Unexplained Disappearance at Warren’s Hofheimer Mauseleum & Grotto

Mysterious death, lights in the woods at night, strange chemical smells in the air, paranormal activity, and a YouTuber’s missing persons report continue to plague what is felt to be strange paranormal activity at the former Hofheimer woods, grotto, and mausoleum in Warren Township in Somerset County.

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Warren Township, New Jersey, isn’t the sort of place you expect to hold secrets. Its rolling hills, polished driveways, and stone-lined estates make it feel too new, too ordinary for the kinds of stories people whisper about in diners and high-school parking lots. But there’s a road that doesn’t quite fit with the rest, Bardy Road, narrow, dark, and quiet after sundown. Follow it long enough, and you’ll find the remains of something that was once meant to be holy: the Hofheimer Grotto.

Arthur Hofheimer, born in Newark in 1881, was the son of Nathan Hofheimer, a member of the prominent German-Jewish family who had become very wealthy as President of the independent Lamp and Wire Co. Inc., manufacturer of the lamps which became an integral part of General Motors. Arthur was fascinated with science as a child, and while he became a stockbroker, he was the sort of man who often mixed science with spirituality. Around 1915, Arthur joined his father and purchased a secluded stretch of wooded land in Warren Township, then a remote part of Somerset County, to build a family estate and legacy.

Nathan Hofheimer started this grotto in 1915, over a 165-foot-deep copper mine, constructed with the help of European craftsmen. constructed a stone grotto and mausoleum for his wife, Helen. He called it a “memorial sanctuary,”. Locals said his son Arthur worked on it himself all the time, often by the light of a lantern.

When the influenza pandemic swept through New Jersey in 1918, Arthur Hofheimer became ill but survived until his death in 1927. During this time, he continued to work on his grotto. He left behind no will and was strangely buried not in the grotto with his parents, but in Hillside Cemetery in Scotch Plains. The unfinished grotto and its adjoining crypt were sealed by relatives and largely forgotten. Rumor has it that the Plainfield Jewish community, where Arthur’s brother Lester lived, frequently used Hillside, making it the family’s logical choice. Starting around the same time, Warren Township also began to restrict family burials on residential property, which might have been another reason.

Sadly, shortly after Arthur’s death in 1927, the 21-room house burned to the ground, which, strangely, was never solved. While Arthur’s father and mother, Nathan and Lena, were interred in the mausoleum, Arthur and his wife, Helen, are not, which some believe has been the root of the paranormal activity at what was to be the Hofheimer Family Cemetery and mausoleum.

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In 1956, Warren Township purchased the property from the family. For decades, the stone structure stood hidden behind tangled vines and brush, its iron gates rusting and its angel statue slowly tilting into the soil. Teenagers in the 1960s and 70s began sneaking inside on dares, calling it “The Hollow.” They claimed to hear of dripping blood, sounds beneath the earth, flickers of light under the desecrated mausoleum, and a chemical smell, something sharp and metallic, like old antiseptic. A half dozen accounts also mention two ghostly figures wandering the grotto grounds, seeming to “watch over” the entrance to the grotto. Mostly teens, they had no idea who they might have been.

Other accounts have stated that they have seen spirits walking, and one account of them driving, between the grotto and the mausoleum along the trail that treks through the wooded area. Perhaps the car was one of Nathan’s many Buicks and Cadillacs. Others have seen (and heard) what they believe were people sitting around the grotto, most likely the spirits of the Hofheimers.

Fast Forward to 2019 – The Disturbing Livestream

In October 2019, a paranormal YouTuber named Jay Colburn filmed an episode of his series Haunted Jersey at the Hofheimer Grotto. There had been sightings over the years of paranormal activity at the site, stating numerous times of spirits guarding the mausoleum and grotto, most likely the Hofheimers. His audience watched live as he entered the collapsed crypt beneath the mausoleum. His camera caught shards of broken glass, rusted tools, and a sealed vial half-buried in dirt. On its side, barely visible, were the etched initials A. H. 1927.

Viewers heard him read from a small notebook page:

“Do not disturb the solution. The lungs must rest.”

Seconds later, a loud crack rang out, glass shattered, and static filled the air; the livestream cut to black.

Police found Colburn’s cell phone the next morning, lying in the mud at the mausoleum’s entrance. The screen was shattered, but it was still faintly lit. On the lens was a fogged pattern, as though someone had breathed directly onto it along with a recording of the incident. The Colburn case was solved about two years later. Colburn refused to talk to the police and hasn’t been involved in paranormal investigations ever since. Relatives were questioned by the police, who stated that after he was located, something had happened that really affected Jay.

Jay hasn’t been the same since he went missing for those two years.

Colburn Family

Little-Known Discovery

MLHP researchers kept digging and found a clue to why there’d be paranormal activity on the former Hofheimer property in Warren. There is a 1951 entry in the Plainfield Public Library Memorial Funeral Home Records (Register 1940–1952, Box 15) that shows:

“Arthur & Nathan Hofheimer, Warrenville, N.J., Hillside Cem (Arthur), Mt. Pleasant Cem (Mother)”
This indicates that the Hofheimer family remains were exhumed from the private estate in Warren. Arthur was re-interred at Hillside Cemetery, Scotch Plains, and “Mother Lena Rosengart Hofheimer, was re-interred at Mount Pleasant Cemetery (likely the Newark site). Nathan’s name appears in the same disinterment line, implying his remains were moved at the same time, even though the exact destination isn’t stated in this particular register.

Why This Could Be Viewed as Disturbing to the Spirits

From a historical and cultural perspective, disturbing family graves, especially those originally placed on consecrated private land, was often believed to unsettle the spirits of the departed. In Jewish tradition, kvod hamet (honor of the dead) holds that a burial should remain undisturbed; moving remains is permissible only for necessity, such as protecting the graves from desecration or ensuring perpetual care

If Nathan and Lena’s bodies were exhumed decades later to relocate them to public cemeteries, it would have meant removing them from the estate they personally built and where they had chosen eternal rest. Symbolically, that act might be seen as breaking their connection to the land they shaped, the Warren property with its grotto and mausoleum, and could be interpreted as disturbing their peace or altering the “spiritual balance” of the estate.

Practically, the move reflected changing laws and social norms; spiritually, it evokes the lingering sense that the Hofheimers’ presence remained tied to that original ground, which may explain why the site has since attracted ghost-story lore around.

Today, the property at 99 Bardy Road is fenced off by the township. Still, each October, visitors gather near the gate, peering through the trees at the old stone walls, which glint in the moonlight. Some swear they smell something chemical and sweet in the air; others claim that if you whisper “Helen Hofheimer” beside the fallen angel statue, the air goes still, and for a moment, you can feel the ground itself exhale.

A long, slow, weary breath.
As though something beneath Bardy Road has been waiting all this time to breathe again. And it might just be the Hofheimers….

Overall, it seems that while the physical bodies of the Hofheimers have been moved, their spirits remain on the property.

Weird New Jersey and Warren’s Hofheimer Weirdness

The grotto has a somewhat eerie reputation. In local ghost stories and “haunted tales” collections, there are reports of ghostly figures and strange lights around the grotto, particularly at night. In Weird NJ issue #21, there is a story titled “Weirdness In The Woods: The Hofheimer Grotto.” The inclusion in Weird NJ helps keep the place in local folk-legend consciousness, as Weird NJ often collects lesser-known oddities, haunted places, and folklore in New Jersey.

What Can You Tell Us about The Hofheimers or the Property?

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