Lower Honors Salvatores

LOWER TOWNSHIP – Doctor Joseph and Annie Salvatore have made their passion for history, into a legacy that can be enjoyed by generations in Lower Township. On Feb. 7, Lower Township Council honored the Salvatores for their work in historic preservation throughout Cape May County by presenting them with a proclamation.
Dr. Joseph Salvatore, co-founder and volunteer Chairman of Historic Cold Spring Village and Naval Air Station Wildwood, had recently been given the New Jersey Historical Commission’s highest honor, the Richard J. Hughes Award, for his outstanding lifetime achievement in the field of New Jersey history.
Dr. Salvatore was born and raised in Wildwood. Upon completing pre-med studies, he attended Hahnemann Medical College in Philadelphia where he served as a surgical intern and resident. Choosing orthopedics as his area of specialty, he spent two years at Walter Reed Army Hospital in Washington, D.C. followed by three years as an Orthopedic Surgery Fellow at the Campbell Clinic in Memphis, Tennessee.
For thirty years, Dr. Salvatore was involved in his surgical practice at Englewood Hospital and Medical Center in Englewood. He was also an Assistant Clinical Professor in Orthopedic Surgery at Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons in New York City.
Cold Spring Village Foundation Executive Director Patricia Anne Salvatore, known as Annie, also received the New Jersey Historical Commission’s Richard J. Hughes Award for superior stewardship and lifetime dedication to historical preservation.
After retirement from her nursing career, she established a history education program that offers a variety of year-round programming to schools. Historic Cold Spring Village’s award-winning distance learning has enabled these programs to reach audiences well beyond New Jersey school children.
It all started in 1969, when the Salvatores bought the 1840 George Hildreth farmhouse, and the land between Route 9 and Seashore Road, near where a 19th-century village of 40 houses once encircled a cold-water spring. The historical tourist attraction was opened to the public in May 1981 and sends guests back in time to the earliest days of the newly independent United States of America through hands-on exhibits and tours of some of the oldest buildings in Cape May County. On September 27, 2016 Historic Cold Spring Village was entered in the New Jersey Register of Historic Places.
The Naval Air Station Wildwood Hangar #1 was commissioned as a training facility for dive bomber squadrons that would go on to fight in the Pacific during World War II. After many years of neglect, the Naval Air Station Wildwood Hangar #1 was rediscovered by the Salvatores, who acquired the building from Cape May County for $1.
Listed on both the state and national registers of historic places, Hangar #1 is an exhibit in and of itself. Since 1997, the Salvatores and the NASW Foundation have worked hard to restore the hangar to its original condition. Today, Hangar #1 is open to the public as part of the NASW Aviation Museum.
Mayor Frank Sippel and the Lower Township Council thanked the Salvatores for all that they’ve done in saving and preserving history and wished them continued success.
“You’ve been doing this work for most of your lives, and I don’t know if people realize what kind of dedication that takes,” Sippel said.
Lower Township council also commended the Salvatores on their life-long mission of historic preservation and suggested that residents and visitors take some time to visit the Naval Air Station Wildwood and Historic Cold Spring Village.
“This honor means a great deal to us because it is from Lower Township, where we call home,” said Annie Salvatore.
The Naval Air Station Wildwood is located at 500 Forrestal Road inside the Cape May County Airport Complex on Breakwater Road and currently open on its off-season hours Monday to Friday 10 a.m.-4 p.m.
Historic Cold Spring Village is located at 733 Seashore Road. The village is currently closed for the winter and getting ready for their 2022 summer events. You can visit the Historic Cold Spring Brewery, which supports the village’s operations, year-round.