Lost Along the Mullica: Hermann City

An email brought an unexpected surprise. Barry Caselli, who runs the Ghost Towns of Southern NJ Yahoo group, told of the location of the ruins of Hermann City, the town that only lasted six months.

As with many settlements in South Jersey, Hermann grew because of industry. With it�s close proximity to the Mullica, promising an easy way to move good and supplies in and out of the town, Hermann quickly sprang up around a glassworks. A tall chimney commanded the sky, and a labyrinth of canals and tunnels brought water from the Mullica to the furnace. At the far end of town, a large hotel boasting eighteen rooms, sixty houses, and docks, finished the town.

Then came the panic of 1873 and the furnace closed. As with most of the ghost towns in the Pine Barrens, most of the people moved on, although the family that ran the hotel stayed and kept the building within the family. In 1921, for safety reasons, the chimney was blown down with explosives.

While the hotel and much of the glassworks were still standing with Henry Charleton Beck visited in the 1930's, today all that remains are the network of canals slowly being reclaimed by nature , an empty field where the hotel stood, bricks scattered here and there from when the chimney fell, and one house made of Jersey stone, looking out towards the Mullica, now long forgotten.

You can see more pictures in the image gallery.

GPS coordinates: N 39′37.080″, W 074′36.032″