An explorer friend of mine messages me and says “Hey I found this great big farm! I didn’t have time to check it out because it was almost dark. Wanna go with me?” How could I resist? So I met up with him Friday and checked it out. It appears to have been abandoned for maybe 8-10 years or so. The place was pretty well cleaned out. We didn’t find the usual leavings, like mail and garbage and clothing. We found a few toys here and there, a little bit of junk amongst the weeds and bushes but very little else. There was no evidence of kids or squatters either. No beer cans, bottles or drug use. No graffiti. I like to find stuff left behind, sometimes you can learn a bit about the people or the place. Not here, but it was nice to not see a place ruined by vandals either.
It looked like your typical farm. there definitely were animals raised here, and there was a fairly large corn field that was fallow. Interestingly the corn was still growing in neat rows. Apparently the birds eats the corn cobs as they fall but enough kernels remain to seed new plants. The buildings are in rough shape but nothing that couldn’t be salvaged. The buildings were probably built in the 50’s. There was a garage/shed type building, one large main barn with some smaller wings built off to the side, as well as the two actual houses. The houses had a very weird layout, I suspect it was expanded at some point. Its the only way to explain the layout.
I’m surprised it is still here and that its pretty untouched. Its in what I would say a prime retail location and is easily visible from the road…..
All the photos are here or go to the Facebook group
The Lostinjersey Blog 
Posted by Jody Dieguez on March 29, 2018 at 11:05 PM
Abandoned farm in Phillipsburg | The Lostinjersey Blog
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Posted by Jack Rescoe on April 20, 2015 at 8:55 PM
You guys are amazing. In a very similar way, you are doing what I was doing about 60 years ago. I’ll bet I explored more iron mines in several years than anyone around today. Much of the public, unpatrolled/policed land is no longer accessible. It was very hard to get to the Bull Mine in Monroe, NY 50 years ago. There was a bat colony in the lowest level of the Bull Mine, thousands of them, all lined up on the shaft ceiling, sleeping away when I was there in winter. Great memories.
Posted by Jack Rescoe on April 20, 2015 at 8:44 PM
Your Lostinjersey is fascinating. Living in Elizabeth about 1952, I became so enamored with Jersey history from reading the Newark News columns by Henry Charlton Beck, so as I was just a boy living in Elizabeth, I needed to find a way to visit the places Rev. Beck wrote about. I discovered the Union County Hiking Club, founded in Elizabeth in 1938. They let me join at age twelve (1954) with my parents approval, and by going out on many, many hikes with very well-educated adults, I got to visit countless historical Jersey sites; iron mines, deserted villages, etc. I’m going on 74 and have lived in Oregon for 32 years, but Lostinjersey really get’s me fired up. I can tell you some true stories!.
Posted by Jack Rescoe on April 20, 2015 at 9:02 PM
You guys are amazing. In a very similar way, you are doing what I was doing about 60 years ago. I’ll bet I explored more iron mines in several years than anyone around today. Much of the public, unpatrolled/policed land is no longer accessible. It was very hard to get to the Bull Mine in Monroe, NY 50 years ago. There was a bat colony in the lowest level of the Bull Mine, thousands of them, all lined up on the shaft ceiling, sleeping away when I was there in winter. Great memories.
Posted by Jack Rescoe on April 20, 2015 at 9:13 PM
At my age, time is precious. I have a very cool suggestion for you if you’d like to see an amazing iron mine on the Bucks County side of the Delaware River. On the maps, the U.S.G.S. quadrangle is the best, two thousand feet south of the tiny town of Lumberville, Pa, there are two adits, one is an ore pass and very dangerous, but the other is the adit where miners entered; very close to each other. It’s dry as a bone down in this mine; no dripping moisture. Never found out the history, but I suspect it was operational in the early or mid 19th century, perhaps 1835-45. Last I was there was about 1957.