Caldwell College book signing
On the way home from the Earth Angel Toys held at Charlotte's Tea Room, I wanted to stop off at a place I used to go to as a child called The Gingerbread Castle located in Hamburg, NJ!
Tucked away, deep in the countryside of northern New Jersey is a place called The Gingerbread Castle located on Rt. 23 & Gingerbread Castle Rd, Hamburg, Sussex County, NJ. The grounds of the castle started as flour mill built in 1808 called: Wheatsworth Mills,
then it became something called the Plastoid Corporation. This changing of factories was the result of the unprofitable flour company, so it was turned it into the Plastoid Corporation which was actually a wire and cable factory this sale was actually became the basis for the castle. In 1928 the owners used their wire and plastics to create several plastic dinosaurs which adorned the property. As children came to visit these life sized creatures, the owners added more dinosaurs and finally, they added the Gingerbread Castle which was built hanging off one of the factory walls, evolving into a fairy/story book style amusement park, built in 1930 by F.H. Bennett, inventor of Milk Bone Dog Biscuits and the owner of the Wheatsworth Mills, whose original tiling can still be seen on the stone gate structures today. Mr. Bennett created a life-sized castle to tell the story of "Hansel and Gretel," this painted pink structure would be called: The Gingerbread Castle. He also created additional life sized vignettes which showcased other stories from Mother Goose Rhymes including Humpty Dumpty who sat on his wall,
the park even had a miniature railroad for children to ride and get excited over. Along with fave replicas of Cinderella, Jack and Jill and A Woman Who Lived In A Shoe.
During the latter part of the 1980's, the Gingerbread Castle fell into a state of disrepair, this showed the lack of maintenance and care of the castle. Eventually, the property was primarily closed and used only as a haunted house attraction during Halloween, not a fitting event for this once storybook place. This demise seemed so dark and dreery, don't you agree?
But around 2002 someone had taken a renewed interest in the property, a man by the name of Frank Hinger who bought the property. Mr. Hinger started a series of fundraisers to help fix and restore the castle to its original state. This restoration project was boosted, by some donations and contributions from the Hampton Inn hotel chain who prompted its workers and other to volunteer work as part of the restoration attemps.
The sad thing is Mr. Hinger's attempts to restore the castle failed, so did the structure he built across the street called the Gingerbread Grill. 
It just seemed no matter what he did his attempts failed, having resistance from town officials/municipal I'm sure didn't help his cause and efforts, but that is something the public may never know, a battle between parties.The next measure was to sell off the property to someone who would elaborate on his vision and have the money to do it. In the beginning of 2007, the properties were finally sold, this time to Gene Mulvihill who vowed to not turn the property into condos, townhouses or a strip mall. Gene was quoted in saying: "It's in blood, I won't change the castle," and created the Historic Hamburg LLC, which he is a principal holder in, formed especially for the castle renovation project. He also is a principal holder in Grey Elephant LLC, which own the vacant 15 acre Plastoid Factory site adjacent to the castle. Basically Mr. Mulvihill bought the 1-acre castle site and another 7 acres across from Gingerbread Castle Road that includes a the Gingerbread Castle Grille.
I hope to see a surge in restoration on this historic site, which I believe will be turned into a children's museum and park again, a day I'd love to see and watch come alive. To read more on the sale of this site visit:
http://www.crystalspringsbuilders.com/Content/Articles.asp?SID=1&CID=24&AID=109
To learn more about the Gingerbread Castle and to see old pictures, visit:
http://www.thegingerbreadcastle.com/
