Cannonball!

The Cannon Ball House in Springfield was:

• Built in either 1741 or 1761 (the second date is currently favored) by Dr. Jonathan Dayton
• Originally a farmstead
• Used as a hospital by the British during the Battle of Springfield in 1780
• Pierced by a cannonball in its west wall during the Battle of Springfield (hence the name “Cannon Ball House”)
• Operated as a tavern, briefly
• A residence again, for many many years
• The home of the Springfield Historical Society (and still is, ever since 1953)
• Added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1977 (as the Hutchings Homestead)

Here’s what it looked like in the early 1900s:

 

In case you’re wondering why I keep misspelling “cannonball,” it’s because I’m using the spelling on the sign out front.

 

Also in case you’re wondering, two of my references were bronze plaques nailed near the front door:

 

Just to confuse things, there’s another historical Osborne Cannonball House in nearby Scotch Plains (also Union County), which was ALSO built c.1760, and ALSO pierced by a cannonball during the Revolutionary War. This is NOT that house.

 

References:

New Jersey State Chapter: Daughters of Founders and Patriots of America. (1957). “The Cannonball House.” (Sign marker). Documented April 2012.

Sanfranman59. (Last edit April 3, 2012). “National Register of Historic Places listings in Union County, New Jersey.” Wikipedia. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Registered_Historic_Places_in_Union_County,_New_Jersey.

Turner, J. and Koles, R.T. (2004). Images of America: Springfield. Arcadia Publishing: Charleston, SC. ISBN 0738536180.

United States Department of the Interior (n.d.). “National Register of Historic Places.” (Sign marker). Documented April 2012.

It’s a circle! It’s a cross! It’s…!

Juuuuuuust a window in the side of the Short Hills station. I thought it was kind of interesting.

Short Hills station

The original Short Hills train station was built in 1880.

Original Short Hills station, c.1906

 

It was deeded to the Lackawanna Railroad twelve years later, in 1892 (although Millburn owns it nowadays).

As far as I can tell, the original station was replaced by the current station around 1908.

Current Short Hills station, c.1910

It’s also home to the Millburn-Short Hills Historical Society!

And here’s a final couple of photos for context, because why the heck not:

For information on parking and schedules, check out NJTransit’s website.

 

References:

Lampe, O.W. (1999, 2000). Images of America: Millburn. Arcadia Publishing: Charleston, SC. ISBN 0738504130.

No more missiles!

These are the Watchung Stables, former home to U.S. Army Nike Missile Battery NY-73!

In 1957, during the Cold War, the U.S. army declared that it would construct a Nike missile base on the Watchung Reservation. Despite the loud protests of both local officials and residents, the base— NY-73— was completed in 1958.

The base consisted of two parts: the launcher, where missiles were assembled, tested, and stored in three underground magazines (each of which could hold ten Nike Ajax missiles); and the control area, officially known as the Missile Tracking Radar Station, which was not actually located within the Watchung Reservation (or at least not within the present boundaries of the reservation).

(The launcher was in Mountainside where the Watchung Stables are now; the control site was next to Governor Livingston High School in Berkeley Heights).

For reasons apparently unknown, the battery started shutting down in 1962, less than four years after they opened it. (It was officially deactivated in 1963.) Point of interest: the underground cables connecting the launcher and control areas were severed just days before the Cuban Missile Crisis.

For the next twenty years, I’m not sure if anything constructive happened to the site, but it seems like local kids enjoyed trespassing to check it out. (There are at least two accounts that the control room had flooded.)

Construction on the Watchung Stables began in 1983, and the stables officially moved onto the former launch site in 1985, where they’ve remained since. There might be some concrete bunkers tucked away underneath the buildings, but there are no longer any obvious remnants of the missile base.

For information on the modern-day amenities of the Watchung Stables, check out their official website.

 

 

References:

Bender, D.E. (n.d.). “Nike Battery NY-73: Summit, NJ.” Nike Missiles and Missile Sites. http://alpha.fdu.edu/~bender/NY73.html.

Harpster, F. (2009). “Missiles in Mountainside: Nike Battery NY-73.” From the Hetfield House (newsletter). http://www.mountainsidehistory.org/files/HHnewsletter09final.pdf (PDF).

LostinJersey Blog. (2009). “Summit Nike base.” http://lostinjersey.wordpress.com/2009/03/19/summit-nike-base/#comments (comments used extensively).

Troeger, V.B. (2005). Images of America: Berkeley Heights Revisited. Arcadia Publishing: Charleston, SC. ISBN 0738537527.

UCNJ.org: County of Union, New Jersey. (n.d.). “Chronology of the park system: 1921-1987.” http://ucnj.org/community/parks-recreation/chronology-of-the-park-system/.

A lot of names to remember

Founded by immigrants in the 1880s and 1890s, the Swedish Evangelical Lutheran Salem Congregation was sold to the Mount Olive United Holiness Church of America in 1959.

Both of those denominations are mouthfuls!

It is immediately next to the Overlook Medical Center.

 

Reference:

Meola, P.E. (1998). Images of America: Summit. Arcadia Publishing: Charleston, SC. ISBN 0738563307.

Plainfield station

This is the Plainfield train station. Although nobody seems to agree when it was built (though Central Jersey Railroad passed through Plainfield by 1839, and maybe the depot was built by 1869?), it’s been on both the National and NJ State Registers of Historic Places since 1984. The station underwent a $12.4 million restoration around 2002-2003.

I visited because it seemed nearby to some errands I was running. Initially, I had intended to wander around Plainfield and get a bunch of photos all at once; I took out a library book on Plainfield architecture a couple months ago, and I was kind of excited to see some of these historic buildings.

As it turns out: this area is a little sketchy. I got my train station photos and skedaddled.

Incidentally, the Plainfield train station is about two miles north of the South Plainfield house fire that killed five people last week.

For trip information to/from Plainfield rail station, check out NJTransit’s website.

Milton Avenue School

According to this PDF, Chatham’s Milton Avenue School was built in 1948, with an addition completed in 2001.

That’s all I can tell you about the history, but here’s a link to their website, if you have questions about calendars or enrolling your kid or something.

It’s also right in front of the Chatham Borough Mulch Area, in case you were wondering.

Pastoral

Sometimes these suburbs still surprise me. This scene, which I half-accidentally stumbled upon, was way more farmlike than anything I’ve come to expect from Summit. With a big open fenced-in field like that, I wonder if the owners have livestock. I’ll have to revisit this in the spring!

Diamond Hill School

It’s the Diamond Hill School! Except it’s not a school anymore. People live here! I actually started trespassing on their tiny front lawn just as the residents emerged from the house to start loading their car. (I pretended to be taking photos of the church next door until they drove away.)

Here’s a context shot from across the street:

 

Diamond Hill School (also sometimes known as “the Woodchuck School”) was built in 1888.

Here’s a photo of Diamond Hill School, c. 1910…

c.1910

 

…and here’s a photo of it c. 1932. (Look, it even still has that little porthole on the side, near the roof!) Just two years later, in 1934, it was the last one-room schoolhouse in Union County to close.

c.1932

 

It’s been maintained on its original foundations as a private residence. Hooray for preserving history!

 

References:

Troeger, V.B. (1996). Images of America: Berkeley Heights. Arcadia Publishing: Dover, NH. ISBN 0752404903.

Gonczlik, J. and Coddington, J. (1998). Images of America: New Providence. Arcadia Publishing: Charleston, SC. ISBN 0738565210.

Bell Labs got solar panels!

Bell Labs Alcatel-Lucent installed solar panels over the summer! So the shot I got last December, with nice clear lawns…

…is no longer possible. Here’s how it looks from the road now:

According to Patch.com and Lucent’s own corporate blog, the solar system is expected to provide 10% of their power needs, cut energy costs by $2.5 billion over 10 years, and help Alcatel-Lucent meet its goal to reduce its carbon footprint 50% by 2020.

Back in June, when the panels were first officially switched on, Berkeley Heights mayor Joseph Bruno said:

I applaud them for going green, but putting them right on Mountain Avenue appears to be a little bit of an eyesore. It’s a mixed thing for me…. I hope the shrubs they put in front of them grow in because people slowing down to look at the panels can cause a traffic problem.

Well said. I think that’s kind of how we’re all feeling. But it’s for the greater good, and we’ll get used to them eventually.