By William Sokolic
Prior to the opening of the upscale Auto Lenders dealership on the Black Horse Pike in Egg Harbor Township, the tract off of Ivins Avenue was home to a summertime staple for 10 years.
Adventure Village was a western, gay ’90s-themed attraction, complete with train rides, a saloon, bank robberies and arrests of some bad hombres.
The idea emerged after a Warner Family vacation to Gaslight Village in Lake George, N.Y. Frederick Warner was so impressed he wanted to build one just like it.
Since he earned a living designing homes in suburban Philadelphia – the Main Line – the elder Warner designed Adventure Village himself after he bought a property on the Black Horse Pike, about a mile from Storybook Land. With an assist from three carpenters, he constructed the park in nine months,
The vintage train included a wood-burning smokestack. A goat pulled a mini-buckboard ride. The Pink Garter saloon served pink lemonade. The Village Center housed the jail. The Hippodrome Theater ran a continuous loop of silent movies, starring Laurel and Hardy, Buster Keaton and the like. The village also had an old-fashioned ice-cream parlor.
Everyone in the Warner Family had a role to play, said Lynn Wood, Frederick’s daughter. Wood, a retired teacher from Mays Landing, worked in the gift shop, the saloon and made cotton candy in the sweet shop. Word has it she robbed the train once.
Frederick served as mayor and deputized his children. Warner’s son, Scott, for example, played the ever-escaping train robber, Slippery Sam, assisted by visitors to Adventure Village.
Dave Garner wrote on a Facebook page devoted to Adventure Village that he remembers going there with his cousin.
“Slippery Sam broke out of jail so me, my cousin, and about 30 to 40 other kids brought him down. I heard the poor guy say to himself, ‘God help me!’ I still recall hearing him say that.”
Fredrick moved the family to Egg Harbor Township in 1959 to develop and create Adventure Village. The village thrived each summer through much of the tumultuous 1960s.
Adventure Village was to pre-teens what its neighbor down the Black Horse Pike, Storybook Land, was to pre-school children.
Storybook Land had been in business a few years before Adventure Village appeared.
The two parks were not the closest to the coast. For more traditional amusements, you had to visit the coast of the Jersey Shore: Wildwood, Ocean City, Atlantic City and points north.
The existence of the splashier sites on the beachfront did not deter the Warner Family from becoming part of the fabric of the Jersey Shore experience.
Warner sold the rides in 1969 and turned the buildings into apartments, which he rented out, mostly to professors from Atlantic Community College.
Colleen M. Brennan-Larcombe lived in one of the apartments, but was also a visitor to Adventure Village.
“So I remember the good times we had,” she wrote on Facebook.
Frederick sold the property in 1979 and it eventually ended up with Auto Lenders. In 2008, demolition brought down what was left of Adventure Village.
One more task remained. The fire company did practice drills on the buildings.
Lynn Wood and other family members – her parents were deceased by then – watched the demolition in 2008 with more than a twinge of sadness, she said, recalling the sight of the buildings doubling down.
She has a photo of her in the village taxi by the Pink Garter Saloon.
“I was in the back seat. My little brother stood on the running board. The taxi is still around…It appears in antique car shows.”
William Sokolic is a veteran journalist who has written for daily, weekly and monthly publications. He’s covered a wide range of news, features and entertainment stories. Much of his work concerns tourism, Atlantic City, and the gaming industry.
