An Urban Wasteland in the Middle of the New Jersey Pinelands.
Brooksbrae Brick Factory 1 by Richard Lewis 2015
Brooksbrae Brick Factory 2 by Richard Lewis 2015
Brooksbrae Brick Factory 3 by Richard Lewis 2015
Brooksbrae Brick Factory 4 by Richard Lewis 2015
No matter how long I live in the New Jersey Pine Barrens, it is surprising that there are always new things to learn about. One recent discovery was the Brooksbrae Brick Company ruins.
The Brooksbrae Brick Company was founded in the early 20th century and burned down a few years after it opened. Suspicious? I’ll leave that to the historians to figure out. Me, I saw a photo op and tracked the place down.
What I found was a backwoods ruin covered in quality urban street art, otherwise known as graffiti. This isn’t the run-of-the-mill stuff like JB+NS 4EVER, or JACK IS A… It is a level of artistic graffiti that would look more at home on a wall in Philadelphia or New York City than in the middle of the Pines.
How did it get there? Is this old factory a country retreat for inner-city street artists? The New Jersey Pine Barrens are full of mysteries. so I guess this is another one.
Enjoy
I’ve been there many times; it’s one of my favorite places to take people. The last time I was there my sister stumbled on a geocache. Anyway, a little bit about Brooksbrae. There’s a nearby abandoned real estate development from the same era. A good history of the NJ brick industry can be found here: http://www.njpinebarrens.com/the-story-of-pasadena-and-its-neighboring-clay-industry/
Thanks for the insight and the link the history. I use that site a lot for research but never saw that post.
What the real mystery is why the State of NJ allows these type of ruination to our historical and natural resources. We should all be outrage! not puzzled
Unfortunately, this is the situation all over the state. In the Pines historic ruins are left to deteriorate and even preserved sites are under funded.
Graffiti dots our walls here too, both in urban and rural areas. The mindless motifs on land,arks such as rocks, outcrops, cold, footpaths are the annoying ones, but the ones where an attempt was made, often delight. I would and do not find the ones you have to ably brought to my screen into our home unlikable. On the contrary, they have taken seemingly tired old buildings and given them a voice. Great images.
Thanks Rudi. I’ve always been a bit perplexed by graffiti. In one sense it is vandalism but some of it has incredible artistic merit. It is an interesting modern conundrum.
I had never even heard of this place!
It was unknown to me until recently too. Send me an email and I’ll give you the location.
As impressive as your pictures are, I’m most impressed by your ability to avoid all the bad words in these pictures! 🙂
My favorite “era” of the graffiti here was a few years back when someone (or someones) came out and painted over all the bad and/or mean words and replaced them with whimsical ones. I had a great half hour or so hunting down their work in every corner of the complex. Those folks were dedicated!