HIGHLANDS – A piece of the Battleship New Jersey, BB62, is coming to Highlands, thanks to Gail Hunton and the Monmouth County Park System.
One of the original 16” Navy Mark 7 gun barrels from the battleship is due to arrive in Red Bank by train sometime between March 11 and March 13, Hunton, historian for the Park System reported. From the Conrail rail yard on Central Ave., the 65’ long gun barrel will then be transported by tractor trailer along Route 35 to New Monmouth Rd., then over to Route 36 for access to Hartshorne Woods Park via Portland Rd. at the Capt. Joseph Azzolina Bridge.
The weapon will then be placed in Battery Lewis, one of the two batteries built at the former Army site at the top of the Highlands hill during World War II as the main defense for New York Harbor. Ultimately, when completed, the site will be part of an educational exhibit highlighting the area’s involvement and importance in World War II.
Battery Lewis is a 600’ long casemated battery, with two 16” caliber gun emplacements connected by a corridor housing ammunition storage and power rooms. It is the only 16” gun battery in the state, and is constructed of steel and thick reinforced concrete and covered by earth. The Battery was designed to withstand battleship and aerial attacks, and had two 16” Navy Mk11 M1 guns on Army carriages mounted in it in May, 1943. The guns placed in Battery Lewis were originally designed for mounting on Navy battleships and are able to fire armor-piercing projectiles 16 inches in diameter and weigh more than two tons, with a range stretching from Point Pleasant Beach to Long Beach, NY.
Two years ago, the Park System undertook extensive planning for repairs and improvements to prepare Battery Lewis for interpretation and public visitation. The first phase of work, restoring the concrete on the two casemate canopies and wing walls, has been completed. Through funding by the Friends of the Parks, the site, originally known as the Navesink Military Reservation, was nominated to the National Register of Historic Places and designed so that visitors can walk from one end of the battery to the other, explore the rooms within it and learn through exhibits and guided tours about the coastal defenses of the United States.
The second and final phase of Battery Lewis restoration will include interior repairs, utility and drainage improvements and the display of the gun barrel. Exhibits, in addition to the rooms off the corridor and the gun barrel, will also be on display in the parking lot and will focus on the military past of the area, as well as the unique geography and landscape of Highlands, the Hartshorne legacy and the creation of Hartshorne Woods Park. Exhibits will also include an overhead trolley showing the steel ammunition service, artifacts, including 16-inch projectiles donated by the Battleship New Jersey Museum in Camden, historical photographs and reminiscences of veterans who served at the site.
The Board of Recreation Commissioners authorized application to the Navy Inactive Ships Program at Norfolk, VA to acquire one of the barrels from the Battleship New Jersey. The Navy subsequently approved that application and arranged for the transport of the barrel to the county park.
“We are thrilled and excited to have this gun from the Battleship New Jersey be part of the Parks exhibit,” Hunton said, “it’s been in the planning and work stage for more than two years, and the Friends of the Park raised funds for the exhibits which will tell not only the park’s military past and Battery Lewis but also give an overview of all of the park’s history and landscape. The interpretive displays are being developed by a professional exhibit designer working with Park System staff.”
The former Army site, later an Air Force base during the Korean conflict, was part of the Hartshorne estate and was purchased by the government in 1942 because of its elevation and location at the southern entrance to New York harbor. Over the next two years, the army reservation was built as part of Harbor Defense headquartered at Sandy Hook, for the purpose of denying enemy ships access to New York Bay. After World War II, the guns were removed at all coastal batteries, including Battery Lewis, cut up on site and sold as scrap metal. Troop housing and a 100-foot observation tower were also demolished by the Army before the property became the Highlands Air Force Station, later the Highlands Army Air Defense Site, from 1949 to 1974.
When the 224-acre property was declared surplus, the government authorized two no-cost transfers to Monmouth County in 1974 and 1984.
The entire Hartshorne Woods County Park, which stretches from Highlands to Middletown along Navesink Avenue, is 787 acres in size and receives more than a quarter of a million visitors a year.
Ironically, when the gun barrel from the Battleship New Jersey makes its final turn off the state highway before advancing up the hill to its new home at Hartshorne Woods Park, it will pass within feet of the Capt. Joseph Azzolina Bridge, formerly the Highlands-Sea Bright Bridge. The bridge was named for Highlands native and former Naval officer and State Assemblyman Joseph Azzolina who served aboard the USS New Jersey and was instrumental in bringing the ship back to the Garden State as a museum. The ship is the most decorated battleship for combat actions in American history and served in every war from World War II until she was decommissioned in 1991 after 21 years of active service, a Navy Unit Commendation and 19 battle and campaigns.
– By Muriel J. Smith
