Prince Mario Ruspoli, the Chatsworth Club and local work, October 3, 2026

Prince Mario Ruspoli, the Chatsworth Club and local work, October 3, 2026

• The 2004 Buzby’s General Store National Register nomination, pages 9–12, gives Beers-family land background and the 1890s-to-1910s resort sequence. Page 10 says the Marquise de Talleyrand-Périgord promoted the private hunting club, the 1895 syndicate including Mario Ruspoli built a clubhouse near Union Forge pond/Chatsworth Lake, and the family built a lakeside cottage. The nomination dates the rename from Shamong Station to Chatsworth to 1896. It identifies many unnamed construction and maintenance workers, Shamong Hotel lodgings for builders and overflow guests, new rail sidings and railroad work. It names Myrtle Buzby, wife of storekeeper Willis, as caregiver to the Ruspolis’ child and records her later postmistress role. It separates late-1890s ebb, around-1900 restoration/formal club use, 1907 sheriff’s sale, and subsequent fires. Its possible explanation for the clubhouse fire is speculation; omit the cause.
• NJ Historic Trust’s White Horse Inn/Shamong Hotel page describes the inn as the surviving building associated with the Chatsworth Club, built c. 1860, and says overflow guests stayed there. It says local tours and festivals have occurred, but gives no guaranteed hours.
• New York Post, 20 November 1909, page 9, as transcribed: contemporary report names Princess Ruspoli and Marquise de Talleyrand-Périgord as principal company shareholders in a land sale; dates formal club organization to 1904 and says it had ended about two years earlier. This is a transcription by a themed third-party site; original newspaper page was not independently inspected. It should serve as corroboration and evidence of female ownership, not as exclusive authority for building dates.
• John McPhee’s 1967 New Yorker report records the Buzby family’s memory that Myrtle had worked as the child’s nursemaid and describes the already vanished buildings. McPhee offers oral history several decades after the venture. It is not evidence of public access today.
• The Woodland Township Historical Society’s current homepage says it has a museum room in the White Horse Inn. A township lease-renewal record gives 3980 Route 563, Chatsworth for the inn. Neither page checked states daily museum hours. A 2026 Cranberry Festival vendor document also gives 3980 Main Street for the same inn, but route number is preferred for directions. Verify event access with the historical society before planning an interior visit.
• The archive already has a story titled The old White Horse Tavern beyond Chatsworth; that earlier Tabernacle-area property is distinct from the Chatsworth inn. The new story cross-links it. Existing map data has a general Chatsworth locality and Chatsworth Lake; neither is a verified clubhouse/villa footprint. A 2008 NJPB forum discussion notes conflicting map placements. Therefore use a general ?q=Chatsworth link and no ruin pin, private shore route, or parking assertion.