

Blue Ball
COORDINATES
MUNICIPALITY
COUNTY
VISIT ORDER
40° 13' 7.530" N / 74° 15' 22.080" W
HOWELL TOWNSHIP
MONMOUTH
64
NOTES
A reasonably uneventful photo with an unreasonably cute dog (plus the only image that uses a name gimmick in the frame), this one was a complete win in the research department.
This part of present-day Adelphia (Howell) was once known as Turkey, New Jersey.
Before Turkey, it was called Blue Ball.
Not the easiest to pin down, but we were fortunate to find a map from 1861 specifically focused on the village of Blue Ball (shared below).
Even better, after more than 160 years the small central square formed by Clayton Avenue and Wyckoff Mills Road still exists in the exact same format.
The aging building used as the backdrop for our photo was once the site of the town's hotel or harness shop, and thanks to modern day GPS we can truly see the history of the land in which we stood.

Blue Ball, Howell, 1861

Adelphia, Howell, 2021