Waterloo Village is a restored 19th-century canal town in Byram Township, Sussex County (west of Stanhope) in northwestern

New Jersey New Jersey is a U.S. state, state located in both the Mid-Atlantic States, Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern United States, Northeastern regions of the United States. Located at the geographic hub of the urban area, heavily urbanized Northeas ...

, United States. The community was approximately the half-way point in the roughly trip along the

Morris Canal The Morris Canal (1829–1924) was a toll road, common carrier Anthracite, anthracite coal canal across North Jersey, northern New Jersey that connected the two industrial canals in Easton, Pennsylvania across the Delaware River from its weste ...

, which ran from

Jersey City Jersey City is the List of municipalities in New Jersey, second-most populous

(across the

Hudson River The Hudson River, historically the North River, is a river that flows from north to south largely through eastern New York (state), New York state. It originates in the Adirondack Mountains at Henderson Lake (New York), Henderson Lake in the ...

from Manhattan, New York) to

Phillipsburg, New Jersey Phillipsburg is a town located along the Delaware River that is the most populous municipality in Warren County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. It is part of the Allentown-Bethlehem-Easton, PA-NJ metropolitan statistical area. As of the 202 ...

, (across the

Delaware River The Delaware River is a major river in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States and is the longest free-flowing (undammed) river in the Eastern United States. From the meeting of its branches in Hancock, New York, the river flows for a ...

from

Easton, Pennsylvania Easton is a city in and the county seat of Northampton County, Pennsylvania, United States. The city's population was 28,127 as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. Easton is located at the confluence of the Lehigh River and the Delawa ...

). Waterloo possessed all the accommodations necessary to service the needs of a canal operation, including an inn, a general store, a church, a blacksmith shop (to service the mules on the canal), and a

watermill A watermill or water mill is a mill that uses hydropower. It is a structure that uses a water wheel or water turbine to drive a mechanical process such as mill (grinding), milling (grinding), rolling, or hammering. Such processes are needed in ...

. For canal workers, Waterloo's geographic location would have been conducive to being an overnight stopover point on the two-day trip between Phillipsburg and Jersey City. It is currently an open-air museum in Allamuchy Mountain State Park. As part of the State Park, it is open to the public from sunrise to sunset. The village was added to the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...

on September 13, 1977. With

Canal and railroad eras

Opened in 1831, the

's traffic volume, which was primarily

anthracite coal Anthracite, also known as hard coal and black coal, is a hard, compact variety of coal that has a submetallic lustre. It has the highest carbon content, the fewest impurities, and the highest energy density of all types of coal and is the highe ...

from

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania, officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a U.S. state, state spanning the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern United States, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes region, Great Lakes regions o ...

, peaked during the late 1860s, shortly after the end of the

American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861May 26, 1865; also known by Names of the American Civil War, other names) was a civil war in the United States between the Union (American Civil War), Union ("the North") and the Confederate States of A ...

. Up until that time, the local railroads — the

Lackawanna Railroad The Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad, also known as the DL&W or Lackawanna Railroad, was a U.S. Class 1 railroad that connected Buffalo, New York, and Hoboken, New Jersey, and by ferry with New York City, a distance of . The railroad wa ...

's Sussex Branch and

Morris and Essex Railroad The Morris and Essex Railroad was a railroad across northern New Jersey, later part of the Main line (railway), main line of the Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad. History The M&E was incorporated January 29, 1835, to build a line from ...

— had only supplemented the canal's operation, rather than competing with it. Both railroads ran within a short distance of the village. After the War, the canal's traffic began to quickly shift over to the much faster and more reliable railroad. It was expected that during most winters the canal would be frozen solid, and thus impassable during the time when its chief commodity was in greatest demand. As a result, the canal underwent a steady decline, and so did Waterloo Village. Although the canal was not officially abandoned until 1924, rarely did more than one boat a year (to fulfill the conditions of the canal's charter) run through the canal after 1900. By the time of the

Great Depression The Great Depression was a severe global economic downturn from 1929 to 1939. The period was characterized by high rates of unemployment and poverty, drastic reductions in industrial production and international trade, and widespread bank and ...

, Waterloo Village had been abandoned by its original owners.

Unheralded saviors

The village's location, within a short distance of the Lackawanna Railroad (which had to overcome a steep eastbound grade towards

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York New York may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * ...

near Waterloo, slowing freight trains to a crawl as they labored up the hill to Netcong), made it easy for

hobo A hobo is a migrant worker in the United States. Hoboes, tramps, and bums are generally regarded as related, but distinct: a hobo travels and is willing to work; a tramp travels, but avoids work if possible; a bum neither travels nor works. Et ...

s to jump on and off

boxcar A boxcar is the North American (Association of American Railroads, AAR) and South Australian Railways term for a Railroad car#Freight cars, railroad car that is enclosed and generally used to carry freight. The boxcar, while not the simpl ...

s. The hobos, as it turned out, found Waterloo and adopted it as a stopping off point on their cross-country journey towards New York. This new purpose for the village wasn't all that different from its original purpose a century earlier. The hobos protected Waterloo Village by occupying it throughout the 1930s and '40s. The original Waterloo railroad station was moved from the station site during the 1940s and became a private residence on

U.S. Route 206 U.S. Route 206 (US 206) is a north–south United States Numbered Highway in the states of New Jersey, New Jersey and Pennsylvania, Pennsylvania. Only about a half a mile (800 m) of its length is in Pennsylvania; the Milford–Monta ...

Mount Olive Township, New Jersey Mount Olive Township is a township in western Morris County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. As of the 2020 United States census, the township's population was 28,886, its highest decennial census count ever and an increase of 769 (+2.7%) f ...

Rebirth

Percival 'Percy' Leach established the

not-for-profit A not-for-profit or non-for-profit organization (NFPO) is a Legal Entity, legal entity that does not distribute surplus funds to its members and is formed to fulfill specific objectives. While not-for-profit organizations and Nonprofit organ ...

Waterloo Foundation for the Arts to finance the restoration of the village in 1967. Leach and his partner in the interior design business Lou Gualandi turned it into a

living history Living history is an activity that incorporates historical tools, activities and dress into an interactive presentation that seeks to give observers and participants a sense of stepping back in time. Although it does not necessarily seek to ree ...

tourist attraction with working

blacksmith A blacksmith is a metalsmith who creates objects primarily from wrought iron or steel, but sometimes from #Other metals, other metals, by forging the metal, using tools to hammer, bend, and cut (cf. tinsmith). Blacksmiths produce objects such ...

s, potters, candle dippers and weavers demonstrated crafts from the colonial historic eras. The village would eventually become part of New Jersey's Allamuchy Mountain State Park. Admissions fees being never enough to cover the administrative costs of the attraction, the partners sought out corporate and state grants, but ultimately opened an open-air concert field on the property in 1977 to raise funds. Notable acts who have performed at Waterloo include

Muddy Waters McKinley Morganfield (April 4, 1913April 30, 1983), better known as Muddy Waters, was an American blues singer-songwriter and musician who was an important figure in the post-World War II blues scene, and is often cited as the "father of moder ...

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, Steppenwolf, the

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Arlo Guthrie Arlo Davy Guthrie (born July 10, 1947) is an American folk music, folk singer-songwriter. He is known for singing protest song, songs of protest against social injustice, and storytelling while performing songs, following the tradition of his fa ...

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Roy Orbison Roy Kelton Orbison (April 23, 1936 – December 6, 1988) was an American singer, songwriter, and guitarist known for his distinctive and powerful voice, complex song structures, and dark, emotional ballads. Orbison's most successful periods were ...

Bob Dylan Bob Dylan (legally Robert Dylan; born Robert Allen Zimmerman, May 24, 1941) is an American singer-songwriter. Described as one of the greatest songwriters of all time, Dylan has been a major figure in popular culture over his nearly 70-year ...

Neil Young Neil Percival Young (born November 12, 1945) is a Canadian and American singer-songwriter. After embarking on a music career in Winnipeg in the 1960s, Young moved to Los Angeles, forming the folk rock group Buffalo Springfield. Since the begi ...

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Edie Brickell Edie Arlisa Brickell (born March 10, 1966) is an American singer-songwriter widely known for 1988's ''Shooting Rubberbands at the Stars'', the debut album by Edie Brickell & New Bohemians, which went to No. 4 on the ''Billboard'' albums chart. ...

Melissa Etheridge Melissa Lou Etheridge (born May 29, 1961) is an American singer, songwriter, musician, and guitarist. Her Melissa Etheridge (album), eponymous debut album was released in 1988 and became an underground success. It peaked at No. 22 on the Billbo ...

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and three

Lollapalooza Lollapalooza () is an annual American four-day music festival held in Grant Park (Chicago), Grant Park in Chicago. It originally started as a touring event in 1991, with Chicago becoming its permanent location beginning in 2005. Music genres i ...

tours. In addition to pop and rock concerts, Waterloo has also hosted craft shows, ethnic festivals, conventions,

Metropolitan Opera The Metropolitan Opera is an American opera company based in New York City, currently resident at the Metropolitan Opera House (Lincoln Center), Metropolitan Opera House at Lincoln Center, situated on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. Referred ...

, jazz, classical music and the Geraldine R. Dodge Poetry Festival.

Controversy, downfall, and closure

Following Gualandi's death in 1988, Leach became involved in several controversies that brought greater scrutiny upon the Waterloo Foundation for the Arts. The most controversial was the so-called "land swap" that allowed

BASF BASF SE (), an initialism of its original name , is a European Multinational corporation, multinational company and the List of largest chemical producers, largest chemical producer in the world. Its headquarters are located in Ludwigshafen, Ge ...

corporation to build a large corporate headquarters on land that had once been part of Allamuchy Mountain State Park. The Waterloo

board of directors A board of directors is a governing body that supervises the activities of a business, a nonprofit organization, or a government agency. The powers, duties, and responsibilities of a board of directors are determined by government regulatio ...

subsequently brought in a new management team and throughout the mid-to-late 1990s tried to rebuild trust in the running of the village. In 1995, a concert-goer died at a

concert that had attracted 30,000 people even though only 18,000 tickets were sold. Events like this had completely overwhelmed the area's limited access roads and caused considerable friction with the surrounding towns. The foundation began downsizing the concerts around this time. In the period from 2003 to 2006, the Waterloo Foundation for the Arts had received $900,000 from the

State of New Jersey New Jersey is a state located in both the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States. Located at the geographic hub of the heavily urbanized Northeast megalopolis, it is bordered to the northwest, north, and northeast ...

for general expenses, along with more than $300,000 since 2000 to cover repairs. As the state showed increasing displeasure with the village's operation, the $250,000 the group had expected to receive, which would have been used towards the $2 million operating budget for the site, was cut from the 2007 state budget. Waterloo Village was shut down in December 2006, except for the privately owned Waterloo United Methodist Church, which has a small but dedicated congregation and continues to operate as it has for over 150 years. In the period beginning in 2006, the Village was only open intermittently. Percy Leach died in 2007 leaving the organization's future uncertain.

Reopening

Since the closing, several organizations have continued to restore aspects of the village. Friends of Waterloo and the Canal Society focused on ''Canal Town'' while a non profit called Winakung at Waterloo Inc. focused on the sustainability of the Lenape Indian Village. Through a concession agreement with the NJDEP Division of Parks and Forestry in 2014, group tours and programs became available at the village by reservation. Winakung at Waterloo Inc. educational programs meet core curriculum standards and are ideal for school trips, scout groups, and summer camp field trips. Winakung at Waterloo Inc. also offers year-round outreach programs for schools, libraries, historical societies, Clean Communities, and more. In the spring of 2014, a 10-year lease (with the option of 10 more) was awarded to Jeffrey Miller Catering (JAM Catering) out of Philadelphia, making them the exclusive caterer for Waterloo Village. JAM has renovated the Meeting House and Pavilion. Beginning May 2014, the SMS Italian Festival, an annual Non-Profit event supporting the children of St Michael School, began at the village. In May 2017, the stage was demolished to prepare for future festivals and make way for a new stage to be built on the grounds.

United Methodist Church

The cornerstone for the Waterloo Village

United Methodist Church The United Methodist Church (UMC) is a worldwide mainline Protestant Christian denomination, denomination based in the United States, and a major part of Methodism. In the 19th century, its main predecessor, the Methodist Episcopal Church, was ...

was set on August 9, 1859, and the church was dedicated on February 9, 1860. General John Smith was the first to be buried in the churchyard cemetery.

Gallery

File:Waterloo Village, NJ - Peter D. Smith House.jpg, Peter D. Smith House File:Waterloo Village, NJ - Smith Homestead House.jpg, Smith Homestead House File:Waterloo Village, NJ - Morris Canal and Smith's General Store.jpg, Smith's General Store, by the Morris Canal File:Morris-Canal-Lock-Waterloo-Village.JPG, A small aqueduct crosses the old

canal lock A lock is a device used for raising and lowering boats, ships and other watercraft between stretches of water of different levels on river and canal waterways. The distinguishing feature of a lock is a chamber in a permanently fixed position i ...

File:Blacksmith Shop, Waterloo Village, NJ.jpg, Blacksmith Shop File:Morris Canal, Inclined Plane 4 West, Waterloo Village, NJ - towpath bridge.jpg, Ruins of the towpath bridge from the Morris Canal, Inclined Plane 4 West File:Morris and Essex Canal at Waterloo, N.J., the plane.jpg, Historic view of the inclined plane File:Waterloo Village, NJ - United Methodist Church.jpg, United Methodist Church

References

External links

*
Winakung at Waterloo Inc. Fully Guided and Interpreted Educational Tours of Waterloo Village and Winakung, the recreated Lenape Native American Village Canal Society of New Jersey
* ttp://www.state.nj.us/dep/parksandforests/parks/allamuch.html Allamuchy Mountain State Parkbr>Allamuchy parksWaterloo United Methodist Church
{{Authority control Museums in Sussex County, New Jersey Native American museums in New Jersey Ghost towns in New Jersey Open-air museums in New Jersey History museums in New Jersey Byram Township, New Jersey New Jersey Register of Historic Places National Register of Historic Places in Sussex County, New Jersey Historic districts on the National Register of Historic Places in New Jersey Event venues established in 1977