Altmont Inn, Barnegat, ca. 1915
For now you can read some excerpts from early newspapers concerning news from this town. Click here to see the news stories.
A very brief History of Barnegat:
From "Out of the Past: A Pictorial History of Barnegat, New Jersey":
(this transcription was e-mailed to me by a site visitor; if I am violating anyone's copyright and
they want this removed just let me know.)
The first early settlers here were English families from Long Island and had settled in Middletown and Elizabethtown. Among
those was William Cranmer,
formerly of Long Island where he was listed as a freeholder in 1670 and later named as one of the original settler at
Elizabethtown, NJ. Subsequently with his brother Josiah, he took up lands near
Forked River and Cedar Creek.
Then they settled near New Egypt. This land they traded for land and
privileges between Manahawkin and
West Creek at a point later known as Cranmertown. From there William removed to a point "near
Waretown" which point became Barnegat. Other early settlers were William Cranmer's son Levi Cranmer, Timothy Ridgway,
Stephen and Nathan Birdsall, Ebbenezer Collins and others. Then came
whalers from Long Island, Rhode Island, Nantucket, Martha's Vineyard. They followed the whales into the area and were
.soon coming to the mainland s to establish homesteads. Notable among these was the Inman family. From Middlesex
came the Coxes. Then there were Burrs, Pharos, Vaulls, Stokes, Oliphants and Mills, the Rulons at
Cedar Bridge and Sopers at Soper Place, now a part of Pebble Beach. The settlers did not always purchase titles to
their land until several years after their arrival
The Perrine Boat Works was represented at the 1964 Worlds' Fair in Flushing, in the NJ pavilion, building a Barnegat sneakbox for the occassion.
In its time, the boat works built 3,600 sneakboxes. The Barnegat Sneakbox was designed by Hazletine Seaman in 1836. Below is a photograph from 1901, showing the former school building:
About ten years ago, I received the following description of a house in Barnegat, and I was wondering if anyone out there had ever heard this same story or can add to or refute it:
| "My name is ________, and I am __ years old and have lived in New Jersey for the past 12 years. I've always been a frequent visitor of LBI, my favorite shore, and one summer, exactly 4 years ago, [this was written in June 2003--Brian] a friend of and I dated two girls who lived in Barnegat, NJ who we met at LBI. For the short time we knew these girls, they could not stop talking about a haunted house in Barnegat known locally as the "KKK House". The local superstition goes something as follows. There supposedly used to be a faction of the KKK in the town of Barnegat, and once the house became deserted, it carried with it so much negative energy that townspeople got together to burn it down. However, no matter their efforts to burn the house down, it still stood. These two girls said no one in the town really goes near it due to how haunted it is. Of course my friend and I begged them to show us where it was. But even the two girls who lived in the town claimed to not be positive of its location. Of course we proceeded to disbelieve them after we spent 6 hrs. walking across the town searching for this house. However, around 10pm at night, after asking another town resident we found it. It does exist behind an old cemetery in the town of Barnegat, and never in my life have I ever seen a house as scary and foreboding. I was inquiring for two reasons, firstly if you have heard of any factual history of this house in the town of Barnegat. Secondly, I've wanted to return and see the house again for awhile now, but of course do not remember where it is seeing as it was 4 years ago I was in the town of Barnegat. I do know it was right behind a very old looking cemetary though, so I could find it. I was just curious if you had any information that might help locate this house again or any information about its history. |
UPDATE!!
Another visitor recently told me that this house was originally in a section of town inhabited by predominantly black people who were frequently harassed
by the KKK. I've included here a partial census transcription from 1930 showing a community of
several black families in Barnegat..perhaps one of these lived in the mystery house?
If anyone can help out with this information, please send me an e-mail.
In other weird news from Barnegat, I recently took a few photos of what I've called the "Barnegat Blood House", mainly because it sounds creepier that way. Basically, there's a not-so-old looking abandoned home on Route 9 in Barnegat, all boarded up and covered in graffiti. The name on the mailbox reads "Blood", presumably because a family by that name used to live there. I did receive an e-mail from a girl who told me that the family owned a roadside produce stand there back in the '80s that she worked at as a teenager. At that time, however, the property wasn't owned by Bloods--I recently received an e-mail from the daughter of the man who bought the house in the early 90s. As she explained it, the family purchased the home with the intent of using it for a business, but a back injury prevented it from coming to fruition after they put their name on the mailbox. The property gradually fell into disrepair and was the frequent victim of vandals, leaving it as we see it today.
The photos can be viewed by clicking the links below. Please, if you know any more details about this house, please send me an e-mail
The Blood House
Another view of the Blood House
The Blood Family Mailbox
The Blood Family's Shed