Landing Cleared for NASW Historic District

CREST HAVEN – Naval Air Station Wildwood Historic District has been “cleared for final approach” after the N.J. State Review Board for Historic Sites granted approval July 18 for the 11.3-acre site at Cape May County Airport.
Although erroneously listed on the agenda as in Upper Township, Naval Air Station Wildwood exists where it has since it trained Navy pilots during World War II, in Erma. It was among a list of nine historic places considered at the meeting and the only one in this county.
Freeholder Will Morey made the announcement to peers at the July 24 freeholder meeting. He said there are a few technical points to review, but it is hoped that the designation would be official at the Labor Day Weekend Airfest celebration at the airport.
Morey, board liaison with the Delaware River and Bay Authority, which operates the airport, and for economic development, said he had met DRBA Executive Director Scott Green, on site, and discussed removal of certain buildings at the airport.
He noted DRBA has developed some “good tenant prospects” for the airport.
The application for historic status defined the district as “Irregularly bounded by Forrestal Road and Monterre Road, formerly known as East Road, and the runways and taxiways to the north and east.”
Architecture of the district is listed as “World War II: utilitarian.” Its period of significance is listed as 1942-1945. It also noted that Hangar No. 1 was previously listed in the National Register.
According to its description:
Naval Air Station Wildwood Historic District is comprised of a cluster of three buildings and one structure erected between 1942 and 1945 as part of Naval Air Station Wildwood, a World War II fighter-bomber training facility.
The former air station stands on a 940-plus-acre tract and is now a county-owned facility, most of which comprises Cape May County Airport located in Lower Township.
When completed in 1945, Naval Air Station Wildwood contained 126 buildings and structures; of these, 79 were sold by the federal government at war’s end. Of the 47 that remained, 35 have been subsequently
either moved off site or demolished. The 12 extant former air station buildings and structures, most of which are being adaptively-reused, are located at the south end of the tract in an industrial park that includes 24 additional buildings erected after WWII.
The original WWII-era buildings and structures are clustered in the northeast corner of the industrial park, but of the 12 that remain, only four retain sufficient integrity to be within a historic district. The district comprises two hangars (No. 1 and No. 2), the operations building with control tower, and a sewage pump house located directly behind the operations building.
Historic WWII buildings that have lost integrity are: an armament repair shop, a fire house with garage, a storehouse, a station maintenance building, a mess hall, an open storage shed, paint and oil storage building, and a reservoir with pump house. Of the three buildings and one structure within the district, Hangar No. 1 is already listed individually in the State and National Registers of Historic Places with national significance.
The industrial park is crisscrossed by several paved roads that date from the site’s establishment as a naval air station and the station’s original taxiways and four runways are located north and east of the industrial park. The tract is roughly bounded by Breakwater Road on the south and Fulling Mill Road on the north.
The historic district is bounded on the north and east by the runways and taxiways, and on the south and
west by two roads and airport tarmac. The Atlantic Ocean is approximately seven miles to the east and the
Delaware Bay is approximately 2.5 miles to the west. The historic district encompasses approximately 11.31 acres of the 940-plus-acre tract and consists of open, level ground with minimal landscaping.