New Jersey's First City

Jersey City / Hoboken Real Estate Ads

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

Egg Harbor City-Tuckahoe-Seaville; State 50
Junction with US 30 to junction with US 9, 26.1 m.
Pennsylvania-Reading Seashore Lines parallel the route between Buck Hill and Petersburg.
Accommodations scanty.
Concrete roadbed of two to four lanes.

State 50 runs through a flat, thinly populated country, depleted by forest fires. Between Mays Landing and Tuckahoe are relics of early activity mining and lumbering. As the road bends away from the swamplands to the sea, it touches more fertile land where cultivated farms replace the barren scene.

State 50 branches south from US 30 (see Tour 23) at EGG HARBOR CITY, 0 m. (63 alt., 3,478 pop.) (see Tour 23).

The highway runs through a pine forest, cut-over lands now covered with hardwood brush, and small farms settled largely by German families.

There are a few gravel pits in this region where an occasional fossil fish or amphibious monster of ages past is dug up.

At 5.1 m., at a cloverleaf intersection, is the junction with US 322, the Black Horse Pike (see Tour 25).

To the R. are glimpses of a large cranberry bog yielding a poor living to workers in the neighborhood. Muskrats are a constant annoyance to the cranberry growers because of their tunnel-digging in the dikes and dams.

At MAYS LANDING, 7 m. (20 alt., 1,868 pop.) (see Tour 25), State 50 is united briefly with US 40 (see Tour 25). The highway crosses the Great Egg Harbor River and becomes a four-lane concrete road that swings R. This is a part of the by-pass recently constructed for through traffic.

BELCOVILLE, 8.3 m. (10 alt.), is a half-empty group of houses built by the Federal Government during the World War for workers at a nearby munitions storage ground. The highway is bordered (L) by a rusty wire fence surrounding the land used as a munitions dump.

ESTELVILLE, 11.5 m. (15 alt., 200 pop.), is one of the communities in the largest township of the State, Estell Manor. The name is derived from the D'Estail family, French Huguenots who settled here in 1671. A few houses, a church, and a school are all that is left of what was a prosperous glass-manufacturing center in the last century. Long forgotten by industry, the village is remembered as the birthplace of the Jersey, or Leeds Devil (see FOLKLORE). Here in 1887 a devil is reputed to have been born to a Mrs. Leeds, who in a testy moment expressed the wish that the devil might take her undesired child. The young devil spent his early years in the swampland, but on reaching man's estate struck out to seek his fortune among the residents of southern New Jersey.

His visit at Trenton in 1909 honored Councilman E. P. Weeden among others. He was described as cloven-hoofed, long-tailed, and white; with the head of a collie, the face of a horse, the body of a kangaroo, and the wings of a bat. His calls, validated by the impression of a cloven-hoof, were reported in contemporary newspapers. All accounts indicate that he is possessed of a most amiable disposition. After successfully scaring the citizenry on many occasions, the Leeds Devil retired from active devilment until the Italo-Ethiopian war broke out in 1936, during which he was seen twice by the same man. The same year a posse of farmers armed with shotguns scoured forests and swamps of Woodstown in an effort to find the devil, who was accused of frightening women and children in the community.

South of Estelville State 50 crosses Stephen Creek and runs through well-drained wild country. On both sides of the road is the State-maintained, 2,000-acre ESTELVILLE GAME PRESERVE, chiefly for rabbits and deer. The highway swings L. at the southern end of the pine belt.

CORBIN CITY, 18.1 m. (20 alt., 256 pop.), though planned as a commercial center by a real estate developer long ago, is a small village in a cranberry-growing section, built in a corner of the big city site. Most of the area once mapped into avenues and boulevards is marshland.

At TUCKAHOE, 19.2 m. (20 alt.) (see Tour 33), is the junction with State 47 (see Tour 33).

Much of the land formerly cultivated has reverted to forest and swamp growth; the chief products are now destined for sale at roadside markets and in the nearby shore resorts. The fields adjacent to the highway are usually tilled, but Cultivation extends back from the road only a few hundred yards. The mild climate attracts many species of birds for the winter, notably the Canadian goose.

MIDDLETOWN, 20.9 m. (25 alt.), is a hamlet and railway station, close to a large deposit of brick clay.

The route here swings R. and crosses the railroad tracks on a ramp.

PETERSBURG, 22.5 m. (35 alt.), is a small farming town. As the road runs southward ocean breezes come from the waters of inlets penetrating the land nearby. Land breezes carry the odor of pine, spruce, and hemlock.

SEAVILLE, 26.1 m. (20 alt.), the center of a farming region, is an old settlement made by English Quakers. The OLD CEDAR MEETING HOUSE (R), built in 1716, replaced a log building erected in 1700. Farmers gathered leaves, bark, roots, and seeds from the Great Cedar Swamp, west of the town, selling them for medicinal purposes. They also sell the swamp huckleberries to seashore hotels.

At Seaville State 50 forms a junction with US 9 (see Tour 18).

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