Girls in the Garden State

After so many weeks of packing and moving boxes, and then unpacking and moving boxes, I finally feel like I'm settled in my new home. Nearly everything downstairs is in its proper place, with my art supplies and seasonal decorations still requiring some organizing in the upstairs rooms, and then pictures to hang downstairs. But for the most part, I'm titivating, the heavy toiling has been completed, and so I was more than ready to pull out my camera and join some girlfriends for a day of urbexing. I was fully prepared the day before, even laying out my clothes and filling the car with gas.
But thankfully, Emily was driving, and soon we were on our way up to New Jersey. I had dressed warmly, wearing insulated trousers, a couple of shirts and hand warmers on the ready. We had 4 locations to visit, the first being an old machine factory that once made metal forming presses, ceasing bulk production in the mid 1960's. Today, after nearly 40 years of abandonment, it is slowly being reclaimed by nature. Trees are now growing under the broken glass roof, mosses and ivies creeping along dark walls and into corners. The fall colors of the dying leaves added to the drab yellows, greens and oranges of the peeling paint, bright blue broken panes of glass adding a pop here and there. This time of year had definitely enhanced the old factory's appeal with the weak sunlight that dappled the leaves and walls adding warmth to the palette. We had arrived at the perfect time and shutters could be heard snapping as we all slowly walked the length of the building. And it wasn't cold, a perfect temperature in fact, upper 40's, the chilly breeze forbidden from the building by tall brick walls.

Cindy took this photo of us discussing Emily's bees.We didn't stay too long, wanting to move on to the next location, we had a full agenda today. The next place in New Jersey was one I had previously explored with Richard and Margie, but we'd been scared away by male voices from a nearby building after only exploring one of the many structures. Today, we entered at a different point in the fence and managed to enter a machinery room without a hitch. This had been a glass and ceramics works, which had expanded throughout the country and also had factories abroad. Today it was silent, but we were able to climb ladders to the mezzanine flooring and capture evidence of the long stopped production. Broken molds and curling layers of colored paint were the focus as I trod carefully on the upper floors avoiding the holes in the flooring.

We did succeed in exploring the other buildings but they were empty, with only a few glass bottles strewn across dusty floors among piles of litter. Emily and I wanted to look further but the others had lost interest and so we quietly crept back towards our gap in the fence, stopping on the outside to pick up handfuls of pine needles for smoking Emily's bee hive. Apparently it has a calming effect on them.

We decided to have a break and find a brewery. We hadn't eaten since breakfast and now being mid afternoon we were ready for some vittles, but Emily and I were mostly keen on trying some local beer. After a drive to Glasstown Brewing, which was on the edge of an airfield, we were soon supping some great beers from this highly rated brewery. It was small and friendly, I wished it was nearer home. These smaller breweries are much more appealing than some of the larger, industrially built breweries in Virginia that cater towards large crowds. We then had to find food, which came in the form of greasy, dripping pizza. Wolfing 2 slices down each, we then made our way to a Futuro house. The one we visited was in Willingboro, but this link is a different location, but shows a plan of how the interior was laid out alongside period photos.

 Photo from Cindy.

Photo from Liz.
It was quite a bit smaller than I'd imagined and in poor shape. I struggled to visualize this round fiberglass blob divided up into rooms and lived in. But they were once hugely popular and the fact that they resembled the typical alien space ship image that everyone pictures in their minds, they appealed to many. We climbed in and out, taking photos from every angle, watching the sun dip towards the horizon, casting golden hues about us. We laughed as Liz held up her flashlight, hoping to cast a red light throughout the structure and create an eerie glow from within, but instead producing only a scarlet dot. The temperature was also dropping and we realized that we wouldn't make our fourth destination before dark. It could wait for another day. As night fell we began the long haul back to Virginia. It had been a grand day out.