The Town Named Man-ville

Growing up, I spent a week every summer at Manville, the Nazarene church camp in the wilds of eastern Illinois. I have a lot of bad memories: boring baseball every afternoon, endless sermons every evening, the long mosquito-filled trail to the bathrooms.  But good memories, too, mostly involving seeing counselors' penises.

Plus the name was evocative: Man-Ville.

So I was pleased to discover another Manville, a borough (town) in New Jersey about 40 miles west of Manhattan.  Population 10,000.  86% white, mostly of Polish and Ukrainian ancestry.

A former company town of the Johns Manville Corporation, which produced asbestos.  Now the asbestos dumps have been capped, and the land used to build a movie theater and a Wal-Mart (sounds fitting).  It also has a problem with regular flooding.






According to its official website, the top things to do in town or nearby are:
1. The Derrick Van Veghten House, built in 1725.  It was a private residence until 1934, then vacant until 1971.

2. Bazooka Jeff's Bat Cave, which is actually a comic book store.




3. B.L. Polish Dairy and Meat Market

4. The Grub Hut.  If these are the owners, I'm there.

5. Duke Farms, which is not a farm.  It's the former estate of James Buchanan Duke, whose American Tobacco Company held a monopoly until 1911.  There's no house, just the foundation of the mansion he abandoned, and a lot of green spaces.







Ok, let's get down to business: does Manville live up to its name?

This print is labeled "Manville," but it's Rhode Island, not New Jersey.











The "tiny" Manville High wrestling team boasts some not-so-tiny members.










Another one.














A Manville bodybuilder.














The nearest college, Pillar College, is run by the Pillar of Fire Church. 700 students, ultra-fundamentalist, no gay people allowed, and only recreational sports like table tennis.

But Manville has a few cute numbers looking for dates.

Overall, I'll give it a C-.  Not exactly what I expected from a town named Manville.