Unidentified Overgrown Race Track

Unidentified Overgrown Race Track
Bridgeton, New Jersey (NJ), US
Less than a mile from downtown Bridgeton, NJ, west of Fayette St, lies this overgrown race track of some sort.

No where on the internet could I find anything to identify it. Perhaps an email to a city official can shed some light on what this place was.

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http://www.cityofbridgeton.com/
Less than a mile from downtown Bridgeton, NJ, west of Fayette St, lies this overgrown race track of some sort.

No where on the internet could I find anything to identify it. Perhaps an email to a city official can shed some light on what this place was.

http://www.cityofbridgeton.com/
View in Google Earth Unknown, Raceways - Car
By: AKpilotEMT

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milwhcky picture
milwhcky
@ 2010-03-12 06:05:39
Possibly the old Garden State Fairgrounds track used from 1911-1936.
http://www.autoracingrecords.com/arr/tracks.php?lid=35839
I'll research it this weekend.
AKpilotEMT picture
AKpilotEMT
@ 2010-03-12 10:50:45
Maybe but a Google search for that exact phrase turns up 1 listing, now 2 with this VG entry. I spent about an hour using all sorts of keywords and came up blank. That's got to be it, though.

I wonder when that property was last used. Something that fascinates me is that is has not been bulldozed and built upon with a new, shiny, soulless suburban sprawldivision . . . not yet.
AKpilotEMT picture
AKpilotEMT
@ 2010-03-12 10:59:12
There's a small parking area on Fayette St so this now might be an unofficial city park for walking/jogging.
milwhcky picture
milwhcky
@ 2010-03-12 11:32:30
The Cumberland County Fair web site mentions the fair was held at a location on Fayette Street from the 1890's to 1968. My previous link mentions that the track was located at the Cumberland County Fairgrounds. It's likely the track was also used for horse racing, as was common for fairground tracks in the early 1900's.
http://www.cumberlandcofair.com/history.html
Parabellum picture
Parabellum
@ 2010-03-12 13:15:49
USGS topo map shows the oval as a double dashed line, but does not label it.
AKpilotEMT picture
AKpilotEMT
@ 2010-03-12 13:19:30
Yup, the Topo is one of the places I checked. Looks like there was a big mental hospital not too far to the west. Long since gone.

Anyway, good work, milwhcky. Formerly the Cumberland County Fairgrounds. I'm still amazed it hasn't been turned into a subdivision.
milwhcky picture
milwhcky
@ 2010-03-12 17:03:41
No problem... thanks for posting it.

I dug a little further after getting home from work. The fairgrounds went by three names over the years - Cumberland County, Garden State, and Bridgeton Fairgrounds. The South Jersey Motor Club held the earliest events at the track.
coolhawks88 picture
coolhawks88
@ 2010-03-19 10:01:07
My Nan Has a Series of Photocroms of the race track from The summer 1920.
Anonymous picture
Anonymous
@ 2014-10-01 19:00:42
this is the Bridgeton fairgrounds..
there used to be a fair every year until the 70's track was always there and was not overgrown in the 70's
Anonymous picture
Anonymous
@ 2019-12-04 18:23:28
I used to live across the street from the old fairgrounds. I attended the last fair they had. The track was an old sulky track, so I was told. If you were facing the property from the street, to the right of the track was a huge abandoned horse barn, complete with a hay loft. My friends and I enjoyed playing there for hours at a time. I recently returned to my old play area and found it was fully grown in, trees, which were intentionally planted by the new owner for hunting purposes. So it is privately owned hence no building has occurred, and I hope it stays that way. The local authorities said I could go in there since I wasn't hunting on the owners property but, I didn't. I just wanted to see if the old barn was still there. Maybe another time.
Anonymous picture
Anonymous
@ 2021-06-07 13:40:50
I used to play in this area as a kid growing up. We were told it was an old horse track but we never got confirmation. We did experience strange events here. Pretty creepy area. There was a swamp called “Couby Hallow” just south of this “track”. Like I said, creepy area.

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