Fork-in-the-road. Paul Goldfinger © 2004.

Re-posted by popular demand from August, 2017.   By Paul Goldfinger, Editor @Blogfinger

A wise man once said, “When you come to a fork in the road, take it.”  (attributed to Yogi Berra).

Mounttabornj.org

In 1869, when Ocean Grove was founded, another New Jersey campground was also incorporated.  It was Mount Tabor located in the Parsippany-Troy Hills  area of Morris County. It was formed by the same Newark Methodist Episcopal Church which started Ocean Grove, the jewel in the crown of a series of Methodist summer camp grounds.

As with OG, it had a religious basis and went through familiar territory for us, with tents becoming Victorian cottages and a Camp Meeting Association running the place. The cottages were close together with lot sizes of 16×25. Some of its historic places survive today.

Photo by Pinterest  Mt. Tabor Victorian.

But here is where the fork in the road occurred. Whereas Ocean Grove had became a huge summer festival with tens of thousands of religious tourists flooding into town, mostly by train, Mt. Tabor shrunk in size with declining visitor attendance and it became, in essence, a small town.  It pretty much gave up the religious life in 1889, becoming secularized, and the Camp Meeting Association had to re-invent itself.   The leased land phenomenon continued in both communities (a “land-lease” arrangement.)

The quality of life at Mt. Tabor was gentle and continues to be so. No wagons were parked on camp grounds. 350 families lived there, so it was significantly smaller than the Grove. It was a year round community and had none of the Grovarian trappings like hotels, rooming houses and shops. Tourism declined over the years. It never had British car shows or giant flea markets.

In 1980 after the NJ Supreme Court ruled that the OGCMA had to give up governance, so also did Mt. Tabor have to give up municipal control and officially become part of Parsippany-Troy Hills.

In a nod to the past, those who choose now to live in Mount Tabor encounter an unusual twist. While the camp meetings are history, aspects of Mount Tabor life are still run by the Camp Meeting Association or “CMA” which functions as a homeowners association looking after the best interests of the people, and caring for the historic common buildings and parks and administering many aspects of the community.

Though the town did became part of Parsippany-Troy Hills in 1980, the CMA continues to own Mount Tabor ‘s property, leasing the land to homeowners, who pay annual fees. But the CMA are the homeowners.

The town CMA says, “As a Leaseholder in Mount Tabor you have a host of amenities available to you within our community. The common facilities in Mount Tabor can accommodate a wide variety of uses from birthday parties and other personal gatherings to meeting and event venues for approved community groups; this service is free to Leaseholders. In addition we encourage all of our residents to take advantage of our professionally maintained green spaces and parks.”   (cmatabor.com)

Here is a very good video about Mt. Tabor.

history video      www.cmatabor.com

Source:  NJ Skylands.com

As for Ocean Grove, we have evolved an incestuous governance with multiple players including Neptune Township, local multi-generational family networks, developers, the CMA, and OG organizations such as the Home Owners Association.

Left out in the cold, unlike Mt. Tabor, are the residents of Ocean Grove who are treated as an afterthought, despite paying exorbitant taxes.  It’s still fixable;  where are the leaders and the ideas? I guess the future leaders are down by the schoolyard.  Maybe they will find a pathway to secession or a generous and caring arrangement like Mt. Tabor has with Parsippany-Troy Hills.

PAUL SIMON: