Egg Harbor Township, New Jersey - Adventure Village

Adventure Village, near Atlantic City, was built as a western-themed attraction for kids in the early 1960s, but has been used as residences since the place closed when I was a kid (around 1970).

I was small, but I remember the movie theater and the little tin badges that the Keystone Cops would give you. I have very faint memories of a spiral slide (and would love if someone could confirm this).

The place is being torn down now. [Jim, 05/20/2008]

[RA: Jim sent a couple of vintage postcard views. We heard from others about the land being cleared to make way for a huge car dealership...]

I lived in Adventure Village in the early 1980's. We lived in the Music Shop. The interior of the building was all modernized and lovely. The owner was a fellow named Marv who owned a Rock and Shell Shop in Cape May. He had a whole barn of his stuff. We had a lot of fun and people loved coming to visit! [Susan Ferris, 01/16/2008]

[RA: Adventure Village seems unique as a former fake Western theme town turned into affordable NJ housing!]

I visited Adventure Village several times as a child. There was a daily routine where the kids would chase the bank robber in the town square. After we caught him, we were given stars by the sheriff. The bad guy was then hanged (nice, huh?).

There was a train, an old time movie theater, go karts and other attractions. It's a nice memory of mine. [Ken McIntyre, 05/10/2007]

I lived in Adventure Village for about 2 years. The apartment was a converted movie theater. It had a huge attached wooden barn that was used as gift shop to sell little gems and polished stones.

Inside of the village there are quite a few buildings that were all converted into apartments. There had been a jail, blacksmith shop, general store, saloon, and a train station (there was once a train that went around the park).

I found a box full of original post cards that used to be sold there and it provided a great deal of info about the site. There was the train, a multi-level go cart track with covered bridge, side shows that included a high noon shoot-out on the main street.

When I was living there the landlord was trying to sell the place for profit, and when they came to do a survey, they said that the site could not be developed because of a protected frog and owl on the land. [kenny klotz, 01/17/2007]

I passed by an old entrance to an amusement attraction. It said "Adventure Village." I could see what appeared to be an old western type town, with log cabins, a small old-time street, some cars, etc. A "no tresspassing sign" is posted at the entrance but most of the building appear to be still standing. Unfortunately, a sign on the Black Horse Pike indicates that the grounds have been sold. Probably will be developed into shopping, as this area has been commercialized a lot in the recent past. I had no idea this place existed, just found it by accident. [P. Miedel, 02/04/2006]