The Ram's Head Inn will live to see another day in Galloway Township, where the former restaurant and wedding venue was sold ahead of a scheduled demolition this week.
The Colonial style building sits on about four acres at 9 W. White Horse Pike in the Atlantic County community. It was shut down in 2019 due to "serious and extensive issues" with its fire sprinkler system, its former owners said on Facebook at the time of the closure.
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On Monday, realtor Richard Baehrle shared news that the building had been sold.
"This iconic restaurant sat vacant for many years deteriorating," Baehrle, of Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Fox & Roach, said in a Facebook video he took outside the property. "It was literally four days away from being demolished. The buyer and I are so happy that we saved it."
Baehrle did not name the buyer, but said the plan is to "resurrect" the property.
Built in the 1930s, the Ram's Head Inn began as a roadhouse with food and live music. It later became a Dutch-themed restaurant in the 1970s under the ownership of Fred and Ethel Noyes, who founded the Historic Smithville village along Route 9 in Galloway in the 1950s.
Over the last four decades, the most recent owners of the Ram's Head Inn hosted about 50-60 weddings each year and held hundreds of other events in its 24,000-square-foot banquet hall and 3,500-square-foot ballroom. The venue also had a New American restaurant with a bar and regular live music.
When the property closed in 2019, the former owners wrote on Facebook that repairs to the sprinkler system and other building-related issues would require the demolition of some ceilings and walls.
During the pandemic, the Ram's Head Inn hit the auction block, but did not emerge with a new owner until this week.
Baehrle didn't share any other information about the sale or future plans for the property, but it appears that a beloved South Jersey landmark will be getting a new chapter.