In memory of George E. T. Wells, President of Meadowbrook Inc

Published this day 27 September, 1947 in remembrance of George E. T. Wells, architect and President of Meadowbrook Inc. ...

(a quick note: here is a link to the post about George from last year that has his formal obituary, bio, and some different images, like the "sibling" neighborhood Washington Park in Maplewood and his days in between these residential NJ projects designing hotels in Miami.... )

This 1 year earlier (1946) bio of George was published for his nomination to lead the local realtors...

But this pretty much was a rough draft for his obit, which you can read here in last year's commemorative post. Note the home address is where the former Mali Mansion stood that he lived in and operated out of while Meadowbrook was being built. Here's a photo comparisson of the old Mali / Johnston mansion published mid 50s

 another view (and article about the Netherwood area)

As irony would have it, about 6 months earlier April 1947, George was giving the Mali family heirs one last tour of the family homestead before it was torn down... (dun dun dun...)

Here's what the neighborhood looked like from a satellite image the year George passed, 1947.

and a closer zoom of the Mali Drive loop showing the east side incomplete and various imprints of the prior depression era WPA Gardens and community Victory Gardens of WWII

.... and a cute ad 2 years later from 1949 for the lots left to build still...

Keeping the irony going full steam, this ad was also published same day, selling built homes in the neighborhood but also empty lots above what is today Watchung Sq Mall along Johnston Drive...

so, as the advertisement suggests, "Do not wait for tomorrow for tomorrow never comes." Here is one of the original brochures of the Meadowbrook neighborhood with George's name on the bottom right.

Various ads for the neighborhood here As you can maybe tell, the neighborhood didn't quite turn out as planned either...

The Mali Estate during the Great Depression 1929-1933

It is tricky to find much detail about the goings-on of the hundreds of acres of the former Mali Estate that today make up our neighborhood, also portions of Route 22 (formerly Route 29),and even the Watchung Square Mall.
But this was a very interesting article to read that was published on this day in 6 September 1933, just 3 years before the first shovels would start our neighborhood. 

   

Pierre Mali passed away unexpectedly in 1925, Frances Mali (heir to John Taylor Johnston) just 3 years later in 1928, and so the Estate was managed by the Netherwood Farm Corporation which was essentially the Mali children heirs.  And shortly after their passing, in September 1929 the Great Depression occurred which impacted everyone.  4 years later in September 1933 this article frames the still ongoing struggles the economy was experiencing.