Chapter 5 - Cultural Resources Report - 1996
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EVALUATION OF SELECTED CULTURAL RESOURCES  AT FORT MONMOUTH, NEW JERSEY:  CONTEXT FOR COLD WAR ERA,  REVISION OF HISTORIC PROPERTIES DOCUMENTATION,  AND SURVEY OF EVANS AREA  AND SECTIONS OF CAMP CHARLES WOOD by  Mary Beth Reed  Mark Swanson  NEW SOUTH ASSOCIATES  Stone Mountain, Georgia  Subcontractor for Geo-Marine, Inc.  and  Rebecca Procter  Marsha Prior June 1996

MISCELLANEOUS REPORT OF INVESTIGATIONS  NUMBER 125  Geo-Marine, Inc.  550 East Fifteenth Street  Plano, Texas for  U.S. Army Corps of Engineers  Fort Worth District  819 Taylor Street  Fort Worth, Texas

Evans Signal Corps Laboratory, World War II to 1960

The second chronological period significant to communications history for the Evans area was its mission during World War II as a radar production center and its later transition to a research and development facility.  The key permanent buildings associated with this period are Buildings 9010, 9011, 9036, 9037, 9040, 9041, and 9042.

Building 9010 is a long rectangular structure with a concrete slab foundation and brick load-bearing walls.  Approximately 500' by 60', it is one story in height and is covered with an asphalt shingle gable roof.  Buildings 9011, 9036, and 9037 mimic Building 9010’s construction.  Buildings 9010 and 9011 are connected at their centers by an enclosed brick walkway with a gable roof, forming one large, H-shaped building.  Buildings 9036 and 9037 are similarly joined.  Each “H-building” is paired with a brick boiler house (Buildings 9012 and 9038) that is situated within the building’s court space (Figure 30).  The “H-buildings” are difficult to photograph as sheds and other support structure currently parallel their long sides and the court area created by their unique configuration is filled with support and associated structures (see Figure 30).  They are best viewed from the air (see Figures 12 and 13).

Buildings 9040, 9041, and 9042 follow the same design.  They are one story, rectangular structures with concrete slab foundations and brick load-bearing walls.  Each has a basement floor.  Approximately 60' by 120', they have asphalt shingle gable roofs and are utilitarian in style (Figure 31).  Building 9042 features a loading dock.

A building type known as a “Special Antennae Cover,” designed by John T. Rowland and exemplified in Buildings 9015, 9017, 9019, 9021, 9023, 9025, 9045, 9047, 9049, 9051, 9053, and 9055, is also considered architecturally distinctive.  This building type and its design is discussed fully in Chapter IV and original elevations are shown in Figure 5.  Figure 32 shows two examples from the Evans Area.

Equally distinctive is R. Buckminster Fuller’s DDU, of which 13 examples were identified by this inventory (see Figure 25).  The unnumbered example shown in Figure 25 is fairly well preserved. The Project Diana site, already on the New Jersey State Register, is also considered critical to an interpretation of this period (Figure 33).  It should be noted that Diana is no longer extant and other buildings/equipment are now located near the site.

The “H” buildings, Buildings 9010, 9011, 9036, and 9037, were the locus of radar research and production when this installation was the nation’s premier radar research facility and radar was in its infancy.  Parts stored in Buildings 9040 through 9042 were assembled in Building 9036 which was designed to accommodate an assembly line process.  The finished radar sets were taken from the south end of the building and loaded for distribution.  The “H” buildings were designed by John T. Rowland, a noted New Jersey architect.  They are industrial, one-story, elongated, brick buildings connected by a passageway, that gives each its distinctive form.  Both “H” buildings are in good condition and are fairly well preserved.  By the close of the war, these buildings were used primarily as laboratories and offices.  Historical research indicates that during the 1950s they were used for classified scientific research and that members of the Evans Signal Corps Laboratory staff were part of the Rosenberg controversy of the 1950s.  Buildings 9040 through 9042 are also well preserved, utilitarian brick buildings that were converted to laboratories by the end of the war.

Figure 30.(a) Building 9128; (b) Buildings 9128, 9012, and area between buildings 9010 and 9011.

Figure 31. (a) Building 9040; (b) Building 9042.

Figure 32. (a) Building 9023; (b) Building 9017.

Figure 33. (a) Space Sentry, Project Diana site; (b) Historic Document Building, Project Diana site.

 Radar shelters, Buildings 9015, 9017, 9019, 9021, 9023, 9025, 9045, 9047, 9049, 9051, 9053, and 9055, are unique in their design, created by John T. Rowland to house the test model radar SCR-268.  Two stories in height and barn like in form, these frame buildings, originally supported by flying buttresses instead of interior supports, had two pairs of oversize double doors.  As a group, the Evans area antenna shelters have been extensively altered to accommodate their reuse as laboratories, office, or storage.  Building 9023 is perhaps the best preserved in that it still retains its flying buttresses, but its original double doors have been replaced with a single metal door.  Examples of the same building type at the Camp Charles Wood area have better integrity and are well preserved.

Dymaxion Deployment Units (DDU) also constitute a significant architectural type found at Evans during the inventory.  This building was designed and patented by R. Buckminster Fuller in 1941 for use by the British military.  Circular, with a domed roof, these portable metal buildings represent a specialized version of Fuller’s dymaxion house.  The latter, designed in 1927, was envisaged by Fuller as a solution to modern America’s housing needs.  His dymaxion house design used a system of construction that employed minimal material used to maximum efficiency.  The design concept was a good fit with America’s military needs during World War II, and perhaps of all his designs, the DDU may represent one of the best applications of Fuller’s philosophy and unique design.  Most of the DDUs inventoried were unnumbered but there are a sufficient number of well preserved examples at the Evans area.

The Project Diana site, already on the State Register of Historic Places, is critical to an interpretation of this period.  This site in the southeast corner of the Evans area honors the discovery that radio waves could pierce the earth’s ionosphere.  Project Diana, named for the Roman goddess of the moon, was headed by Lt. Col. John J. DeWitt in 1945-1946.  The significance of Project Diana is national and international.  The discovery that the ionosphere could be pierced, and that communication was possible between earth and the universe beyond, opened the possibility of space exploration.
 

Recommendations

Given the above, a National Register historic district is suggested that encompasses the buildings and sites that contain information about Evans Area’s two periods of significance (Figure 34).  Roughly, its eastern perimeter follows the reservation boundary along the creek and encompasses the fenced area around the Project Diana site.  On the south, the boundary is irregular, cupping Building 9001 then extending westward along an unnamed road to the south elevations of Buildings 9036-9037.  The proposed boundary then projects north along Fourth Street.  It continues to the northeast encompassing Buildings 9006 and 9007, then moves south to Building 9001.  Buildings 9040, 9041, and 9042 are also part of the proposed district.  However they are noncontiguous geographically with the other contributing properties.  The space between the district members does not, at this time, appear to have any buildings that contribute to the proposed district.  The proposed boundary delineated in Figure 34 is tentative as it was drawn on the basis of an inventory.  More research is needed to create the historical linkages between the Evans area’s historic properties, to better define appropriate boundaries, and to better establish which buildings are contributing.  Table 3 indicates which buildings are currently assessed as contributing or non-contributing and the following provides a discussion of those assessments.

The Marconi buildings, 9001, 9002, 9003, 9004, and tentatively 9006 and 9007, are considered eligible for inclusion as contributing members to a historic district in the NRHP under Criteria A, B, and C.  These buildings are strongly associated with the formative period within the development of communications and individuals and businesses integral to that development.  They also represent a distinctive example of early twentieth-century industrial buildings within an industrial village context.  Beyond their association with the Marconi era, these buildings were later used as part of the World War II installation as laboratories and offices.  Deed and plat map research is recommended to establish the relationship of Buildings 9006 and 9007

Figure 34. Proposed National Register District boundary.

with the Marconi era.  It is likely that they were a part of the original complex or were constructed slightly later when the property was held by RCA and could be incorporated into the proposed district should this assumption be correct.

Seven buildings, two building types, and a site are also considered contributing to the proposed district.  These additional properties were important within the second era at Evans Area when the Marconi complex was redeveloped and expanded into the Evans Signal Corps Laboratory.  Buildings 9040, 9041, 9042, 9010, 9011, 9036, 9037, 9012, and 9038 can be considered contributing elements to a historic district that is eligible for inclusion in the NRHP under Criteria A and C of 36 CFR § 60.  These buildings housed radar production and research that contributed dramatically to the fighting ability of the United States during World War II.  Moreover, this contribution occurred during radar’s infancy, when the Evans Signal Corps Laboratory became one of the nation’s premier radar research centers.  These buildings also contribute to an understanding of the Evans Signal Corps Laboratory’s later role in vacuum tube research, new materials research, and other component research that was driven by an emerging communications industry in the early and mid-twentieth century.

In addition to this association, these buildings are good representative examples of industrial architecture of the period set within an industrial layout or plan designed to be compatible with the manufacturing process that occurred within them.  While the “H” buildings and their associated storehouses changed functions at the close of World War II, their original relationship to the manufacturing process is still evident and each building is well preserved.

The radar antenna shelters and DDUs are also considered individually eligible as building types under Criterion C, each bearing a unique design.  Of the examples of radar shelters at Evans Area, only Building 9023 maintains some of its original character although its original doors have been replaced.  Given the condition of the Evans Area examples, they are not recommended as contributing elements to the proposed district.  It is recognized that these are considered temporary buildings and thus are covered under the Programmatic Memorandum of Agreement (PMOA) concerning temporary buildings on military installations.  However, the unique design of these buildings calls for the preservation of at least one good example at Fort Monmouth.  As noted, the radar shelters at Camp Charles Wood have their integrity and appear to be the well preserved.  It is suggested that Fort Monmouth’s Cultural Resource Management Plan include a recommendation to preserve one of the Charles Wood radar antenna shelters.

The DDUs are considered individually eligible to the NRHP and can also be considered contributing elements to the proposed district.  Examples of unnumbered DDUs were located within the proposed historic district at the time of the survey but the presence of empty circular concrete pads indicates that these buildings are easily moved.  These buildings had a role within communications history, and their design by R. Buckminster Fuller makes them architecturally noteworthy.  Efforts should be made to preserve an example of this building type as part of the proposed historic district.  Also, Fort Monmouth’s Cultural Resource Management Plan should include a recommendation for the preservation of these buildings on base and within a museum context.

Finally, the Project Diana site is considered a contributing element to the proposed historic district.   The significance of this project to space exploration and technology makes this site eligible under Criterion A.  The areal extent of the site needs to be defined and the buildings, if any, that are extant that were associated with the site need to be identified.  The site is currently fenced and access is limited.
 

SUMMARY

The literature search identified a number of National Register/State Register sites within a one-mile radius of the Camp Charles Wood and Evans areas.  Only one resource, however, the Ailgor-Barkalow Homestead, located directly outside of the southern boundary of the Evans area Testing and Training Area, will be impacted by the BRAC closure.  As discussed, the type and intensity of that impact should be assessed in terms of the proposed reuse of the testing area, the exact nature of which is currently unspecified.  If the Evans area is reused as a park or community area, this historic resource may be favorably affected by linking the interpretation interests of the two historic properties.

While no NRHP-eligible properties were identified by this survey in the Camp Charles Wood area, a historic district was identified at the Evans area.  Buildings 9001, 9002, 9003, 9004, 9006, 9007, 9010, 9011, 9012, 9036, 9037, 9038, 9040, 9041, and 9042; the Diana Project site; and a DDU are considered contributing members to the proposed district. This district, including buildings and a site, contributes significantly to the history of modern communications and thus has state and national significance.  The intact character of the 1914 industrial village known as Marconi’s Belmar Station is complemented by its World War II persona, which almost stratigraphically lays another era of communications development and history upon the earlier buildings.  More research is recommended to more tightly define the proposed district and to identify the origins of Buildings 9006 and 9007.  It is also recommended that Fort Monmouth preserve examples of its unique building types.  Radar shelters and the DDUs fall within this category and we suggest that this recommendation be incorporated into Fort Monmouth’s preservation plan.

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