Land of the Jersey Devil

Today, we're going on a coast-to-coast journey... sorta. Maybe Coast-to-State line would be a more accurate description. Anyways, we're basically driving back from the shore to PA. This trip goes straight through South Jersey's Pine Barrens, which are the alleged home of the Jersey Devil. While I didn't run into that cross between a fever dream and a meth binge this time, there was still plenty of weirdness to be found.

Oak Tree Plaza, Egg Harbor, NJ

This center, anchored by Walmart, opened in 2017 on the site of the long-abandoned Atlantic Electric Control Center, which you may recognize from Dan Bell's exploration video. It was a pleasant surprise seeing new construction going on in Egg Harbor, considering the amount of blight there. We'll see more of that in this post, and we'll be back again not too long from now.

Searstown Mall/Shore Mall/Harbor Square, Egg Harbor, NJ
This has got to be the most miserable failure of a mall redevelopment on record. It originally opened in 1968, consisting mainly of anchors Sears (hence the name), Grant's, and Food Fair. There was a small open-air mall in back, between Sears and Grant's. In 1974, a Steinbach department store (later home to Value City) opened behind the center. The open-air part was enclosed, and inline mall space was built connecting Steinbach to the existing mall. This project, which doubled the mall in total square footage and more than quadrupled the amount of inline spaces, also came along with a name change. Searstown became the Shore Mall. As years went on, business dried up. The mall was hurting but not quite dead when the owners decided to redevelop it in 2013. All the remaining tenants were kicked out, and the mall reduced back to its 1968 footprint with the intent of redeveloping the mall portion. That's when the name was changed once again to Harbor Square. A Golden Corral was built in the front parking lot, Boscov's (which took over the Sears in 1987 after they moved to Hamilton Mall) expanded into the remaining inline space, and the former Sears Auto Center subdivided into smaller stores. Things were looking up for a while, but then things just stopped happening. The mall's footprint and even tile floors remain behind an opaque fence, slowly overgrowing over the years. The Food Fair space hasn't been permanently occupied in a decade, TGI Friday's was gone by 2015 (though has since become a furniture store), and Burlington Coat Factory closed last year. Boscov's, a DMV office, and the furniture store are the only permanent tenants left in the actual mall building.
The wall we're looking along in this photo is where the 1974 mall used to connect. After it was torn down, the parking lots on either side were connected.

This was Food Fair originally, and later Foodtown. Circuit City opened here in the 90's, but moved to Mays Landing in 2005. It was a K&G Fashion Store for a little while after that, but it's been occupied by Spirit Halloween for the past decade.

This space was originally Grant's, which closed with the chain in 1976. It became JCPenney not long after, but they moved to Hamilton Mall in 1987 (that location closed last year). Clover, who put the current façade up, opened in 1988 and would have closed with the chain, but was forced to stay open until the end of their 10-year lease. Burlington moved in not long after, and closed last year.

Former Friday's, which has since become a furniture store. That labelscar is likely from their original sign; towards the end that would have been covered by an awning. On the left of the photo you can see a little of the original light blue paint job, which I think puts this location at an 80's opening date.

Bad picture of the former mall entrance, which is now a secondary entrance to Boscov's. This would have been an open-air walkway prior to the expansion. I think I snapped this while running to avoid the rain.
Be warned- my interior pictures here leave a lot to be desired too.

Former mall hallway, now home to Boscovs' kitchenware department. While they have redone the space, the skylight hasn't been altered. The cross-beams on it are even still the original color.

The original Sears/Boscov's was on the lefthand side of the hallway. The right, which Boscov's had also expanded into, was previously inline store space. Based on the variety in ceiling heights and lighting types, I think its safe to assume they did little more than knock down some walls here.

The Boscov-ed part of the mall has a rear entrance to the old center court, which is all that remains of the mall hallway.

There's still a mall entrance leading into here, even though it only connects to Burlington and two Boscov's entrances. It seems odd they'd keep this area standing, let alone open, but since the DMV office is still standing on the other side of that white wall it might have just been more trouble than it was worth to take this down. I doubt this fountain's been used since the mall came down.

The directory stand is still here, sans-directory.

It also struck me as odd that they gave Boscov's a second entrance right next to the first. For the sake of loss prevention, more entrances and exits are generally a bad idea. Not only that, but it's only 15 feet from another entrance AND neither entrance leads out to a space that serves any real purpose.
If this picture were clearer I'd encourage you to compare Boscovs' new and old logos and comment which you liked better, but I don't want to be responsible for straining your eyes with the terrible photo here so I won't.

Despite the expansion, this store got to keep the 80's mirrored ceiling, marquee lights, and chandeliers.

Cardiff Center, Egg Harbor, NJ
This center first opened in the 60's, and had a new wing added on in the 70's. At the time I visited, there were 4 businesses left- Forman Mills in the main original building, Big Lots and a gym in the expansion, and Bank of America in the parking lot. Since my visit, a charter school has opened in part of the center, but Big Lots has closed.

My exterior picture of the Pathmark in the addition didn't come out, but here it is looking through the window. It opened in the 70's, and closed in 2012 following A&P's emergence from their first bankruptcy. It's been gutted out for a while, for good reason. It was a decayed wreck inside only two years after they closed. Current aerials show a large portion of the roof covering is now missing.

Looking down the front, towards the former Office Depot.

The two buildings seen here were the original parts of the center. Forman Mills occupies about 1/3 of the original building, taking up a little over half of what was originally Bradlees. Most of the right half, along with the Jewelcor-turned-Ross next door, was taken up in late 2017 by a charter school. A tiny portion of Bradlees (between the two entrances) remains vacant but gutted out. The building on the left sits totally vacant and is by far in the worst shape.

Looking in the window of the former Office Depot, which has not been gutted out yet. Since there wasn't a drop ceiling, there's less of a mold or fire hazard, which is probably why.

The vacant middle building looks alright from the outside. The stucco facade was probably added in the 80's or 90's.

Karen's Kurtains, a now-defunct local chain of curtain stores, occupied the first spot. This space is the least damaged one in the building. They were still open, or at least their sign was still up, as of 2013. The labelscar is visible in the previous photo.

I want to say this was a party supply store originally. I'm not sure if I actually read that somewhere or if it was just a guess based on the festive tile. If not, it just as easily could have been a toy store.

There was a little area with a blue ceiling off to the side. I'm assuming this was some sort of specialty department or display.

There was one heavily decayed shelf left in the middle of the sales floor, right under a roof leak. Another shelf was left towards the back of the store. Assuming these were left behind because they didn't sell in a fixture sale, the store did pretty good clearing out all but two fixtures.

This odd all-black edge of the store raised some questions which I still have not found an answer to.

Super Buffet & Grill was the next spot. It appears they, too, were still open in 2013. Given the condition of the building, I'm wondering if they were forced to close by the roof.

There was a neat fountain in the vestibule. This must have been a nice restaurant back in the day.

The other side of the restaurant still had its furniture in place. It was a surprisingly large eatery compared to the other businesses in this center.

I want to say this was last used as a Karate studio. I didn't include it in this set, but there was a sign on the other side reading "No Shoes on Karate Floor".

Of the stores here, this one was in by far the worst condition. It had at least an inch of water covering the entire floor. Good thing it's got tile on the walls; that's one less place it can mold. At this point in the exploration, I came to the conclusion that this building is beyond saving. Even if they retenant the rest of the center, the middle building needs to go.

I'm assuming Pasta Lover's was the name of this restaurant, but that could have also just been a slogan.

Don't get me wrong, the interior is still disgusting here, but I was surprised by how little damage was done to the ceiling.

Remember how a couple posts ago I mentioned Lincoln Park was responsible for my dead strip mall kick? I'd say this center's on the same caliber. It had a former Dots store just like this, minus the political signs. This store was last used as a campaign headquarters for the local branch of the Republican party in 2013, when governor Chris Christie was up for reelection.

Back in 2013, Christie was at the height of his popularity. I actually believed he would be our next president. That thought aged about as well as this building.

This was Salon Zuri, which I thought was the most interesting of the spaces. This wonderfully tacky 70's architectural style's locally referred to as New Jersey Italian, an unofficial and politically incorrect name that is nevertheless accurate. I actually kinda like it. If you want another example of it, check out this real estate listing.

This definitely looks like it would have been a chain store originally, but I've got nothing on what it was.

I'm getting Dollar Tree vibes from this space. It's on the smaller end for them, but I've seen some tiny Dollar Trees.

My terrible but only picture of the Forman Mills. While there's none of Bradlees' décor left inside, Forman Mills has left their part otherwise intact.

Forman Mills carved their own entrance, and left Bradlees' two on the vacant end.

The inside of the vacant part was gutted out in preparation for the Charter School taking over some of it.

Basically everything to the right of this became the Charter school. The small area between this and the wall on the left remains vacant. Aside from the vestibules, it's all been gutted out. I wish I zoomed in on the door's stickers, as apparently they have Bradlees' name on them at the bottom.

Getty, Egg Harbor, NJ
I can't say for certain what this was built as originally, as just about every identifying feature has been removed and to my knowledge Getty never built their own stations. This closed well before the rest of the chain, and is probably approaching 20 years of vacancy now.

Wawa/State Farm, Egg Harbor, NJ
This location first opened in the 80's, and was replaced by a new store (seen below) in the mid-2000's. A few places have come and gone from here since then, but it is currently split between a State Farm agency and Beachcomber Collectibles, which moved here from the Shore Mall.
Side note- I hope you're in the mood to see a bunch of Wawa's today, since that's what half the rest of this post consists of. I promise that wasn't intentional, but for whatever reason most of my photos that came out alright happened to be of Wawa's.

Wawa, Egg Harbor, NJ
For a 2000's store, this has been surprisingly neglected by the chain. It did receive the 2010 interior remodel that practically every store got, but otherwise hasn't been touched. It still has the nearly extinct 2000's bathroom tile and spotlights under the canopy- the latter as a result of having never gotten LED parking lot lights.

The main salesfloor's nothing too special, but at the rate they're gutting these it would be wrong not to take a picture.

This was from the first generation of stores to not have a lower drop ceiling over the checkout counter. It's an improvement; the high ceilings really help open up the store.

The tile in the bathroom I mentioned earlier. In most stores, this was replaced with faux stone tile in the 2010 remodel. It's rare enough today that I get pretty excited to find it.

Wawa/EZ Food Mart, Egg Harbor, NJ
This Wawa also opened in the 80's, but unlike the last one was not exactly replaced by a new store. It was sold to EZ Food Mart in 2011, likely as a factor of its age and proximity to three newer locations. EZ didn't last long, the store has been vacant since at latest 2015.

Eckerd/Rite Aid/Walgreens, Egg Harbor, NJ
I get the impression this is a fairly high-volume store. Rite Aid gave it the Wellness remodel in 2013, and it's now one of the few locations Walgreens totally remodeled after they took over.

Macy's, Hamilton Mall, Mays Landing, NJ
This location was originally supposed to open as a Bamberger's, but shortly before its 1987 opening, Macy's decided to rebrand the chain. Currently it is the only anchor left in the mall, which makes me worry it might be on Macys' hit list.

Sears, Hamilton Mall, Mays Landing, NJ
This store opened in 1987, replacing the Shore Mall location (which is now home to Boscov's). They closed this store during the 2018 bankruptcy.

Abandoned Farmers Market, Mays Landing, NJ

My post doesn't cover too much of it, but the Pine Barrens area is full of buildings like this. In all honesty, it's actually a little creepy to drive through. This market's been closed for probably close to 20 years. It sits on a field with what I'm assuming is the former owner's house, which is not abandoned but for sale. Given how Mays Landing is a quickly developing area, I'm assuming this will be knocked down for something new before long.

Wawa/Pantry 1, Hammonton, NJ
This  location's probably from the 70's, and was sold to Pantry 1 in the 2000's. It's way out on the fringe of Hammonton, basically in the middle of the woods. It's one of the few Wawa's out there that closed without replacement or a convenient location nearby.

Wawa, Folsom, NJ
This one looked ancient, but its store number is 714. For some reason or another, I think it must have been renumbered because it is definitely not a late 80's location. The fact that it doesn't have a peak over its entrance means it can't be any newer than the 70's.

Wawa, Williamstown, NJ
Wawa opened this store in the mid-2000's, and remodeled it to their current prototype in 2017. It is store number 775, which is surprisingly close to the previously pictured location's number. It's weird in the opposite sense, since this store is way too new to have a number in the 700's. Update: That may actually be because this location was built on the site of an older one. Usually Wawa assigns new number to rebuilds, but will occasionally keep the old one. They've adopted a different numbering system for their new stores, but the old ones are just numbered by the order they opened.

Texaco/Shell/Gulf, Williamstown, NJ
This was one of the Texaco's Shell picked up in 2004. This one was in the middle of rebranding to Gulf when I got these pictures so the canopy decoration Shell added had been removed, exposing the original Texaco paint.

McDonald's, Williamstown, NJ
This opened in the mid-2000's as one of the last mansard roof locations. I believe its interior décor is actually the same one used in early eyebrow models. As I write this, it still has not been remodeled. Given its younger age and the fact that there's actually very little mansard roof on the building, this is probably a low priority for their remodeling program.

Wawa, Williamstown, NJ
I was thinking maybe the Jersey stores were all numbered in the 700's as an early attempt at numbering them by region, but then I found this. It's number 379, which sounds right chronologically. It looks like a late 70's or early 80's location. Not long ago, like around the time I started my Flickr, Wawa's old logo was still incredibly common. I'd estimate about a quarter of their locations, in their home region at least, had it in 2015. 5 years later, they've remodeled and relocated enough of their stores that it is a struggle to find- especially ones like this, with the sunrise part of their logo on the building itself and not just the roadside sign. So far, this one has been able to dodge remodeling.

7-Eleven/One Stop Shoppe, Glassboro, NJ
7-Eleven opened here in the 60's, and closed sometime in the early 2000's. It didn't sit vacant for long before local chain One Stop Shoppe moved in.

Mobil/Lukoil/Mobil/Delta/Phillips 66, Glassboro, NJ
This is the first time I've seen a mushroom canopy Mobil that still has its original service center building as well- every other location I've seen only had a convenience store. It was sold to Lukoil after the Exxon merger, then bounced back to Mobil in 2015. That didn't last long. It briefly became Delta, and is now a Phillips 66 (who is now returning to the region after like a 50-year hiatus).

Wawa/Xpress Mart, Glassboro, NJ
The Jersey store numbering confusion won't let me confirm this, but I have a feeling this is an early 70's location. What's interesting about it is that prior to a 2010 remodel, it still had the chain's original logo, which has been totally extinct since the one remaining location with it remodeled in 2012. Wawa replaced this store with a new one up the street in 2013, and Xpress Mart moved in not long after.

Wawa/Xpress Mart/Bagel Express, Glassboro, NJ
This also looks like an early 70's location. It seems to have closed without replacement in the early 2000's, and became an Xpress Mart, which moved to the previously pictured Wawa. It is now home to Bagel Xpress.

Wawa, Glassboro, NJ
While the Bagel Express Wawa may not have been replaced immediately when it closed, they returned in 2011 with a brand-new store nearby. By 2011, they had switched to building flat-roof stores, so the fact that this uses the older gable roof design indicates plans had been drawn for a while and there was something that led to a delay in its construction.

Logan Township Liquor Mart, Bridgeport, NJ
It's just not a trip to Dirty Jerz if you don't take the opportunity to buy liquor from somebody other than the State of Pennsylvania for a change.

Delaware River Ferry Site, Bridgeport, NJ
While it may be little more than an overgrown parking lot now, this used to be the main way for anybody south of Philadelphia to get to New Jersey and back. It closed in 1974. Given how long it's been abandoned, I'm amazed this much of the road is still clear enough to drive on.

The ferry dock either was demolished or washed away at some point. Pieces of its foundation remain.

Looking across the river; that's Chester, PA in the distance.

The Commodore Barry Bridge, built between 1969 and 74, replaced the ferry. It was originally supposed to connect I-95 with the New Jersey Turnpike, but they instead opted to keep the smaller Swedesboro-Bridgeport road on the NJ side rather than rebuilding it as a limited-access turnpike connector road.
Fun fact: this is the longest cantilever bridge in the country and 4th longest in the world. The longest is Pont de Quebec in Canada, which only beats this by 156 feet.

Ferry Road, which formerly connected this to Rt. 322, is partially abandoned but not blocked off. The eastern side of it has some houses, but there is absolutely no sign of life on the last mile of it.

Pine barrens, jungle, same thing...

Also, just a heads-up, with my area entering the "yellow zone" of reopening, I was able to start my internship finally. While that's very good news for me, that also means I will not be able to crank out posts at quarantine speed anymore, so expect a return to my pre-lockdown rate of one post a week.