house has small porches, and a hip roof with a railed platform or widow's walk. Tall trees flank its lawn. It was built in 1685 by John Smith, one of John Fenwick's executors, who purchased the land from Fenwick's son-in-law, Samuel Hedge.

Immediately across the road, and set back somewhat from it, is the HEDGEFIELD HOUSE (private), three stories high, practically square, built with native brick and white marble trim. It was erected in 1722 by Samuel Hedge, who had married Anna Fenwick, daughter of the Quaker leader. Despite modern alterations, the house's original charm remains.

King's Highway rejoins the route at the POINTERS, 26.6 m. The latter name comes from the junction of three old roads here pointing toward Salem. Southward, groups of modern homes contrast with the nearby rural region. Added to the normal smells of the countryside are odors of linoleum in the making, and of vegetables cooking in the Salem canneries.

At 26.8 m. the highway passes through CLAYVILLE, a community of Negroes, which was formerly called Gallows Hill. The big MANNINGTON LINOLEUM MILL is L.

At 28 m. is the junction with a private road.

Left on this road to the PLEDGER HOUSE, 0.6 m., a notable example of early Colonial checkered brickwork, erected in 11727 by John Pledger, Jr. On March 17, 1778, the day before the Battle of Quinton's Bridge (see Tour 29), British soldiers seized the house and forced members of the Johnson family, then living there, into the cellar, where they were held captive until after the soldiers left. One prisoner was seven-year-old Robert Gibbon Johnson, who later became the Salem County historian. He left a highly valued record of his recollections.

At 28.1 m. State 45, here Market St., leads to the center of Salem.

SALEM, 28.4 m. (116 alt., 8,047 pop.) (see SALEM).

Points of Interest: County Buildings, Alexander Grant House (museum), Old Law Office, Salem Oak, Bradway House, Friends Meeting House, and others. At Broadway and Market St. State 45 forms a junction with State 49 (see Tour 29).

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