In its heyday, before the Warner House burned down and the resort town started to lose its battle against the tide, it was a two-hour carriage ride to get to Sea Breeze from nearby Bridgeton.

Now known as Seabreeze, you can drive there in 15 minutes down a winding 5-mile-long road through Fairfield Township in Cumberland County. Except for the last remaining year-long residents and a handful of seasonal homes, there's little reason to visit and see -- with nature reclaiming most of the area.

It's not a ghost town but you would be forgiven for thinking it. Standing on the beach, it feels like you reached a lost frontier.

The beach is lined with rubble and Delaware shores can be seen across the bay. Upstream, steam can be seen billowing from PSEG Nuclear's Hope Creek nuclear plant.

At the end of Seabreeze Road, one of the last remaining residents lives in a house raised up to avoid flooding -- leaving the front door several feet in the air with no stairs leading to it. They declined to speak for this article.

Seabreeze isn't a place you find accidentally. It's in its own hidden corner of South Jersey. But once, it was a thriving beach resort where people went to sunbathe, go bowling and imbibe.

Fox Chase

Gloucester County entrepreneurs built the Warner House at Sea Breeze in 1877 as a destination for the John A. Warner -- a 527-ton steamboat built to carry supplies and ammunition during the Civil War. After the war, instead of munitions, the John A. Warner transported beachgoers between Philadelphia and Sea Breeze.

Before the Warner House was built, the area was known as Ben Davis' Beach.

"In former years numerous parties were in the habit of visiting the beach there; camping on the beach for a time; sleeping either in tents or wagons," states an article from the New Jersey Patriot from June 15, 1877.

The original plan was to name the house Fox Chase because the beach was known as a fox hunting ground for years before and the New Jersey Patriot made the futile argument to name it the Cohansey, after the nearby river.

Warner House had 40 rooms, a kitchen, latrines and a billiard room. There was a stable for horses and the pier had a bowling alley. An advertisement for a July 26. 1888 clam bake boasted, "For the children a new attraction, the merry-go-rounds."

This Bridgeton Evening News photo shows the John A. Warner, the steamboat that used to make daily trips between Philadelphia and Seabreeze, in the 19th century. (Photo courtesy of the Lummis Library)

Fire of 1890

The April 16, 1890 edition of the Bridgeton Evening News described the visitors to the Warner House as fleeing for their lives when when the hotel burned down.

As the newspaper put it: "The Warner House at Sea Breeze on the Delaware Bay, that popular resort for Bridgetonians, was burned to the ground this morning and not a stitch or stick of any kind was saved."

The fire started in the dining room but there was no fire on the stove that night, according to the newspaper, which suggests an incendiary origin for the blaze. All that was left of the hotel was two blankets.

Constable R.F. Ayars was able to escape the blaze but lost a $50 watch, a buffalo robe, a whip and a rubber coat to the fire.

At the time, work was being done to fix up the hotel in time for the summer season. They were able to save the bowling alley by throwing water onto it. Eventually, the bowling alley was the last remaining relic of the Warner House to remain at Seabreeze.

In order to help the survivors, the Bridgeton Evening News collected clothing donations at its office.

"The occupants escaped with their lives and very little more, their clothing being burned, and some have scarcely enough to cover them."

The Upper Delaware River Transportation Co. was the owner of the hotel at the time and the newspapers estimates the loss between $15,000 and $20,000.

The Warner House was the main draw for people to come to Seabreeze until it burned down in 1890. This Bridgeton Evening News photograph shows the hotel before the fire. (Photo courtesy of the Lummis Library)

Mae's

The community remained a destination for Bridgton residents, despite the setback.

In the 20th century, a one-armed teetotaler and trapper named Jessie Smith opened up the Seabreeze Hotel, according to Fairfield Township's website. The hotel would eventual burn down in 1940s, a fate that seems common for the resort. The hotel's most lasting contribution was shrinking the name Seabreeze to one word -- which has caused some confusion but remains the preferred spelling for locals.

Harry Griffith, described in a 1990 Bridgeton Evening News article to be a gregarious, boisterous and sometimes crude man, opened up the Seabreeze Tavern in 1929. Griffith opened it up as a speakeasy and then made it a legal tavern once Prohibition ended. According to local legend, the teetotaler Smith hated Griffith and when Griffith bought land off Smith for the tavern, he used a third party to facilitate the deal as a way to hide his involvement.

Griffith's daughter Mae would come down on the weekends to work at the tavern before moving there in 1945 to work year-round and open up a lunch counter that was known for its crab cakes.

Hurricane Gloria destroyed the tavern in 1985 and Mae sold the property in 1986 -- dying soon afterward at the age of 81. The tavern's liquor license was sold to the Cohansey Country Club and the building remains became a target of vandals -- leading to its bulldozing.

This photo, courtesy of the South Jersey Research Society, shows Mae Griffith in Seabreeze back in its prime. (Submitted photo)

Man versus nature

The Department of Environmental Protection put up a seawall along Beach Avenue in 2006 that failed to hold back the encroaching tide and was wiped out almost immediately. In 2010, most of the remaining homeowners sold their property to the DEP and the houses were razed.

Even during low tides, water collects on Seabreeze Road -- the only road to the beach.

Seabreeze's glory remains in the memories of locals and newspaper clippings at the Cumberland County Historical Society's Lummis Library.

With two burned down hotels and a tavern destroyed by a hurricane, it seems like fate doesn't want people coming to Seabreeze. Some of the remaining structures are tagged with graffiti and "no trespassing signs" offer an attempt to keep people away from the seasonal homes.

It's in the middle of nowhere but the isolation of Seabreeze offers something special to its visitors -- it offers them peace.

Don E. Woods may be reached at dwoods@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @donewoods1. Find NJ.com on Facebook.