Brooksbrae Brick Factory Night Cache Mystery Cache

In the 1890s Owen's hill was mined by Alfred Adams and the contact with the Eastern Hydraulic Press brick company was about to expire and not be renewed so the treasurer, William Kelly decided to create his own brick company in the area. This factory was started to be built in 1905 and was supposed to be able to make up to 50,000 bricks a day. In 1908 Kelly died and it never opened for operation. A clause in his will stipulated that a school and residence for Philadelphia homeless youth aged 16-20 was to be built in the Pasedena area, and the Brick Company was to be sold 10 years after his death to finance it. But unfortunately due to his early death, the plant had never opened.

Seven years later there was a railroad strike in the area and the caretakers were sent to the factory to keep watch to prevent mayhem. That night (Sept. 13, 1915) a fire burned down the place where the caretakers were staying, killing them and destroying the factory. Although a police investigation showed that the fire was accidental caused by a clogged chimney flue, many locals believed that they were murdered as part of a robbery by the strikers. Three years later in 1918 the plant was sold by trustees as part of his will but because the brick company had never operated, the plans for the Sarah Brooks Kelly Memorial home never was realized.

Nature has reclaimed much of what is left of the old factory, as it appears much like part of a lost Mayan city. The four long tunnels were to be part of a interior rail system to dry the bricks, and the curved tunnel is part of the heating system from the kiln to bake the bricks in the final process. The tiny room in the front appears to be part of the boiler room, and the large indent in the ground behind the place was to be the pug mill where the bricks are first mixed.

Reports of a supposed murder and suicide at Pasadena, between Chatsworth and Whitings, were brought back last week by deer-hunters who were locating stands for the opening of the season today. The tragedy occurred on Thursday at Brooks Brae brick manufacturing plant at Pasadena, in Ocean county, a short distance over the Burlington county line. The supposed murderer and suicide was Gildo Plazziano, a watchman at the brick plant, and his victim was Harriet, the 12-year-old daughter of Samuel Chattin, living nearby. Nothing was known of the crime until a small shack in which Plazziano lived was discovered to be on fire. The girl's father and brother hastened to the scene and were in time to see the bodies of the man and the girl lying on a cot in the bedroom, but on account of the heat they were unable to rescue them from the flames and they were so badly charred when recovered that it was impossible to determine the cause of death. The supposition is that the man had attacked the child and then, realizing the enormity of his crime, had killed her, set fire to the shack and then committed suicide. Plazziano was indicted three years ago for selling liquor without a license in the building in which the tragedy occurred.