What’s This All About?!
My name is Samantha Costa, but most call me Sam. I’m a Journalism student at Rowan University in Glassboro, NJ. I’m also a section editor for Rowan’s weekly newspaper, The Whit. I have lived in Williamastown, NJ my entire life, and this blog will discuss things other residents may not notice. I want to put Williamstown on the map by talking about the local businesses, people, events, and little known facts! Thank you!
Excellent Blog. Some very interesting and unknown facts about our own town, Williamstown. Keep up the good work and will be looking forward to more news about my town.
Thank You
Nice Job. It’s good to learn new things about the town I’ve lived in for 32 years!
Thank you! It’s amazing what you can dig up about this town!
I lived in Williamstown from 1969 through 1975, attended Whitehall School as well as Cecil School. Was fun reading this stuff! Made me feel o-l-d to read that the library on Main Street has been replaced with a new one as I attended the grand opening of the library on Main St! Enjoyed the foliage pix from Forest Hills, we lived there on Palmer Court (some of the earliest residents). Thanks for taking the time to do this, hope you find time to add more stuff when classwork permits!
I lived on White Oak Lane until I was 8 years old. It seems like anyone who has lived in Williamstown has lived in Forest Hills. Thanks!
Forest Hills looks so overgrown in your photos but one cannot mistake those distinctive gas lights (or the style of the houses themselves for that matter). When we moved in, White Oak was actually the last street off of Forest Drive (i.e. if making right turns when coming from the Black Horse Pike). Back in those days, it seemed like the development was mostly comprised of young families from the Philly area buying their first house. We were an exception to “Philadelphia” though as we were from western New York. New houses were ~$20K. Of the ten or so houses on Palmer Court, I think only two families did *not* have children my age or younger.
Wow. That’s amazing! Forest Hills is huge now…most houses look the same, others have been redone.
Pin Oak, Black Oak and Red Oak were added while we lived there (ca. 1971). After that phase of building, Forest Drive dead-ended right after Red Oak, at the point where a dirt trail took a left turn off Forest down to the swimming pool. All of the other streets and extensions to streets were added post-1975.
Your “anyone who has lived in Williamstown has lived in Forest Hills” comment was telling in that it certainly wasn’t like that back then. I don’t recall knowing a single “townie” who moved out to Forest Hills or a single Forest Hills resident who subsequently moved to town. Seemed like Forest Hills was more of its own enclave village early on, albeit one without any of its own businesses so we had to run to town for everything. But that was forty years ago!
The dirt trail is still there, but not the swimming pool. The swimming pool was still around when I was very very little, and then something happened. I’m not sure of the story, but I’ve heard it a thousand times. 3/4 of the people I know in this town, were born and raised in this town. Most friends from elementary school or high school, lived, or still live in Forest Hills. In fact, one high school friend lived in Forest Hills his whole life, only to move out of his mothers house and buy his own house in Forest Hills. I’m looking to get away from this town as soon as I have the money to do it. lol
I noticed on Google Earth that it looked like the swimming pool was filled in. Another one of those little changes that makes one a little bit sad as I spent the better part of several summers there.
The pool opened the summer after I graduated third grade (’72). It was built by an association of the Forest Hills homeowners, not by the land developer. My father was very involved with the construction of the pool and the first few years of its operation until we moved to Toms River. If you ever recollect why the pool got closed, please drop me an email as he and I would both love to know.
I’m pretty far away from Williamstown and New Jersey itself for that matter. I’ve lived in Chiang Mai, Thailand, since 1998! One of these days when I am back visiting in the States, I’d love to do a drive-thru of the Williamstown area but at the same time, I sorta dread that idea as so much would no doubt, *not* be as I remember it.