On the lookout: WWII tower reopens
By Jacqueline L. Urgo
Inquirer Staff Writer
CAPE MAY, N.J. - Shortly after World War II, U.S. intelligence learned that the Germans had planned a Pearl Harbor-like attack on the strategic industrial centers along the Delaware River and Bay, including the shipyards in Philadelphia and Camden, oil refineries in Chester, and the DuPont munitions and chemical plants in Wilmington.
But homeland defense would have been ready. A series of fortified lookout towers and hidden bunkers containing heavy artillery, known as Fort Miles, stretched up and down the New Jersey and Delaware shorelines.
Luckily, the coastal fortification never was tested. The tide of the war shifted in favor of U.S. interests, and the fort's story faded to little more than local lore as businesspeople shifted tourists' focus back to beaches and boardwalks. Over time, the structures became weed-choked and forgotten.
But this weekend, that chapter of military history was revived with the unveiling of a $1.3 million restoration of Fort Miles' last restorable vestige in New Jersey. The six-story concrete edifice known as Fire Control Tower No. 23, about a mile from the popular Cape May Lighthouse, opened Friday for tours.
No. 23 was one of 15 control towers built for Fort Miles - 11 in Delaware and four in New Jersey. It is the only New Jersey tower to survive intact. Towers in North Wildwood and Wildwood Crest were demolished, while one in Cape May was covered over and converted into storage space when the Grand Hotel was built in the 1960s. It was cheaper to build around it than tear down its two-foot-thick walls.
"It's kind of a dream come true to see this project come to fruition after about seven years of planning," said Robert E. Heinly, a World War II historian and museum-education coordinator for the Mid-Atlantic Center for the Arts. "It's great to finally have the chance to be able to share the history that is here with other people."
Heinly said he expected the tower to be a big attraction for veterans and military buffs. But he also said he believed it would help teach school groups the key role the region played in World War II.
The Mid-Atlantic Center administered the restoration, which was paid for by grants from the state Casino Reinvestment Development Authority, the New Jersey Historic Trust, the New Jersey Historical Commission, and a Small Cities Block Grant from the New Jersey Department of Community Affairs.
While the center is a local nonprofit group known mostly for preserving Cape May's Victorian architecture and traditions, it has branched out in recent years, said B. Michael Zuckerman, the center's executive director.
"While we never stray too far from our Victorian roots, we feel our mission really is to preserve history and tell the story of the area in a broader sense," Zuckerman said, noting that tours now include African American history, maritime traditions, and the doo-wop architecture of Wildwood.
Zuckerman said expanding into the region's military past was only natural considering just how much history remained.
The Mid-Atlantic Center spawned the unofficial "South Jersey World War II History Trail" featuring the refurbished Fire Control Tower No. 23, the Cape May County Airport's Naval Air Station Wildwood Hangar No. 1, and a museum in nearby Erma dedicated to the Navy dive-bomber pilots who trained there. It also includes stops at the Millville Army Air Field Museum, where Air Force pilots trained in P-47 Thunderbolts, and a stop at the nation's most decorated warship, the Battleship New Jersey in Camden.
The center offers a narrated two-hour World War II trolley tour and is planning special celebrations at the new tower May 16, Armed Services Day, and on June 6, the 65th anniversary of D-Day, Zuckerman said.
In the meantime, the new tower will be open daily. Visitors may climb to the top upon a newly installed spiral staircase and learn about its history from guides. Military personnel did not have the luxury of a staircase; they used a ladder system built to prevent serious falls.
A hidden jewel within the tower may be a third-level Wall of Honor room where photographs of local men and women who served in World War II are displayed. An audio kiosk features firsthand accounts of war experiences.
At the top, visitors can see the rather rudimentary instruments that "observers," as they were called, would have used to determine firing coordinates for the massive guns on both sides of Delaware Bay.
"I'm really looking forward to being able to climb it," said Dolores Kelly, 62, of Middle Township, who often goes to the nearby Cape May Lighthouse and whose father was a World War II veteran. "It is a real tribute to World War II and the people who fought for our freedom. I'm happy that more people will learn about the war effort that took place here."
