Historic District Nears Landing at County Airport

ERMA – It’s historic, but it’s new: Introducing the latest historic district at Cape May County Airport.
The airport, which began as Naval Air Station Wildwood, a pilots’ training facility during World War II, is better known for the namesake air museum located within Hangar No. 1, containing 26 vintage aircraft. Across the street is Forgotten Warriors Vietnam Museum that focuses on Vietnam War-era memorabilia. Just beyond that, another hangar that has been used by an aviation rehabilitation firm.
On Feb. 12, freeholders unanimously approved a resolution that approved a memorandum of agreement between a number of agencies to create a historic district at the airport. Before the district becomes official, state approval is needed, according to James Salmon, public information officer for the Delaware River and Bay Authority.
The airport, located in Lower Township, has a rich history, including being the one-time site where Cape May County’s National Guard unit drilled prior to relocating to the present armory on Garden State Parkway at Crest Haven.
The airport still serves as the site for the county’s Fare Free Transportation office and parking facility, Board of Elections warehouse where voting machines are stored, and Lower Township Police Department and Erma Volunteer Fire Department.
A rambling white structure that once was Timme Fabric then Everlon bears testimony to several failed attempts to have the airport serve as an economic engine for the county. After the departure of the latter, a frozen fish facility began and ended without success.
For several years, the county held its annual surplus property auction in and around that large building. Since the county opted to sell its no-longer-needed good on gov.deals, the building again has no user.
The entities included in the resolution are the county, Delaware River and Bay Authority, Federal Aviation Administration, state Historic Preservation Office, Naval Air Station Wildwood Foundation, Joan Berkey, Lower Township and Lower Township Municipal Utilities Authority.
The resolution notes the Dec. 15, 1998 agreement between the county and DRBA in which the bi-state agency agreed to assume operation and control of certain tracts of land and improvements in the airport. The DRBA manages and operates the airport.
On June 9, 1999, the county entered a lease with the DRBA for a ground lease.
Among the purposes of the authority taking over the airport was to have it “advance the economic growth and development within the counties of Delaware and New Jersey which border on the Delaware River and Bay, by providing for, planning, and engaging in projects which will enhance the future economic growth and development of those areas.”
The resolution also cites Dr. Joseph Salvatore, who co-founded Naval Air Station Wildwood Foundation in 1995 and who serves as its non-salaried executive director. It also states that Salvatore “brings key pieces of a community’s history back to life to raise public awareness of the historical importance of America’s contribution on the home front and preserves military aviation and artifacts that commemorate significant events in our nation’s history.”
Further, the resolution notes the June 2, 2010 filing by Joan Berkey of a registration form to the state Historic Preservation Office that sought to nominate, as a historic place, a Naval Air Station Wildwood Historic District. That district would consist of about one third of the entire airport. It also included property owned by Lower Township as well as that leased by Lower Township Municipal Utilities Authority.
That nomination sought to have that original nominated district place on the New Jersey Register of Historic Places, and eventually registration on the National Register of Historic Places.
In 2011, both in February and July, the county and DRBA, in written documents, objected to the nomination of the district based upon “procedural and substantive grounds.”
After those objections, the parties engaged in negotiations that sought to resolve the matter. The resolution notes that the parties concerned finally agreed to the submission to the State Historic Preservation Office with a revised nomination. That document was received Oct. 18, 2012 to register, as part of the historic district limited to Hangar No. 1 and Hangar No. 2, the Terminal Building, which was also known as the Operations Building, a “boiler room,” also known as the sewage pump house.
The new district, the resolution states, “may serve to provide for increased funding for federal, state and local government grants for NASW.”
“The reduced footprint of the Historic District will also limit as a result of this agreement, the reach of regulations, applicable to properties placed on the Registers or surrounding areas, to other areas of the airport that are useful for economic development as well as the property owned and or leaved by the township and LTMUA.”