Springdale Farms - Cherry Hill, NJ - Historic Preservation Awards on Waymarking.com

Our local historical society (Camden County Historical Society) is very active in recognizing and rewarding those sites that conserve their history through preservation efforts. Springdale Farms received their award on November 10, 2005. The award presentation was part of the Historical Society's annual fundraising dinner, which also featured a celebration of antiques, and an auction conducted by Audubon Auctioneers. The event was sponsored by Public Service Electric & Gas, 1st Colonial National Bank and the New Jersey Farm Bureau.

The overall survival of Springdale Farm was made possible by help from the Township of Cherry Hill and Camden County's Open Space Trust, which enabled the families to preserve the grounds as farmland and approved their creative plans for the construction of the store complex that now serves as the center of a business that grows 30 different kinds of fruits and vegetables. The facilities, which include an on-site bakery, grocery store, flower shop, gift shop, greenhouses and meeting rooms, have become a magnet for community members with a yen for the direct purchase of farm-fresh produce as well as a primal desire to be connected to a real-life local farm and real-life local farmers, just as their Camden County ancestors were. SOURCE

On a personal note, when I grew up here in the late sixties early seventies, farms were everywhere and I mean everywhere. I remember waking up one day and a goat was on our front yard which had strayed from the farm across the. Milk and eggs were delivered fresh as well. There was a farm on Brick Road I saw torn down and another where the Pep Boys is on Rt. 70. Short Hills was also a farm and the farm house from 1860 still stands, having been converted to a restaurant. Down Evesham Road was the Holy Ravine site where I remember feeding and petting the farm animals. Caddy corner to that is the last working horse farm in our town, also preserved which my friend Ken (from high school) owns. That is the Voorhees boarder shared with Cherry Hill. There are so many other farms, scores of them, lost to time and memoy, thankfully, this one still remains.

Quick History
"The original 67-acre Springdale Farm was established by Mary Ebert and her late husband, Alan, in a little-traveled, rural area of Camden County in 1949. It took its name from the natural springs that laced the area. The Eberts' was one of a network of family farms contracted to supply fresh vegetables to the Campbell Soup Co. in Camden and frozen food packer Seabrook Farms in Cumberland County. They also began the roadside produce stand that brought a regular tide of fresh produce pilgrims down the road that ultimately came to bear their farm's name."