Chatsworth, NJ

The Pine Barrens: A New Jersey town stuggles to stay on the map

From the porch of Buzby’s general store in Chatsworth, N.J., you can see just about every building in what residents call “The Capital of the Pine Barrens.” Up the road is the White Horse Inn, a reminder of what the town was when that title was bestowed. Pineys say life is different in the Barrens, and in Chatsworth they’re trying to preserve it.

“I’m in absolute awe of this building,” says Lynne Giamalis, sitting in one of the inn’s 15 gutted rooms amid the debris of preserving Chatsworth’s history. “We’re trying to save as much of the original as we can.”

The New Jersey Pine Barrens consist of 1.1 million acres, almost a fifth of the state’s land. Home to hundreds of species of animal and plant life, its miles of pine forest are broken up by cranberry bogs where the third largest cranberry crop in the nation is grown.

For two centuries, entrepreneurs and businessmen have begun and ended schemes to develop its resources. Towns have grown, prospered, and died here—and some have survived.

Chatsworth is among the latter. Briefly a winter playground for the Vanderbilts, Astors, and Morgans in the 19th century, when they departed—and the country club where they played burned down—the town was left with a smattering of buildings, fewer than 200 people, and a cranberry farming industry. There was also the White Horse Inn and Buzby’s store, but by the middle of the 20th century, these, too, wound up derelict and abandoned.

For a time, the Barrens faced extinction—developments and malls on its outer borders, plans for unlimited logging, and an oil pipeline threatened to destroy it. Then, in 1978, Congress designated the Barrens the nation’s first Federal Reserve, the United Nations followed with a designation as an International Biosphere Reserve, and the state Legislature passed the Pinelands Protection Act.

Chatsworth is in the heart of the 294,000-acre preservation area. With a population of 1,500 spread over 73,000 acres, it’s the largest township in the state. Recently, the town has begun to shake itself awake.

Buzby’s, a landmark since 1865, had been abandoned since 1966. Marilyn Schmidt, who describes herself as “a convinced Piney,” came across the building while visiting the Barrens. “I hated to see the old building falling apart,” she says. She sold her home on Long Beach Island, bought Buzby’s, and for two years sank every penny she had into its restoration.

Today, Buzby’s is again a busy little café and gift shop. It’s listed on the National Historical Register, and its old outhouse is fenced in as an archaeological site—a potentially valuable source of information about discarded items and people’s diets.

A boarding house in its heyday, the White Horse Inn was taken over by the town in 1983, after being out of use for 30 years. There was no plumbing, no heat, the roof leaked, and teenagers used it for a hangout. A restoration committee formed, and a fall Cranberry Festival was inaugurated to raise money for the inn. In 13 years of festivals, they managed to replace the roof.

Over time, volunteers to head the event became scarce. Faced with ending the festival and shutting down the project, Giamalis raised her hand.

“I offered to run it,” she says. “It was supposed to be a one-year thing. That was four years ago. We do the work as we get the money.”

Restoration of the historic inn continues. “We have a lot of seniors here. We have scouts who meet in people’s homes. This will be a place for them to meet,” Giamalis says of her plans.

Working part time on the project is her husband, Al, a small group of local volunteers, and teenagers from Vision Quest, a juvenile rehabilitation program. With catch-as-catch-can funding and returns from the festival, they slowly move forward. The interior has been gutted, the wiring ripped out, and plans for exterior work are under way.

For Giamalis and her friends, reviving the inn is their way of preserving a little corner of history.

“The way Chatsworth is now, is the way it’s going to stay,” she says.

Writer Warren Jorgensen visits the Pine Barrens from his home in Tarrytown, N.Y.

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