Freehold, in the nineteenth century, enjoyed a period of tremendous growth and prosperity. The stately Victorian homes and commercial buildings that still line Main, Broad, and Brinkerhoff Streets in the center of town attest to that. A study of those architectural gems is offered here, as well as a section of studio portraits that show us the faces of the people who lived and worked in the area’s beautiful buildings. In the early twentieth century, Freehold was still a thriving Main Street town, with room for both large industries like the Karagheusian Rug Mill and small family businesses. Known as a center for institutions of learning, Freehold boasted schools that drew students from around the country. One of those, the Freehold Young Ladies Seminary, is represented in this book by a charming group of candid photographs of students from the 1880s. On the opposite end of the social spectrum is a collection of snapshots from Camp Brakeley, which shows the summer field hands from inner city neighborhoods who were brought by Brakeley’s Cannery
to work in Freehold.