A rambling 1837 structure known as the Delaware View House hotel sits on a hilltop overlooking Old Mine Road and has great views of the Pennsylvania Mountains of the Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area. It could be the crown jewel of the park, but the roof steeple is loose, the porch is deteriorating, windows are broken and the stone foundation has large gaps for animals to crawl in for shelter (Mark Di Ionno | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com).

By Mark Di Ionno | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com

The last exit in New Jersey on Route 80 leads into the Delaware Water Gap National Recreation area, on Old Mine Road, which runs mostly along the river for the 40-mile length of the park.

The first half-mile is a winding ribbon of freshly paved and painted road as it climbs the shale and quartzite rock cliffs, carved by the river over 500 million years.

On one side of the road, the forest climbs the mountain. On the other, trees cling to the sharp decline until it levels to river delta and banks. The park is 70,000 acres -- about 40,000 acres lie on the New Jersey side. The recreation area anchors about 80,000 acres of contiguous wild through northwest New Jersey, spilling into Worthington and Stokes State Forests and High Point State Park.

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The side porch of the Delaware View House overlooking Old Mine Road rotted floorboards and roofs, and large gaps for animals to crawl in. Note the junked toilet at the bottom of the photo.

Mark Di Ionno | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com

Pristine is the word that comes to mind – until you see the wrecks.

They insult the senses. Graffiti marred, windows busted out, collapsing wrecks of historic homes and barns along the road.

This takes some explaining. In 1955, Hurricane Diane dumped enough rain on the region to create killer floods along the Delaware. The idea to build a dam and create a 37-mile lake and recreation area passed through Congress, and the federal government began using eminent domain to buy properties. Under the Tocks Island Dam Project, thousands of structures – houses, barns, chicken coops, hotels and camps – became property of the federal government as people were removed from their homes and communities were dissolved. The dam was never built, and the river runs unabated, as it has for half-a-billion years.

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These old red barns on Old Mine Road could be a picture postcard from the Delaware Water Gap National Recreation area, but they are in need of stabilizing repairs.

Mark Di Ionno | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com

Today, 342 historic structures remain, according to Kathleen Sandt, the public affairs officer for the park. Two hundred are on the Jersey side. Not all are wrecks. Forty have been leased to the Peters Valley School of Craft, a nonprofit art colony in the northern end of the park.

Sandt said that when Congress appropriated money for the current recreation area 53 years ago, there was no funding for maintenance of historic buildings, and very little since.

“The cost of restoration is very high, and the tear-down costs may be high, too,” she said. “Some of our vacant building have asbestos or lead.”

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A 19th Century riverside mansion in sight of popular Turtle Beach is fenced off with chicken wire. But that hasn't stopped vandals from destroying the interior. The roof is gaping and the gutters are down, making the water damage extensive.

Mark Di Ionno/NJ Advance Media

While some buildings were converted into park offices, ranger housing or leased to appropriate nonprofits, others have just continued to deteriorate. In historic preservation circles, it’s called “demolition by neglect.” In legal circles, the wrecks are called “attractive nuisances.” They are posted with warning signs, and some are surrounded by chicken wire fences to keep vandals out – or at least pass the liability on to the trespassers if they get hurt.

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A barn near Turtle Beach has the windows broken out and has been tagged with graffiti.

Mark Di Ionno | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com

Bob Canace is president of the Ridge and Valley Conservancy, which has preserved lands in the Blairstown-Hardwick area. He was hydrogeologist who fought the Tocks Island Dam Project.

“I’m very disappointed,” he said. “But I saw it coming. The federal and state government don’t do a good job of historic preservation; there is never a funding source, though there should be.”

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This farmhouse by the river has collapsed under the weight of 53 years of neglect by the National Park Service, which has had very little money for maintaining historic homes.

Mark Di Ionno | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com

Canace said “cut-outs” – putting select homes in private hands – would have been a good solution, and the federal government considered it several years ago in the park.

“I knew a guy who applied and there was so much red tape, he gave up,” Canace said. “Simply repairing and maintaining roofs could have kept these properties intact enough for re-adaptive use. It’s very sad, losing these historic resources.”

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A barn on the property near the collapsed farmhouse still stands, but is beginning to buckle.

Mark Di Ionno | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com

And here we are. The second great sin after neglect is that the wrecks litter the most visited sections of the park. At Turtle Beach, a once-grand riverside home with a columned porch has been vandalized inside and out. The chicken wire fence to protect was easily kicked down and breached. Vandals aside, natural decay has compromised the roofs and gutters. Vegetation sprouts from the foundation. A brown barn and garage nearby is tagged with graffiti, and all the windows are broken.

Just south of that house is what’s left of a rustic cabin, also visible from the road. Down a ravine, the remnants of a farm are crumbling. The roof caved in on part of the house. There is not a window or door intact.

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Another home right off Old Mine Road is a total wreck and beyond repair. Yet it sits year after a year as a reminder of the failed Tocks Island Dam Project, which made ghost towns out of rural villages on both sides of the Delaware.

Mark Di Ionno | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com

The Delaware View House, built in 1837, is the most visible structure on the road. For years it was a resort hotel, high on the hill, with forever views of the Pennsylvania side. Now animals live in the fieldstone foundation, the porch is collapsing, and the staircase is overgrown.

On the road to the towering Buttermilk Falls, where hundreds of people go each weekend to climb the stairs parallel to the rushing water, is the most vandalized house of the lot. That eyesore is across from what once was a beautiful Dutch barn. It’s decorative wood cuttings are now obscured by overgrown trees and runaway vines.

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This home is on the road to Buttermilk Falls, where hundreds of people go each weekend to see walk up the staircases adjacent to the towering waterfall.

Mark Di Ionno | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com

When PSE&G asked to traverse the park with new high-voltage towers that are 200 feet high, they put $66 million into “mitigation” funding, $12 million of which will go into “cultural resources,” Sandt said.

“That’s $12 million for 342 buildings,” she said. “For the last three years, we’ve been developing a plan for our historic properties.”

That plan, which Sandt said will be announced soon, will include by-the-book historic restoration, or modernizing for adaptive use, or demolition of the worst eyesores.

The park’s priority, unfortunately, is now what should have been the last choice. The demolition by neglect threshold has long passed. It’s time for the National Park Service to finish the job.

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Mark Di Ionno may be reached at mdiionno@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @MarkDiIonno. Find NJ.com on Facebook.