Forgotten New Jersey

Offers a visual journey through the state’s abandoned historical sites, showcasing its neglected architectural heritage.

Five-hundred-year-old buildings are easy to find across the Atlantic, yet here in America, “we tear down our Colosseums” and replace them with boring structures made of cheap brick and concrete. Most residents have no idea what our cities and towns looked like 100 years ago. Forgotten New Jersey is a collection of the author’s personal, full-color photographs from different perspectives and various years. These unique images offer the reader a seldom seen glimpse of what is left of New Jersey’s “antiquities.” Included in the book are: historic mansions, now abandoned or repurposed; empty hospitals that once housed those afflicted with tuberculosis or mental illness; vacant train stations which easily handled 100,000 people a day; desolate military forts and camps that protected New York and New Jersey from enemy attacks (which never happened); defunct factories and blast furnaces which produced ammunition; lumber and iron for the entire country; and much more. The accompanying description of each location will take you back in time and allow you to visualize these structures as they were decades ago. Mostly featured in this edition are locations throughout Northern and Central New Jersey.