А.Пушкин
A monument to the first greatest Russian poet - Alexander Pushkin - could be found in the woods near a lake in Jackson Township, New Jersey. The mysteriously desolate statue not only honors the Russian author but also tells the story of once thriving community.
The statue of the founder of modern Russian is located in so called Pushkin Park, ROVA Farms, Cassville section of the township. It is waist-length portrait of Alexander Pushkin, wearing long sideburns and dressed in traditional 19th century gentleman's clothes. He holds a scrolled paper with text in Russian inscribed into it. The portrait is painted black and is installed on top of a tapered stone base.
But how did the monument get there? It was erected on the 150th anniversary of the Russian poet, in 1949, by inhabitants of ROVA farms, a beautiful place which was considered a summer resort throughout most of the 20th century.
The story of the place began in 1934 when The Russian Consolidated Mutual Aid Society of America, known by the acronym of its Russian name, ROOVA or ROVA, bought 1,600 acres of land in Cassville NJ in Jackson Township, a central location between the Russian-American communities in Philadelphia and New York.
The society established a rural cultural center called ROVA Farm (colloquially known in the plural as ROVA Farms) which became a place of spiritual and cultural importance to the Russian-American community.
It was a place where Russian immigrants gathered for summer vacations, bought houses, and where Russian children went to camp. Those who vacationed there usually slept in one-room cabins and spent most of their days in communal living arrangements. Summers there were spent on the lake swimming, boating, or fishing. Gradually, many of the Russian vacationers settled and ROVA farms developed into a large Russian community.
Over the years, the resort went into decline and subsequently was closed. Some people who spent their childhood in ROVA farms think the place died with the older generation of original residents.
There is also a rumor that the place went down after a young man broke him neck jumping in the hurt lake and had sued the community.
ROVA farm is all boarded up and overgrown now but still remains a beautiful place, report accidental passersby.
Photo: flickr.com/photos/sheenachi
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Originally Posted by Радригес
