Happy Arbor Day Weekend (25 April)

 Hey Meadowbrook - Happy Arbor Day Weekend (25 April) !!!

Trees have always been an important part of our neighborhood. This year is a super reason to plant more as a succession to many of our older ones. What is your favorite tree memory or fun-fact?

Some of the young trees which are still today found on Mali Drive and Meadowbrook Road from a 1947 aerial photo

Look how young they were!

early intersection photo of Mali Drive at Meadowbrook Road illustrating young trees
vs google street view "today"

artist vision come to life !!

Published 12 April, 1947 ... North Plainfield being known as "Stump Town" for improper tree removal

Postcard found at an antique shop of the old estate

Published 19 May, 1955 - planting a tree at nearby Blue Star Memorial

So please please please plant a tree when you can because the best time to plant a tree is today

Happy Earth Day

Happy Earth Day!! We have a long history of planet friendly initiatives in Meadowbrook, even a catchy phrase, "Accent on Environment"

It is a good time to remove invasive species like Bradford Pear trees or Knotweed so as not to harm the environment... consider removing Stumps, vs Snags which could be woodpecker homes. https://www.nwf.org/treesandsnags

And get ready, Arbor Day is this weekend, so it's not too late to start planning where to plant a new tree

Auld Lang Syne

Published April 19 and 22, the Mali (Johnston) Heirs visited the homestead for the last time in 1947....

but here is a fun newspaper correction and discovery!

The caption says the man pointing in the photograph is George Wells, but the editors here at the Meadowbrook Neighborhood History blogspot have recently connected with a member of the Mali family who recognized and verified the tall pointing man is his grandfather!! Two other evidence pieces: no hat! and the draft card that says George was 5'6" (when open, click 'next' for height)

Unfortunately, as was the case when trying to get copies of these photos,

the newspaper is still not available for comment, so here then are more reprints of the articles.

George Wells in his hat in similar era ground breaking ceremonys

alrighty then, enough of that old hat stuff... onto the mansion that everyone was there to see...

from the Library of Congress are these excerpts in 1890 https://www.loc.gov/item/01007771/

Annotated map with arrow pointing to green open space on Brook Ave.

Two months after the last visit, demo and ground breaking took place June 1947

and in August 1947 the owner of the gatehouse asked for a revaluation of taxes

Here is a map illustrating the various estate features and their locations

Another map highlighting Netherwood Farm at the top

a photo from the opening day of officials, 2nd from right is George Wells' hat...

Excerpted article from large screenshot below

The above is from 1936 so if standing at 72 years of age, it was then 83 when taken down 11 years later in 1947.

Another good selection of recollections about the estate can be found here

https://meadowbrookhistory.blogspot.com/2023/06/a-profile-on-former-mali-estate.html

A fitting Scottish song for the Johnston homestead ...

Should auld acquaintance be forgot,
and never brought to mind?
Should auld acquaintance be forgot,
and auld lang syne?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Auld_Lang_Syne

Good things take time...

Published on this day 19 April in 1941.... skipping five years later from the early start of of the neighborhood in April 1936 we find this April 1941 article and an advertisment that illustrate both the slow pace of building homes during the Recession of May 1937- June 1938 but also the rapid recovery taking place to make up for lost time

... nothing like 6 months after your grand opening 1936 and the economy, which was recovering from the great depression, hits a serious snag. But in April 1941 the recovery is going well as the advertisement below says, get in loser, we're going shopping!

 This home in the ad which is on Brook Ave sold six months later in October of 1941.

Now, not to jumble the timemachine too much, but just for hindsight comparisson, while this April 1941 article above is boasting about 25 homes being built.... we find below in this 1937 article just 6 months after the Grand Opening .... it describes 20 more homes being built on top of the existing 20 ...

so, let's do the math *licks pencil tip*

20 houses 1936... plus, 20 more houses 6 months later in 1937 is 40 houses.... plus, 25 more in 1941... is 65 houses... ... wait, wait, wait, .....

didn't Mr. Wells say the total was 75 houses in the article?

well, we know E. J. Allen didn't get his home built on the island, so that's 9 houses .... ... wait, wait, wait... house on the island?? We'll come back to that another day. Another "speed indicator" - Section 2 is finally approved later that year, November 1941 ... yeah, but?

yeah, but the map was started in 1939......

One of the unique features of the neighborhood is that we have a large circular road (Mali Drive) that practically illustrates 30 years of taste changes in architectural home construction (from Abbottsford in 1936 around to Wells Rd 1966), and ironically are also some of the first 30 year mortgages.... but as we can also see this unique rounded circular display is a bit like a tree ring giving us indications to the environment, or in this case, economic conditions. Here is another 1941 ad.

And speaking of trees rings, as a reminder, Arbor Day is coming soon, so please start considering your impact to plant a new tree!