Wednesday, February 2, 2022

Articles and images of the Meadowbrook Open House Event November 15, 1936

Articles and images of the Meadowbrook Open House Event November 15, 1936

Reminder, click to enlarge








Full page view


Full page of the image of the Gate House above.
Photos of the Gate house at 901 East Front Street
the banner to the left says, "Meadowbrook, a Restricted Residential Community"
due to FHA rules for getting the buildings and their mortgages approved
The next photo is of the Solarium / Greenhouse by the pool.

More full page views

Ads of various businesses associated with the opening

photo of East Elementary school

Above excerpt from NY Times




Meadowbrook Open House Announcement

 Articles and images of the Meadowbrook Open House Event November 15, 1936

Reminder, click to enlarge.






A bridge to the past

Photos of the last standing bridge illustrated in the preview to the Opening Day highlighting the Accent on Environment.  The bridges spanned both sides of the Green Brook to the small island, which is accessible by foot when the water is low from Brook Ave, because the Dams have been removed but you can still see their foundations.  Another bridge spanned from the Cul De Sac over the Green Brook and was going to be a feature of the neighborhood as that leads directly to the Solarium/Greenhouse and Swimming Pool which existed until about 1972 but you can see it's filled in foot-print.   








Ad featuring the Bridge and Model house on Abbotsford

Survey by Olmsted Brothers Architects highlighting the dams and bridge
Farragut Road runs vertical, Brook Ave across the middle

Zoom in of the island showing the dam and bridges

a prior map of the Estate approx 1910

a 1955 survey showing the island and grassy strip donated to the Borough
so much for EJ Allen's island home to built, wonder if he got his money back?

Survey showing where the bridge intersected Brook Ave before the cul de sac

The island off of Brook Ave and Farragut Bridge
There is an bridge on the right and
on the left or a bridge at top and a dam at bottom

unsure location but on the estate

on the Estate, but unsure where exactly

A view from Farragut Bridge

A view from Farragut Bridge
A view from Farragut Bridge

Netherwood Bridge in 1966

Johnston and Mali Estate History

Published prior to the opening 14 November 1936 these articles highlight some of the Johnston / Mali history and past and how the development remained connected to them through street names.

I tried contacting the paper to find less blurry scans than from newspapers.com but no luck.

Reminder, click the images to enlarge them for easier reading.










Meadowbrook History Map and other older homes of the Mali / Johnston Estate Era

I've updated the Google map layer "Nearby Features" for familiarity with these older homes...
Link to Meadowbrook History Map --->  https://tinyurl.com/MeadowbrookMap

I paid attention to capture only homes on East Front Street as it illustrates the perspective to help me understand the landscape of the similar estates nearby.  Some of these homes still exist. 


537 East Front St North Plainfield, NJ


537 East Front St

726 East Front St

741 East Front St

1100 East Front St

Excerpt about John Taylor Johnston


Map of Meadowbrook former self, the Johnston / Mali Estate
Farragut Road is the left side of the map
The circle marks the gate house at 901 E. Front Street which still stands