Spring at the Meadow on the Brook

 Normally just history on this page, however, this is the Meadow on the Brook in the neighborhood of late

 

Newspaper 1936 showing the old bridge on the Estate

Various landmarks around the Green Brook, the present day daffodils in the Meadow are located just above the island on the left side of the image.
Below Frances J. Mali's home photo, of when they used to dam the waters to make a pond.

The view from the 1929 Olmstead Brothers survey

a view from the Farragut Road bridge

The landscape was once such a draw that I discovered this post card at a vintage shop - we still wish you were here!

 and is very similar in winter too

and today a lovely field of daffodils

If you miss it this year, there's always next year 

90 years ago this month - April showers bring November open houses

90 years ago

Published April 3, 1936 - the "seed" that would grow into Meadowbrook.... just a little mention about a potential new neighborhood on an old estate in the zoning minutes brought forward by Mr. Wells.

Here it is in the context of the newspaper page, one little pebble in the pond, rippling

Then April 16, 1936. This was the follow-up from the 3 April snippet with more details known as plans developed.

The later half of the article is interesting that they mention George Wells starting the building in North Plainfield, "if he is held up", which reads as not the ideal plan.

Also neat is their testing the purchasing "appetitite" by building only 1 or 2 homes at a time, especially as so close after the Great Depression, as well as the function of the new FHA 30 yr mortgage.

21 April, 1936, an official Netherwood Farms Corporation notice mentioning the "Mali Tract"

28 April, 1936 - the first map of Meadowbrook

Now, I don't know about you, but this concept map seems "over ambitious" from the start.

The Brook Ave cul de sac is a neat early interpretation, with a road extending through over to Netherwood. The cul de sac at the top right off Mountain Ave was to be known as Thistle Lane, until finally removed from the city planning ~20 years later in 1955 and never built. Still can see Deforest Ave, Ivy Lane, Greenock, Anworth, Abbotsford on this map. A funny little hoop of a street was going to be call Strafford Circle. And obviously not a Wells Road, but portending there in the drawing all the same.

Here is the map in context of the newspaper page

By the end of the month, 30 April 1936 there was some front page, first column scuttlebutt 

it continued to another page less take up the full front page...

And by July fthe first shovels started in, good times.

Post Wells, other Builders of Meadowbrook

I've been doing some research into the Meadowbrook Neighborhood post-Wells era of 1947 onward but not had much luck, so reporting what we do have.  Since I had luck contacting George Wells' granddaughter, I reached out to the families of the last two major companies building in our neighborhood, Ferrara Builders and Amy Builders, awhile back to see if they had any remaining details or documents but my luck ran dry.  Nonetheless, some fun reading as the neighborhood developed.  We really can see the chronography in architecture developing from the 20's influence on the 30s, then start to evolve in the 40s and 50s, reaching towards the 60s in these later built-newer era homes.

Ad from 1956

If you're not familiar, George E. T. Wells was the first President of Meadowbrook Inc., a subsidiary of Bankers Trust Company.  After George died in September 1947....

Aerial photo, ironically, from 1947 showing half completed neighborhood

Bankers Trust continued to market and sell the homes built by individual builders.......

Published Nov 5, 1948

Published 12 November 1948

Published 5 August 1949

Published 7 October 1949

Published 2 December 1949

Bankers Trust  eventually chose to disolve Meadowbrook Inc. in December 1952 and sold the remaining portions of the neighborhood to be built....

They sold the bulk of the land to Ferrara builders.

1953

1953

In the mid-50's another company took over, Amy Builders

1953 Amy Builders Inc.

owner of Amy Builders

1954

1955

1957

1957

Only One Left !
Published January 1958

And these were the last homes of the Meadowbrook neighborhood sold in the late 50's until the final house was constructed and sold on Wells Road in the 1960s.

Oh... and Amy Builders, well, they also built homes on Amy Drive in Westfield (though, many of the original constructions have been rebuilt)

and Amy . . . ?

Well, Amy got married in 1985.