Ram’s Head Inn, a Jersey Shore landmark, has been sold only days before scheduled demolition, Realtor says

The Ram’s Head Inn, a once-popular restaurant and party venue at the Jersey Shore, apparently has new owners as of last week. The sale could not have come at a more auspicious time.

The White Horse Pike landmark was three or four days from the wrecking ball, said Richard Baehrle, a Realtor with Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Fox & Roach in Northfield, N.J., who represented the buyer.

Baehrle said the buyer, whom he would not name, intends to restore the restaurant, which sits on four acres in Galloway Township, 20 minutes outside of Atlantic City.

The Ram’s Head has been closed since 2019. Baehrle said the property had been vandalized and scavenged. He added that the new owner took immediate measures to secure the property.

Citing a confidentiality agreement, Baehrle declined to disclose the sale price or identify the buyer, who he said is not in the restaurant or catering business. Atlantic County records had not noted the sale Tuesday.

A message left Tuesday at the home of Kurt Knowles Jr., part of the family that owned the inn, was not returned.

Baehrle said restoration was underway for at least a partial reopening in the fall.

The Ram’s Head started just after Prohibition as a roadhouse and later morphed into a splashier establishment owned then by Fred and Ethel Noyes, who had developed the nearby Historic Smithville.

From the moment Baehrle shared the news on Facebook, people have been posting messages of support. “Normally on Facebook, I would get a half a dozen people responding to my stuff,” he said Monday. “I think literally, it’s been over 1,000 people sharing experiences of weddings and bar mitzvahs and confirmations and that type of thing.”