Religious retreat calls Vineland home

VINELAND -- If you blink, you could just about miss the entrance to Malaga Camp Meeting as you cruise along Delsea Drive near the northern tip of Cumberland County.
But that might be the way residents want it.
The camp consists of more than 100 decades-old cottages spaced just a few feet apart on tree-lined streets that make up a grid of several blocks.
It's a quaint community, seemingly immune to the effects of time, organized around a large center square with an indoor/outdoor tabernacle where the residents worship regularly.In all, 140 homes sit on the 25-acre grounds.Malaga Camp long has been a nondenominational retreat for people of faith to worship and live among one another in the summer.
Some residents live in their homes there year-round.
Summer residents, who come from all over, view their stay as a vacation, in addition to an opportunity for spiritual reflection.
Though she doesn't have to travel far to get to Malaga Camp, longtime summer resident Gail Eisenlohr of Pitman finds exactly what she's looking for year after year: an escape from the same-old same-old.
"It's not miles and miles away, but you have a sense of being in a different place," Eisenlohr said.
Streets are barely wide enough for cars. Residents zip around the community in golf carts.
In the summer, cars are banned on streets close to the community's center, where the Rev. Paul Pedrick Memorial Tabernacle is located. The tabernacle seats 600. Pedrick, who is deceased, was president of Malaga Camp for 29 years.
The grounds also are home to an ice cream parlor, dining hall, pool and historical society.
It all began 142 years ago, according to the Rev. John C. Robbins, a Bridgeton native who has been president of Malaga Camp for the past three years.
Methodist ministers pitched tents in the woods and conducted temporary revival-style worship events at the site.
The permanent community grew out of that.
"It evolved into more and more of a structured thing," Robbins said.
Residents own their cottages -- prices average $25,000 -- although they lease land from the camp meeting association. They must pass an interview process to receive association approval to live on the grounds.
Source http://www.thedailyjournal.com/