Allaire

Allaire traces the history and culture of the village from its days as a famous nineteenth-century industrial community to one of today's most popular living history museums in New Jersey. In 1822, James P. Allaire established the Howell Works, one of many bog-iron furnaces that once dotted the New Jersey Pine Barrens. Explored are the rise and fall of the industrial community, as well as the village's transition from the Allaire family to Arthur Brisbane, a famous Hearst newspaper editor. Also included are the early restoration efforts of Allaire Village and some familiar sites on the outskirts of Allaire, including Kessler Farms, Thompson's Dairy Farm, the Pine Creek Railroad, DeLisle's French Restaurant, and Allaire Airport. In 1836, more than three hundred people lived and worked at Howell Works, a self-sufficient community once complete with thirty buildings. The collapse of the bog-iron industry in the late 1840s left the village crumbling and nearly deserted by 1900. In 1907, on a leisurely drive from his Lakewood mansion, Arthur Brisbane bought Allaire Village. Revitalizing it, he created a luxurious country estate. Allaire contains images of the Allaire Inn, Brisbane's model farm, and the Boy Scouts' Camp Burton. During the 1900s, Allaire was home to the legendary Indian Joe, the Pennsylvania Railroad's doodlebugs, and Brisbane's full-time staff-the Macauley, Frostick, Service, and Reynold families.

Allaire historian Hance Morton Sitkus is the great-great-grandson of William Frostick, once the superintendent at Allaire for Arthur Brisbane, and the great-grandson of John Kessler, cofounder of Kessler Farms. His family has lived and worked in the Allaire area since the 1600s.