The Deserted Village of Allaire, formerly Howell Iron Works, is located within Allaire State Park. Howell Iron Works was an iron-producing, factory-town. As a self-sufficient community, Howell Iron Works had a blacksmith shop, carpentry shop, pattern-making shop, blast furnace, iron mills, bakery, general store, post office, boarding house, workers’ homes, school, and church. Cohesively, Howell Iron Works exemplified the economic and social changes that New Jersey residents experienced during the Industrial Revolution. When James Allaire purchased the property in 1822, he named it the Howell Works to differentiate the site from his Allaire Works in New York. During the next ten to fifteen years, he intensively developed the site, building homes and industrial buildings. The site soon became a self-sustained community of four hundred people. The Howell Works produced casting and pig iron that were shipped to Allaire’s foundry in New York for building steamship engines and boilers. The current village includes thirteen original structures, built between 1750 and 1835, and forty acres of land.

The 2022 Trust grant will help fund the installation of a new roof, HVAC system, and ADA modifications for the Enameling Building, as well as a new roof and steeple structure for the Historic Chapel.

The 2019 Trust grant helped fund removal of a bat colony and remediation of bat waste in the attic of the General Store.   

 For more information, visit: http://allairevillage.org/