The Reuben Matlack/ Asa Matlack/ later Lindley Gardiner farm

Then Maplewood Apartments, now in 2023 the Park Crossing Apartments



The old Reuben/ Asa Matlack (Sr. & Jr.) farmhouse burned down in 1911 and was replaced by a modern house. The old blacksmith shop remained until the Maplewood Apartments developers razed it around 1967.

From Moorestown and Her Neighbors written in 1929 by George DeCou-

The King's Highway from this point followed the general course of the lane leading to Lindley Gardiner's residence on the Reuben Matlack farm, now owned by Chalkley Matlack and Mary Matlack Smith, who are descendants of Reuben and Elizabeth Coles Matlack. Reuben Matlack's blacksmith shop erected in 1787 is still standing near the Gardiner residence and is especially interesting to the Friends in Moorestown and vicinity for the reason that the iron latches, hinges, etc., in the old brick Meeting House in Moorestown erected in 1802, were made in this shop. The Highway passed between the shop and the old Matlack homestead which stood in the rear of the Gardiner residence and from thence down the back lane to the south branch of Pennsauken Creek. The old Reuben Matlack homestead was unfortunately burned in 1911. Chalkley Matlack, now living on the farm, is greatly interested in the early history of the Society of Friends. He is preparing an album or series of albums with views of all the old Quaker Meeting Houses of Pennsylvania as well as of New Jersey, which when completed, will be of great historical value. The pictures of each Meeting House are accompanied by a brief historical sketch of the Meeting.


Ronson Manor, Inc., a corporation of the State of New Jersey
took title on July 25, 1967
under deed book 1646, page 928
from H. Lindley Gardiner, Jr. and Jeannette C. Gardiner, his wife, of the Township of Maple Shade

Containing 26.427 acres.

Being the same lands and premises which T. Chalkley Matlack, single, Asa M. Smith, Emma G. Gardiner, H. Lindley Gardiner, her husband, Emma G. Gardiner, Asa M. Smith, Executors under the Last Will and Testament of Mary T. Smith, deceased, by deed dated February 26, 1945, and recorded February 28, 1945, in the Clerk's Office of Burlington County, in Book 986 of Deeds, page 9, granted and conveyed unto H. Lindley Gardiner, Jr., one of the parties of the first part, in fee.


In a later deed-

New Maplewood Associates L.P., a New Jersey limited partnership
took title on December 29, 1986
under deed book 3325, page 198
from Ronson Manor Limited Partnership, a New Jersey limited partnership, formerly known as Ronson Manor, a New Jersey limited partnership
whose address is 1000 Maplewood Drive, Maple Shade, NJ.
for the sum of Twenty-Six Million ($26,000,000.00) Dollars


The Matlack family farms in Maple Shade were developed with apartment complexes in the late 1960s and early 1970s. This provided the tax rateables needed to build the Maple Shade High School.


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