St. Angers Abbey

Ashley, the composition in many of your photos is very nice. I would just work on balancing some of the photos better; 1, 4 and 6 have the potential to be really nice photos if they were balanced a little better. The rest came out great though! You can fix this to a certain extent in photoshop too..

Im diggin 2, 3, and 5 majorly though

Edited for content

Found on the web today...

officials are expected to meet again later this month with representatives of a former monastery to discuss plans to turn the landmark structure into a low-cost housing development, a township official said.

Under the plans, the township will build about 24 two- and three-bedroom units at the vacant monastery at St. Anger’s Abbey on Route 206 which is now popular for its annual Christmas tree sales.

About 17 more units will be built in a smaller, new facility that will be constructed behind the shuttered monastery to meet the township’s affordable housing obligation.

Municipal clerk Vita Thompson said preliminary engineering work has been completed at the site, and the township’s governing body is expected to meet in executive session this month with abbey representatives to discuss signing an extension of a one-year "due diligence" provision in a lease that was signed in November 2008.

The "due diligence" provision allows the township to conduct an array of inquiries about the building and the property before any construction begins. Under the initial lease, township paid the abbey $5,000 for the provision.

In the meantime, township officials are keeping their eye on the state legislature as it considers the future of the Council on Affordable Housing, which determines low-cost housing obligations for towns.

Gov. Chris Christie has proposed abolishing COAH in his slew of budget cuts, and it’s unclear how that might change plans for the landmark St. Anger’s Abbey site.

"A lot of what goes on there (at the abbey) depends on what goes on in Trenton," said Thompson.


An official at Homeless Solutions, a Morristown-based non-profit group that was expected to broker the deal for ******* Township, said the township is among many municipalities in the state that are waiting to see what happens in Trenton before proceeding to build affordable housing units.

"Towns are sitting on the sidelines waiting to see what comes to pass," said Dan McGuire, director of the group’s affordable housing division.

The stately, 24,778-square-foot monastery was founded in 1924. Some 60 Benedictine monks called it their home during its heyday in the mid-1950s and early 60s. The two-story, stone structure was closed about a decade ago as the number of clergy members using it declined.

oh your kidding me thats great news. sure we will be losing an abandonment, but its a shame to see a building with that much visual appeal fall victim to scum bags and vandals