Make way for new

Construction! If only I’d had this for the “construction” theme day some months ago.

I stumbled upon this house when I was hunting some dead ends for an observation station. There was a photo in a book of a sort-of-recent (25 years old) plaque.

HISTORIC SITE OF WORLD WAR II CIVIL DEFENSE AIRCRAFT OBSERVATION STATION – CODE NAME ‘CHESTNUT’

Entrusted with identifying and reporting every aircraft overflight, civil defense volunteers from New Providence, Berkeley Heights, and Summit maintained a 24-hour vigil here from April 1942 to V.E. Day 1945. The building served as a residence until 1957, when it was replaced.

Dedicated 1986

Isn’t that cool? I thought it was cool.

Even though the station itself was long gone, I figured I could at least find the dang plaque! The caption said it was “in back of Fairview Avenue, off Central Avenue,” so I canvassed that whole area. But NO LUCK. Maybe it used to be right where this building is being built. Grrr.

On the bright side, I did find a Port-a-John. That’s really what matters.

 

Reference:

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