1952 follow-up of the Subdivision Divisions

As a follow-up to the July 1952 post, here are articles about the subdivision divisions and the resolutions that were made that outline the final decade of home building in Meadowbrook as well as the portending end of the entity known as Meadowbrook Incorporated later that year in 1952.

Of note is the recognized flood water line along Green Brook and to "provide land suitable for playground purposes sufficient to accomodate the needs of the entire Meadowbrook development"

Also the attempt to enforce deed restrictions during the remaining construction, with a slow build schedule of 3 houses at a time, we know now was a quite failed attempt at not being very neighborly to say the least.

The newspaper put out their published opinion on the matter shortly after, on 2 September 1952, which I've included here as well.

Published earlier in the month, after the first round of disputes, on 6 Aug 1952 was an opinion piece from one of the home owners directed at "choosy neighbors in the Meadowbrook section" who were derisive against many of the Veterans there.

... and in Dec 1952, just barely over three months later, Bankers Trust Company throws in the towel and advises they will dispose, "of it's holdings and the Corporation", thus the end of "Meadowbrook Incorporated"

It will then be various builders, Ferrara, Amy Builders, W.L. Bird, and others who complete the neighborhood. ... I'm still trying to figure out who put forward the idea of the name "Wells Road" as a nod to George E. T Wells legacy leading Meadowbrook Inc. at the start.

That's that me, Meadowbrook Esso...

... thinkin' 'bout me every night, oh
Is it that sweet? I guess so
Say you can't sleep, baby, I know
That's that me, Meadowbrook Esso...

So, in all seriousness, what is fun to me about these clippings for the "Meadowbrook Esso", like similarly named businesses that have gone away, such as the "Meadowbrook Hardware" store which was also on 2nd street, is the importance of naming.

When looking back before Meadowbrook, everything nearby was previously Netherwood-this-or-that, mirroring the name of the road, train station, nearby neighborhood, which were all inspired by the Netherwood Estate and Farm, the formal names of John Taylor Johnston's Estate, later known as the Mali Estate, or once into development, the Mali Tract.

1928 details about Route 29 mentioning Netherwood Farm and Mali Estate

Yet, when the newest fangdangled thing came along, in this case, Meadowbrook, the name signaled proximity to a new place, a new history for that era.  Interestingly the Hardware store didn't "borrow" its name of Meadowbrook until 1958 when under new ownership, renaming from "Drake's".

Opened 1958, closed 1965.... Meadowbrook Hardware

This group of shops on second street was even highlighted on the Meadowbrook brochures for housing before the Meadowbrook Village apartments were built.

Zoom in view of shops on lower right side of the above image....

So if a song of summer or history gets stuck in your head and you can't stop thinking about it, just keep humming along and go with the beat.   History, like pop music, may not repeat, but it sure does rhyme.

If it does repeat likely your CD or your record is scratched... don't even get me started on cassettes and rewinding with pencils 

Meadowbrook Back to the Future: "Where we're going, we don't need roads" (spoiler alert: we do)

Published this day 7 August 1937, nine months after the grand opening ceremony, discussing roads opening on the Somerset County side of the Green Brook...

This ad was also published on 7 August 1937

This article excerpt was published in the NYTimes 8 August 1937

This next article was published 14 August, 1937, it talks about the roads opening on the Union County side of the neighborhood which was not built so these roads, like Willow Avenue and Boatcroft Lane, do not exist today.

This 1949 map still shows some of the proposed but unbuilt roads in Meadowbrook
(hint: there are 4 here but missing IRL)

... and six years later Marty McFly would be back in 1955 and Thistle Lane will disappear...

... coincidence?

1952 Many Fight Subdivision; Property Owners Protest New Meadowbrook Housing

Published 30 July, 1952, just over 16 years after the neighborhood started. Take a read through the articles, click to enlarge, but here is the TLDR gist of it all ...

The "fight" and "protest" of the home owners in 1952 was that Meadowbrook Inc was going to put up smaller sized homes on even smaller lots, contrary to original plans. The confusion and frustration in these articles really comes across, but gets lost in the sauce of technical details.

Ultimately with help from various Borough and County officials they were able to preserve the lot setbacks and sizes for the neighborhood as submitted in the surveys originally within boundries of Farragut (west), Mountain (north), Netherwood (east), the Green Brook / county border (south). 

However, any influence about imposing or retaining "deed restrictions" of by-gone-eras was thoroughly abandonded as new homes were built for a new generation that included everyone.

As you can read in this excerpt there was clearly some hand wringing and standing outburst attempts to conflate lot sizes and house sizes with "deed restrictions".  The Norwood Homes (confusing as the company building them was named Norwood, not on Norwood Ave) were being built nearby Meadowbrook neighborhood on the north side of Mountain Ave and in similar areas that once upon a time were part of the Johnston/Mali Estate.  But as you can see in the confused outburst these were never part of Meadowbrook Inc., as those lands remained in ownership by the estate heirs under the Netherwood Farms Corporation.  Netherwood Farms Corp. would sell land to Meadowbrook Inc as pieces were built or completed, but that didn't mean the entire former estate was Meadowbrook... 

In 1952, these new homes were built to mirror demand for returning veterans and the VA Loans did not follow prior "deed restrictions" that were included in earlier era FHA loans when Meadowbrook neighborhood (to include Meadowbrook Village apartments in 1938!) was initially started.   After WWII, lessons learned, these new 30-year mortgages and homes were for everyone, and without restrictions.  And to this day thankfully anyone can live in Meadowbrook.

Stay tuned, there's an update to this article at the end of 1952's August with all the particulars decided upon...

... also, this was published 6 August 1952, residents of the Norwood Homes did not care for the opinions of the "choosy" Meadowbrook neighbors. Interesting notes on the veteran population as well as inflation of the time period and its effects.

Ground-breaking day at Meadowbrook

 These snippets were published July 25, 1936 about ground-breaking for the Meadowbrook neighborhood but there wasn't a lot of ceremony or pomp for the event. 

Scanned quality of the newspaper isn't the best from the source
but as a reminder, click the images to enlarge them for reading.

The article was layered into some odd columns when published in the paper
so there's another reason for the fragmented feel of these snippets...

insert your 420 jokes here if you must...

and this map was published earlier in the year, April 1936
illustrating the proposed layout of the neighborhood

You'll notice it cross the Green Brook and is in both Union and Somerset counties

and here is the first survey of the first section filed in June in Somerset county.

And then 2 years later in 1938 it was all shovels and hands on deck, even an excavator
 behind participants for the ground breaking
of Meadowbrook Village in 1938

... 3rd from the left is George Wells, president of Meadowbrook Inc.
the rest are members of the FHA and the new owners of that project.
 
And here is again, 3rd from the right, behind the guy with the shovel, at the ground breaking for the Barlow Elementary school, on the corner of East Front and Farragut, Dec 20th 1938

... my guess is there wasn't a big to-do for the ground breaking for Meadowbrook neighborhood and instead they pivoted their plans for a "reveal" opening of the "model home" later that year November 14th, 1936, as there were still minds (NIMBYs) to change about the progress of this development taking place on the old estate.

Memories of Meadowbrook when it was the Mali Estate

Published this day 10 July, 1931, student essay describing the Mali Estate and Netherwood Farm, along with other photos and maps of various eras to help with the imagery described.  Reminder to click images to enlarge the view.  Enjoy!!

Here is large full page of the article and its columns, excerpts are below...

Here is a postcard I found of the estate at a vintage shop...  let's go for a walk about shall we?

... these captioned Conservatory photos are from a 1936 article

A map of the estate with call-outs of the areas described.

A view of the mansion in a 1950ish reprint about a new bank.

Thanks for this written tour, Jean Price, all these years later 

And a reminder to be sure to visit us over on Instagram when you can: 
https://www.instagram.com/meadowbrookhistory_npnj/