|
August 2006 Great News. Our persistence has paid off. The Township has agreed to the request of the Colonia History Club. We will be taking possession of the mile markers from the Middlesex Essex Turnpike and also adopting the” Triangle”, the small island on the corner of New Dover and Chain O Hills Rd, considered by Mary Pattison, the author of Colonia Yesterday, to be the single most important location in Colonia’s history. Also, we are adopting the property at the corner of Midwood and Middlesex Ave’s, where a monument is located to recognize the U.S. Army Hospital, which was built in 1917. The mile markers will be relocated to a safe location in Colonia, accessible to all, and reproduced markers will put at the original locations. I believe that this authorization is unprecedented in Township history. We look forward to redesigning the Triangle and the Hospital monument locations, in order to make them more accessible, informative and safer to the motoring public. What is that? Across from the High School, near the football locker room, a patch of woods have been cleared recently. I’m not sure why, but maybe to add more parking. Anyway, I was showing someone the stone bridge in the woods by the back parking lot. When we were finished, we drove back towards the new clearing and noticed at the back edge of the lot, a concrete slab. The trees that have been cleared were very large and must have been there for many years. If the slab was a foundation for a building, it would have to have been constructed when the trees were either in mature or hadn’t grown yet. That would make the location quite old. The area in question was the location of a Hunt Club, on the Freeman Estate. We believe that the stone bridge in the woods was a back entrance to the estate. Wanting to put the slab in perspective with the other landmarks, I went to Goggle Earth, to look at an aerial view of the area. It has been speculated, that a back entrance road into the Freeman Estate, came from the direction of Water Street. If you draw a straight line down Berkeley Ave, the road would pass right past the slab and right to the stone bridge. If that is the case, it is possible that the slab might be some kind of guardhouse or just a service building located at the entrance to the Estate. I hope to get pictures and do a little digging before the slab is removed. If anyone has another pint of view about what the slab could be or has knowledge of other buildings in the area prior to the construction of the High School in 1966-67, please let me know. Recollections of Colonia. The following was sent to me by Tony Giacobbe, the brother of Angela Fritts. The last few articles included Angela’s letter to me about Colonia. We lived in Rahway and my parents bought two building lots on Florence Ave, between Conduit and Cavoir around 1936. The area was mostly empty at the time. The roads had been cut through during the Depression by the CCC (Civilian Conservation Corps) and were paved with gravel and broken clay tiles from a factory in Keasbey. My father bought an old trailer that we used to stay over in the summer. I had an older brother, Ray, two sisters, Anne and Angela and later a baby brother Larry. That same year my father bought a house that stood in the way of the Pulaski Skyway, tore it down, had it trucked to the site and rebuilt in three years. We all pitched in to help. My job was to straighten out the bent nails so they could be used again. The house was finished in 1940 and my father rented it out for three years until the mortgage was paid off. We moved in June 1943. it was a nice house with all the modern conveniences. It was a treat to have indoor plumbing, central heat, a refrigerator and a telephone. Not all working class families had all these amenities at that time. Ours was the only house on the block, so we had plenty of room to play. We found kids in the neighborhood, Max Allmer, Joe Oberberger, Frank Importico, Manny and Tonio Barbosa, Lou Kondas and Chuck Kuchera. We played games, baseball, football, hide and seek and ringalerio. We dug foxholes and played soldiers during World War Two. In the winter we went sleigh riding on the hills on Florence and Archangela Ave. and s\ice skating on Milton Lake and Cone’s and Freeman ponds. The rest of the letter next month. I find it very interesting how a brother and sister put different emphasis on different aspects of growing up. Did you know? The New ( Old ) Colonia library was built around two unused portable school buildings donated by the Woodbridge School board. They were attached to School 11, now the Ross Street School. Before its renovation, the name was changed to the Albee Public Library in 1939. Next issue. I received a copy of the Colonia Country Club Rules and regulations and bylaws from 1908. The original was given to the Club last year after being in the possession of a Clark resident. More next month. Thanks for reading, Daniel D’Arcy
This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it
732-382-1156
Comments () |
 |
|
|
|
 |
in Colonia. Unfortunetly our home burned down on January 18, 1998. Does anyone remember that? It was an old "Sears and Roebuck" House, built in the early 1900's. My grandparents were the 2nd family to own it. My Grandma - Elizabeth Arnold was a teacher in the 50's-60's in this area, and my Granpa John Randall Arnold worked for DuPont. Our family was a big part of the church community New Dover United Methoodist Church. And I was just wondering if anyone had here as a teacher, or remembers her, everyone called her Bizzy, and my grandpa- Randall. I went to school #22, and C.M.S + C.H.S, class of '99. We now live in the FL Keys, but I miss home.....Hopefully someone out there remembers our family...... 
Cristin