Historic Kings Highway Mile Marker - Haddonfield, NJ
N 39° 53.897 W 075° 01.902
18S E 497290 N 4416468
There used to be many of these in Camden County, especially in Haddonfield. This would be the last one remaining as the other ones have simply disappeared. This gives distance to Camden and to Gloucester
Waymark Code: WM891X
Location: New Jersey, United States
Date Posted: 02/20/2010
Views: 8
These two pointing hands found on two separate sides of this stone pillar are 237 years old...Holy Cow! The pointing hands are at the top of their respective sides of this stone. They are worn but discernible. This marker is along Haddon Avenue, 10 feet, Northwest, past the intersection of Kings Highway East and Haddon Avenue. it sits in front of the Happy Hippo toy store. According to the marker, continuing northwest on Haddon Avenue, Camden is 5 miles away. I made the drive down Haddon Avenue, an original NJ road probably dating back to the Lenape Indians (one of their trails perhaps) and it was almost exactly 5 miles. Another marking indicated a town named Glou ( presumably Gloucester) is five miles away (According to the pointing hand) traveling in a northeasterly direction along King Highway. That one confuses me but the Camden mileage makes perfect sense. The stone is dated 1773 so it could be an area that no longer exists.
Haddonfield used to be replete with these milestones. To put this historic nature of this marker in context, consider when America was on the brink of singing our Declaration of Freedom, when NJ was a colony and local resident did battle with the England invaders, this marker was a witness, to all of it.
I usually search for these markers, especially in these early 18th century towns. It is hard to imagine missing this but that is exactly what I had done. There are other corners where you can see these types of markers once stood but all that remains is the gray, granite, base flush against the concrete sidewalk. Everyone is gone except for this one. The milestone is a little chipped and each year it becomes a little more worn. I think it might be a good idea to encase the marker in some kind of lucite so that future generations might get to see it.